Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

After a decade of the needs of Australian women being ignored in this place, after a last term when the previous Prime Minister told women who came to this place demanding their right to be safe that they were lucky they weren't being shot at—after that, the best we've been offered for a decade—what a refreshing change to be in this place last night for a budget that delivered cheaper child care and a budget that delivered an expanded paid parental leave scheme.

On this side of the House, we get modern families. We get the needs of modern women. We get that families want support to do the juggle between work and family and that men and women want to do this. What we are setting up with an expanded paid parental leave scheme is a scheme that allows Australian women to care for their children and also allows Australian men to care for their children, so that we set up a caring dynamic across the lives of our families where men are involved in bringing up their children.

We know that this is good for women, it's good for men, it's good for children and it's good for all of us, because we've all got businesses in our electorates crying out for people to work. We've all got women who want to get back to work. This budget delivers for Australian women, and I'm so proud to be here as part of the Labor government delivering it.

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