Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I can't claim all my own work. The system of support that's made available to young and growing families in Germany is quite extraordinary compared to the Australian system. New parents in Germany are able to take paid parental leave for up to 24 months and can use this flexibly between either parent. While the German system in part can be quite confusing and complicated, it certainly fosters equality in the sense that it is gender neutral. Now without going into full details of the German scheme, Australia's expenditure on paid parental leave per child is significantly lower. In fact, according to OECD data, Australia's paid parental leave scheme ranks amongst the lowest schemes of other developed nations in the duration of leave and the rate of pay it provides. The trend is clear—other nations are expanding on their parental leave schemes to increase the support they provide to fathers and partners, with the goal of enabling them to spend more time at home during the first year of a child's life, while also fostering their ability to provide their skills to the workforce and economy.

Iceland affords fathers up to three months paid parental leave. Finland is expanding its scheme, having announced plans to provide each parent with over 6½ months of paid parental leave and an additional six months to share between them. Finland also allows parents to transfer part of the leave to their spouse, and single parents are even able to receive both allowances.

Australia has one of the lowest rates of investment in parental leave at a third of the OECD average. I think we can do much better than this. The gender pay gap also remains a problem in Australia and that is why I support these flexibility arrangements that will help to close this gap. While the Treasurer may assert the gender pay gap is closed, female workers in Australia still earn 14 per cent less than their male colleagues and it is a folly to deny it. The gender pay gap has remained unclosed in Australia and has been stubbornly high over recent decades. Minor changes have even been attributed to the end of the mining boom; hence, there is a long way to go. The vast majority of Australians who have suffered from cuts to penalty rates have been women. Not only are these cuts making it harder for already-struggling families to pay the bills, put food on the table, pay rent and service their mortgages, these cuts to penalty rates are exacerbating the gender pay gap as they disproportionately affect women. Now if those opposite were serious about addressing inequality and disparity in our society, they would cease their attacks on people's incomes and reverse their cuts to penalty rates. They would expand the paid parental leave scheme and provide better support for the things that Labor stands for such as health care and education. Their actions speak volumes. Those opposite have made consistent and deliberate attempts to attack penalty rates, attack families and slash the take-home pay of many women.

A government member interjecting—

I don't know to what end. The economy is still floundering as evidenced by the recent employment rates. People now have less disposable money to spend, and trickle-down economics, which those on the opposite side support, absolutely does not work. Labor stands up for young families. Labor stands up for young people. Labor will stand up for those being attacked by those opposite. You can hear by the wining from the opposite side, they have no credibility in this space. Labor stands to support women. Labor stands for the basics of education. (Time expired)

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