Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Adelaide for his question, as a fierce advocate for families in his electorate. I know he has welcomed the paid parental leave changes. The Albanese government has made cost-of-living relief a priority in this recent budget. It focuses on keeping money in the pockets of Australians. Our budget is delivering cheaper medicines, cheaper child care and of course our plan to get wages moving again. But families are front and centre of this budget—in particular, helping them ease the burden of juggling care and work. That's why we are investing in an expanded paid parental leave system that will be boosted to six months by 2026. This will increase support available to families by almost $5,000 and will help take some of the pressure off households' budgets, and our measures will encourage the sharing of care responsibilities between both parents.

Paid parental leave that encourages sharing of care was one of the most prominent calls at our most recent Jobs and Skills Summit. We know that shared caring responsibilities promotes gender equality in this country. But we also know that this helps many dads who want to take time off work following the birth or adoption of a child. I recently met with Alex Edgar at West Beach Kindergarten, who talked about how important our paid parental leave changes will be for dads and mums. He said: 'Recently I changed employer because my wife is pregnant. We're having a third child and I wanted to access gender-neutral paid parental leave through my employer. It's very impressive that the government has made these changes and listened to Australian dads, who overwhelmingly want to be able to take leave.'

The current arrangements for shared care of children isn't working. We know that only half of dads are accessing dad and partner pay. That is why we're reforming the paid parental leave system so there is greater uptake of shared care of children between mums and dads, making it easier for dads to take paid parental leave by removing the current barriers and making it more flexible around when and how parents take leave. We are making a real difference to advance the way paid parental leave works for families. This is in stark contrast to those opposite, who when in government wanted to take the scheme back in time.

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