Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like everyone else in this House, I rise today to support the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Flexibility Measures) Bill 2020. I'd like to start by noting that this is the sort of legislation that comes before a parliament when we are moving towards having more women in parliament. It is an initiative of the former member for Higgins Kelly O'Dwyer when she was the Minister for Women, and it is a positive step forward for gender equality. It is an example of why it is important that we have diversity in parliament—gender diversity, ethnic diversity, diversity of backgrounds. It allows this parliament to reflect the reality of people's lives.

Gender equality is important because gender inequality is not just bad for women; it's bad for men and it's bad for society. This sort of legislation today, which is aimed towards giving men, fathers, more opportunities to be involved in the care of their children when they are young—and we all very much hope it is successful in its aims—is good for women, as many of my colleagues have spoken about, but it's really good for men. Gender stereotypes harm both men and women because they deny us the opportunity to do things which don't fall within those gender stereotypes. Unlike a number of my colleagues in the class of 2019, I'm not a millennial. I was born in 1973.

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