Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The bill before us, the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022, is quite possibly one of the most important bills that we could be considering in this parliament when it comes to gender equality. It recognises that we need to increase paid parental leave—something that has been called for for quite some time—so that mums have more time with their newborns. That is a good thing.

What this bill does, and what I will focus on in my contribution, is remove gender. It says to families that mum or dad—either parent—can have access to this government entitlement. This is critical if we want to talk about gender equality, if we want to talk about the informal work that occurs in homes. What tends to happen on the journey is that when families find out they're going to have a child—and it's not just because I've been through this recently; any family will tell you this—they make decisions about who will take time off, based on what their entitlements might be and what their position at work is. In the majority of cases, because it is the way our laws are set and because it is the way entitlements are organised, it is the woman who takes off the longer period of time. Whether they be people working in my office—I have one staff member who is literally about to go on maternity leave—or in many other workplaces, it's the woman who tends to take off the longer period of time, because the rules state it must be that way. Even with our own staff, if one of our male staff members right now were to have a child, they would only be entitled to two weeks, but a woman having a child would be entitled not just to paid parental leave in accordance with our enterprise bargaining agreement but also to the government entitlement that we're extending in this bill.

What is good about what we're doing today not just for our staff but for all families, for all men, is that we're saying: 'In your family, have the discussion. Does it work for you? We encourage you to take more time off when your child is born.'

One of the things that I hope happens by saying it's a family's choice which parent takes time off, whether it be the full amount, part amount or shared amount, is that it will encourage the corporate sector and employers to do something similar. The fact is that a lot of men in Australia are only entitled to the two weeks minimum. And what are two weeks? Anyone who's had a child knows that, in those first two weeks, when you get to the end of it, you ask yourself: 'Should I be returning to work? I'm not sleeping at the moment; we have a newborn.' People are already concerned about returning to work. If your partner has had to have a Caesarean, technically they're not supposed to drive for six weeks. Yet, currently in this country we expect them to return to work after two weeks. Some employers have different arrangements.

I want to acknowledge corporate Australia's efforts to encourage men or non-birth partners to take more time off. Good on them for doing so because there was no legal requirement. I want to congratulate and acknowledge the unions and the workers who stood up and bargained for that entitlement so that men or non-birth partners could have that extra time off when they have a newborn or an adopted child enter their lives. It is great to see this reform come forward and address that.

Some of the early divisions of labour in the home of non-paid work occur when a child is born, and the data reflects this. Before children enter a house, the gender of housework can be quite even. But once a child enters the home, women tend to pick up more of that work. Part of that is due to the culture and the challenges we have, but part of it's due to policy design. Once you get three months into your maternity leave, if you're the parent at home, you tend to be the one who puts the washing on while your partner is at work; you tend to be the one who does the cleaning, in and out, while the kids are sleeping; you tend to be the one that picks up all that domestic work. Quite often, people will ask, 'Are you going to enjoy your maternity leave?' If you ask a mum who's on maternity leave, and she'll say, 'What do you mean, I haven't stopped working; I'm working just as hard at home.' But when that mum returns to work, she continues to do that domestic work.

I'm hoping that one of the consequences that come out of this is that, if we're able to share the workload of raising children in the early days, more men can spend time at home with their newborns, which might keep that gender balance happening at home when it comes to unpaid domestic work, because the burden has fallen to women. What I like about this bill and what it does is that it makes it a choice for families. It actually says: what's in the best interest of your family. As the member for Newcastle pointed out, currently, if a male primary breadwinner chooses to go back to work, the woman who becomes the primary carer is entitled to paid parental leave under the government system. But if it is a woman who is the primary income earner who wants to return to work, her partner is unable to access the same entitlement. This bill removes that discrimination. It says, 'What works best is your family's choice—one or the other, or share.' But it is good that it is a 'use it or lose it' arrangement, which will encourage families to use this entitlement in the first period with their newborn.

I agree with some of the comments raised about needing to do more when it comes to accessing the next stage once the paid parental leave has finished. It is hard to find childcare places at the moment. Our government has inherited a horrible mess in the early childhood education sector. One of the biggest stresses for a lot of women at the moment wanting to return to work after their paid parental leave is being able to access childcare and having that childcare place. In my own community of Kyneton, I met with a mum's group. Some of them had deferred going back to work. They had tried to extend their paid parental leave into unpaid parental leave because they couldn't find a childcare place.

