Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to rise to speak on the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022. The Nationals and I support this bill because it improves fairness and flexibility. I've been through this personally, with my wife and I having our first child in 2008. Back then and previously the discussion was about maternity leave, and then we became a bit more enlightened and talked about paternity leave. I think it's great that we're now talking about parental leave.

It may come as a shock to some of those in the House that my wife, who's a professional in agricultural science, is actually more intelligent than me! In fact, she gave a great speech about launching a new Melbourne university initiative shortly after I was preselected as the National candidate, and the comment was made by some present, 'We've got the wrong Birrell!' I think it shows that families these days—and it is great—are often made up of two professional people or two people who are equal in the workforce with fantastic careers. Often at that stage of life you are on your journey in work because you have children when you're a bit younger, so you haven't got as much money, and the pressure is on to keep working. I would make the point that back in 2008 our mortgage interest rates were very high, and it was very difficult for us—but everything that's old is new again.

Many of the improvements in this bill are measures announced by the former coalition government in March last year as part of the well-received enhanced paid parental leave package of reforms. I commend the bill, but I also commend the coalition for making this commitment in the March budget. In terms of fairness, the introduction of a family income test will remove an inherent bias that was in the system. Families will no longer be denied access to payments just because of the income of the mother, with the introduction of a family income limit. It is expected that nearly 3,000 additional parents will become eligible each year due to this measure. Previously these families were excluded if the mother's wage was above the threshold—that probably would have been the case in our situation—the impact being that you could have two families with an identical household income but one family could be ineligible because the mother is the primary income earner, not the father. I think that reflects, as has been set opposite, a paternalistic attitude that existed previously, that, necessarily, the man is the breadwinner. In many families, including ours, much bread has been won by the mother.

Eligible non-birth parents and partners can receive parental leave pay if the birth parent doesn't meet the income test, residency test or is serving a waiting period for newly arrived residents. The bill addresses this issue by introducing a $350,000 family income limit, under which families can be assessed if they do not meet the individual income test, which is $156,000. Under the amendments, either parent will be able to claim the leave first. It allows fathers and partners to claim parental leave pay without requiring birth mothers to make a claim. That really adds fairness to what was a system that wasn't as fair and didn't look at both the mother and father as equals.

The bill also talks about flexibility and adds flexibility to this situation. If modern living and the past few years have taught us anything, it's that we need, and families are crying out for more flexibility in the arrangement of their life and their work life. In terms of flexibility, parental leave payments will be able to be used in the manner that best suits the family. Parents can take paid parental leave in blocks as small as a day at a time, with periods of work in between, during the period starting the day the child is born and ending the day before the child's second birthday or anniversary of care. This is a great initiative for not only families but workplaces, who can respond more dynamically and come to more equitable arrangements that suit both the workplace and the parents. It's particularly important in regional areas, because often people's employment coincides with seasonal arrangements around different agricultural practices.

The flexibility supports mothers to return to work whenever they wish to and will help the parents who work part-time or are self-employed to continue working after a birth or adoption. A maximum of two weeks of parental leave pay can be taken by both parents at the same time, allowing them to support each other, and it's a great experience for both parents to spend time with a newborn at the same time.

There are a lot of challenges around becoming a new parent, and I've experienced that twice. Certainly we had the benefit of an employer-provided maternity leave system. But this paid parental leave system is much better than that, and it allows fathers to have an involvement in the lives of their newborn children. I tried to do that as much as I could. My favourite thing was to sing to my daughter. If the House would indulge me, my favourite song to sing to my daughter was 'Golden Slumbers' from the Beatles album Abbey Road:

Golden slumbers fill your eyes

Smiles awake you when you rise

Sleep, pretty darling

Do not cry

I'm going to sing it next time! I'll do the best I can. But I didn't know singing was permitted in the House! But the words are important, and of course the key is important, as was pointed out. But what's most important is that both parents, where possible, are able to spend that precious time with the newborn and create that bond. That bond exists for us today, and this program will make that better in terms of both parents being able to be around and being able to be together and taking financial pressure off.

There is a cost attached to these reforms—there always is—and the financial impact of the forward estimates is $531 million. The coalition understands both the social and economic benefits of paid parental leave. The parents benefit, the children benefit and the families benefit. It gives the families choice, and it encourages women in particular to manage their work and family commitments and encourages a return to work. We have enough trouble, particularly in regional areas like in my electorate, getting the professional people we need without putting up further barriers to women, particularly professional talented women like my wife and like so many other people entering the workforce. And we don't need barriers such as the fact that they might find it difficult if they want to have a family. So, I think there's a win-win in terms of families there as well.

The coalition has a strong record of supporting government funded paid parental leave. While in government, the coalition made important amendments to strengthen paid parental leave legislation. These amendments included: increased flexibility, including the last six weeks to be shared and taken any time; introducing special circumstances that allow a person to meet the work test if they have been impacted by family and domestic violence, a natural disaster or a severe medical condition; and indexation of the income threshold for the first time since the scheme was introduced. In March 2022, as part of the Women's Budget Statement, the coalition once again underlined its commitment to paid parental leave by announcing enhanced paid parental leave.

In summary, this is a good amendment; it's a good bill. It's going to help families in my electorate. It would have been excellent for me when we had our first child and our second child, and I hope that the families from now on can benefit. And I hope that young people move forward positively towards the career of their dreams, knowing that if they do want to start a family there is support for them to do that and that then if they wish to re-enter the workforce they can—because we so badly need those wonderful skills, particularly in electorates like mine, where we're having trouble attracting people from metropolitan areas to come up to the wonderful Goulburn Valley to work in our thriving economy. I commend the bill to the House.

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