Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to be able to continue speaking about the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill because it is a very important bill. From 1 July this year, this bill will deliver six key changes to the paid parental leave scheme in Australia. It will combine the two existing payments into a single 20-week scheme. It will reserve a portion of the scheme for each parent to support them both to take time off work after a birth or adoption, which is really important. It will make it easier for both parents to access the payment by removing the notion of primary and secondary carers, and that is a really significant shift.

It will expand access by introducing a $350,000 family income test, which families can be assessed under if they exceed the individual income test. It will increase flexibility for parents to choose how they take leave days and allow eligible fathers and partners to access the payment irrespective of whether the birth parent meets the income test or residency requirements. These are significant changes that send a clear message that treating parenting as an equal partnership supports gender equality. Our government values men as carers, too, and we want to see that reinforced in our workplaces and in our communities.

This bill is about acknowledging that care is fundamental to all of us in communities, no matter the gender of the person providing the care. It is also an important step in breaking down gender stereotypes that do unfortunately exist and often do harm in limiting possibilities for people to make choices about the kinds of families they build, jobs they pursue and lives they lead. When fathers take a greater caring role from the start, it benefits mums, dads and their children. This is a reform to benefit the whole family. This paid parental leave reform is good for employers, it's good for the economy, and it's good for parents and children. This reform is great for communities right across the country, including my own community of Chisholm.

Unfortunately, Australia has not been tracking that well when it comes to gender equality. We can do so much better. I know that our government wants to do so much better. We've been working hard to deliver more for everyone in our country, including women, and this bill is an example of that. The facts are pretty dismal. Let's have a look at what Australia's situation currently looks like on the gender equality front.

Last year, Australia came 43rd on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index. In 2014, we came in at 24th. We have been going backwards. That is really dreadful and shameful, and it makes me really angry. The national gender pay gap stubbornly sits at 14.1 per cent. That's not good enough. The median undergraduate starting salary for women is 3.9 per cent less than men, despite women graduating in greater numbers from university courses. Women's super balances are 23.1 per cent less than men's as we approach retirement age. Sadly, older women are the fastest-growing cohort of people experiencing homelessness, and women over 60 are the lowest earning of all demographic groups nationally. Women's workforce participation lags behind men consistently by eight to nine percentage points.

This is a grim, dismal picture, and, unfortunately, we've lost a decade under the previous government for meaningful forward momentum. Instead, on key indicators, as a nation, on gender equality, we've gotten worse. It genuinely makes me really angry and upset to see that in this country, a country that was one of the very first in the world to give women the vote. There is now a real commitment from our government to change, and we are on the road to improvement. This bill addresses some of the issues of gender inequality in this country.

We're also tackling this problem through our industrial relations reforms that passed the parliament last year. Pay secrecy is no more. Measures for feminised workforces to be properly remunerated are finally coming to pass. Cheaper early childhood education and care also mean we are doing more to boost women's workforce participation. We are a modern government. We value equality. We care about community, from our very youngest people to our very oldest.

Our agenda, as the Albanese Labor government, has been about delivering crucial reforms for a forward-thinking, ambitious, optimistic Australia. The changes to paid parental leave are but one part of that, and a very significant part of that—the work of building a better future for all. I am so pleased and so proud to support this bill.

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