Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Greater flexibility has become a persistent theme over the last few years. Many have benefited from more time at home, online meetings, more flexible leave arrangements and working from home. For a lot of Australians, greater flexibility has made juggling everyday responsibilities easier, and it's given many people the time for the things that really matter to them, the important things—more time with family, more time with friends, more time to focus on physical and mental wellbeing, more time to explore new passions. For new parents, that sounds like a bit of a fantasy list, given the pressures that are placed on new parents—and parents generally speaking, frankly, until the kids are out the door after university or whenever it might be. But, for new parents, the biggest barriers to flexibility come at one of the most important times in their lives.

We know that Australia has a generous paid parental leave scheme. Globally, it's one of the better ones. But there are still significant improvements needed when it comes to flexibility and equity. That's what this bill, the Paid Parental Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022, seeks to do—to make paid parental leave more flexible and more equitable for Australian families. It's going to combine the current 18 weeks leave for the primary carer and two weeks leave for the other parent into a single 20-week scheme, allowing parents to make decisions about how they utilise paid parental leave—flexibility. It's going to remove the notion of primary and secondary claimants and the requirement that the primary claimant must be the birth parent. This change will reflect the fact that the families of modern Australia come in all shapes and sizes, with different responsibilities and commitments. It gives parents the choice in how they structure their leave days and their transition back to work. It gives parents the option to split leave as they see fit, rather than one parent being entitled to 18 weeks, while the other is limited to two. While many parents may still decide that one takes most of the time, it allows them, the parents, to make that decision. That's important, because we know that the current arrangements particularly restrict women in returning to work.

We know that women are more often the primary carer, on average, as far as the data goes. Unless they take their first 12 weeks of leave at once, they forfeit the remaining six weeks which can be used flexibly. So they are effectively penalised if they choose to return to work in their first 12 weeks of leave, even if it is just for a day or two a week. A lot of mums—I know this is a bit anecdotal—who have had their second or third child are like: 'I want to go back to work now, early.' Some mums choose to stay the whole year with their newborn. It especially happens with the firstborn, but, I think, once they get to the second or third, they're like: 'See you later. I'm going back to work.' Fair enough. We want to give women that flexibility to make their own arrangements under the scheme. So this is really important—to give them a real choice. The decision is not going to be made for them. They get to make the decision. This bill will allow women greater freedom over when they return to work, by allowing the leave to be used flexibly from day one. It's a change that supports advancing women's economic equality. This is a key goal of the Albanese Labor government. It provides greater access to fathers and partners, who often are limited to only two weeks of leave despite wanting to share the load. It will include all sorts of parents: LGBTQIA+ parents and parents who have adopted or who have been forced to split leave in ways that might not suit their family's needs or wishes. These changes give parents choice about when they return to work. Payment days may be taken in multiple blocks as small as a day at a time with periods of work in between, within two years of the birth or adoption of a child. This is real flexibility. It gives people choice, and that's why these are such important elements of this bill. They give parents that choice.

The bill reflects the Albanese government's commitment to improve the lives of working families, to give them that choice. It improves their quality of life, supports better outcomes for children and advances women's economic equality, as I've noted. These reforms will reserve a portion of the scheme for each parent, to support them both to take time off work after the birth or adoption of a child. The elements of this bill follow advice and consultation with many experts and stakeholders, who were clear about the need for reserved portions to promote shared care and gender equality. They have come from the data and the evidence base that have informed the drafting of this bill and this policy.

Engagement with stakeholders has been a key feature of this bill. Reform of paid parental leave was one of the most frequent proposals raised at the successful Jobs and Skills Summit held in September last year. When we brought stakeholders and leaders from across Australia together to develop solutions on the big challenges facing our nation—guess what!—we were serious. And this is what came up. We were serious in our commitment to listen to Australians and to deliver what we think are commonsense changes that will make their lives better. That's part of being a good government. The changes in this bill fit that motivation and that course of action. They were widely welcomed in the October 2022-23 budget.

These changes are the most significant step to improving the Paid Parental Leave scheme since its establishment by the Labor government in 2011. It wasn't perfect then. We're suggesting some improvements. That's the sign of a good government, one that is always looking to improve, always evolving, always listening and making sure that it is meeting the needs of Australians, in this case parents, and giving them that much needed flexibility.

This reform will benefit 181,000 families. That means around 4,300 people who are currently ineligible will get access to paid parental leave, because we're lifting the family income limit to $350,000. That's great. And we will continue with reforms that improve the lives of Australians, including legislation later this year that will expand paid parental leave to 26 weeks by 2026. There's a nice symmetry there—26 by 26. I don't know who thought of that—some clever person—but it will be 26 weeks by 2026. It is a further improvement that will go straight to giving flexibility and support for parents in the Paid Parental Leave scheme.

Our changes are good for parents, they're good for kids, they're good for employers and they're good for our economy. They are changes that make a good scheme more suitable for a more modern Australia. We've evolved since 2011, and these changes are important in that context. Families will be able to make their own choices to suit their own family's needs and enjoy what is such an important time in their lives with their new baby. They can decide how long they spend. If it's a second or third, mum might want to go back to earlier than the year that she spent with the first born, but that's their choice, and that's the beauty of these changes. It really is making sure that we give families the chance to decide for themselves what is best for their family's circumstances. That is something that this Albanese Labor government has committed to delivering for Australian families.

See this speech in context