Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

When it comes to firm, consistent and unwavering support for hardworking Australians and young families, there is no better record of decisive action by government in this place than the record of the coalition. The amendments in the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022 build on comprehensive changes to the Paid Parental Leave scheme that were first announced by the coalition in the March 2022 budget. These changes, first proposed by the coalition, were part of an enhanced Paid Parental Leave package of reforms that were very well received by commentators, key stakeholders and Australian working families less than a year ago. I had many in my electorate react positively to these changes when announced last year by the coalition government, and I'm pleased that the current Labor government have progressed these positive reforms.

Many local families who I've met with on my travels throughout the electorate have talked to me about the Paid Parental Leave scheme and the potential changes. I've met with many families who have benefited from the scheme. I've had two kids while the scheme has been in place, and my family have certainly benefited from it. But I've also had many constituents who've reported to me the flaws in the current scheme: the inflexibility of the income test; the challenges of the scheme in situations where the mother is the higher income earner in the household; the challenges of sharing the leave between parents; and, of course, how quickly those 18 weeks go.

It is important to make the point that the coalition's enhanced Paid Parental Leave package of reforms is now mirrored in almost identical measures in this bill. These measures include the creation of a single 20-week payment under the PPL scheme by combining up to 18 weeks of parental leave pay with a further two weeks of dad and partner pay and the introduction of a combined family income limit of $350,000 in adjusted taxable income in addition to the existing individual income limit of $156,647, which was due to apply from 1 July 2022. This is incredibly important. Households should be treated fairly based on their combined wage, and the federal government should be using combined household income as the basis for assessments for a lot more of the initiatives that the federal government undertakes throughout this country. I could talk more about how we can make vast improvements to the inequity in the tax system by going down this path, a path that would be way better for families, but I'll save that debate for another time.

Other measures in this bill that reflect the coalition's enhanced Paid Parental Leave changes include increasing the flexibility of the parental leave pay so the entire entitlement may be taken in blocks as small as a single day, with periods of paid work in between, if within two years of birth or adoption. Again, this is about more flexibility. That can only be a good thing, and that's certainly something that the young parents in my electorate have been calling for. I think it's fantastic that it's going to form part of this bill. Enhanced Paid Parental Leave would have seen an investment of $346.1 million over five years to expand PPL, giving working families full choice and control over how they use the 20 weeks of taxpayer funded paid parental leave.

But the coalition's record of supporting government funded paid parental leave goes back a long, long way, well before these reforms. In both the 2010 and 2013 elections, the coalition's paid parental leave policy sought to deliver mothers six months paid parental leave based on their actual wage. If those opposite, who today have been very self-satisfied in getting this bill this far, had supported that landmark coalition policy way back in 2010, then Australian families would have had access to one of the most generous government funded paid parental leave schemes in the world, a scheme that would now have been in place for well over a decade. Think how many Australian families could have been positively impacted by that coalition policy over the last decade. Think how many Australian women could have benefited from that policy.

The coalition, better than anyone else in this place, recognises both the social and economic benefits of paid parental leave. The coalition has always been—

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