We have had a bit of a baby boom in central Victoria. We are bucking the trend of the rest of Victoria when it comes to the pandemic. Believe it or not, people assumed there were more babies born during the pandemic. There weren't. There was actually a slight decline in the birth rate, except in Bendigo and central Victoria. We knew that that was coming based on the nature of who was moving into the town. If you build a bigger hospital, employ more people at the bank and grow mining underground, you are going to attract younger people and families, and that's what's happened. We've had a growth in our birth rate. But that has presented a challenge when it comes to child care. Being able to find a place for a newborn, a toddler or someone who is under 18 months of age has been a challenge.

I want to acknowledge that that is something our government is working at. The cheaper child care bill will make child care more affordable. More importantly, the Fair Work amendments that were moved through at the end of last year will allow our educators to bargain for better wages, and hopefully that will attract more educators back into child care. One of the key reasons why there are such long waiting lists for younger children in early childhood education is that centres can't open rooms. They've got the space but not the educators. So it's an area that we're looking at and hoping to address sooner rather than later. I want to acknowledge the work that the sector, the government and the unions are doing to really try and address that.

Part of the bigger plan and the bigger focus that we have to have when we talk about women, work and paid parental leave is making sure that we are more family friendly and making sure that we do have that support in the early years. We kind of know what the plan is once children start primary school, because we've had a formal education system for quite some time. But we don't quite have the policies right yet for children under five. We are trying to turn around and change culture and change history, and that is one of the things that this bill does. It actually acknowledges for the first time that it isn't just the woman's responsibility to stay at home with young children. It acknowledges that we want to encourage men and women and families to make choices based upon what is in the best interests of that family unit. That choice could change between children—between the first child and the second child. For the first child it might be mum who stays at home. For the second child it might be dad who stays at home, depending upon where they're at at that time.

I really want to acknowledge the dads who have spoken to me—not just since I became an MP but before—about this issue and about how they haven't had the opportunity to really bond in the same way as their partners. I also want to acknowledge the dads who kind of swam against the tide, took time out, took that step to be at home more and gave up work to be there to help raise their little people, because they really have been some of the trailblazers to help set the agenda about what more we need to do.

For any woman in this place, including me, who's had children, our partners are the ones who have really helped us to be able to keep doing what we do. I've got two little people. I'm hoping that they're in bed now, at ten to seven. I don't know; I'm here. But they're at home with their dad in Bendigo this week, and the dinner, bath and bed routine falls to dad. That's just the life if you're a mum working full time, or if you're a dad working full time. If you're trying to balance that routine at home, the ability to have more employers who recognise that we want flexibility in workplaces is important.

The reason this bill has come before the parliament now is for us to deliver on a big commitment that we made at the election: that we wanted to be a modern Labor government that recognised that modern families need changes. Increasing the PPL was one of the most frequent proposals raised by participants at the Jobs and Skills Summit last September, and it is why the Albanese government really listened and continued to consult and brought forward these changes. It's why it was a big part of the October budget.

Families having access to more leave and enjoying greater flexibility will ensure that there is less of a gap in terms of paid income for households. Right now that is so important as interest rates and cost of living goes up. There are always extra expenses with children that you don't quite expect. This bill will be welcomed by so many, particularly those who are planning on having children or might find themselves expecting a little one soon—although I do have to note, because it's in my notes, that one of my staff members is a little bit disappointed that it didn't come in a bit sooner. Her second child is due in a few months.

Importantly, this change is part of Labor's commitment at the federal election to deliver on gender equality. It does help to demonstrate how we are wanting to make these changes. The reforms that are being introduced will improve flexibility from 1 July this year, and from 1 July next year we'll start expanding the scheme for an additional two weeks each year until it reaches 26 by 1 July 2026. I hope we don't stop there. We need to look at super on paid parental leave. It's one of the other gaps that we have in terms of people who take paid parental leave earning income. Perhaps when we see more men taking paid parental leave we'll start to see a boost in super.

We want to see the corporate sector, the community sector and employers step up, and see them more develop more generous paid parental leave schemes for males and parents; for dads. We want to encourage more families in those early years to not just share the workload of raising young people but also be able to perform those early critical bonds so that they too can be home with a 21-month-old toddler doing the dinner, bottle and bed routine. I'm hoping that my speech is not being part of face time to them. I think all of us who've had that joy of becoming parents know that those early days are fun. Those early years are fun. But the extra support to take the financial stress away makes life that little bit easier.

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