Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to begin by acknowledging the important steps being taken by the government and the Women's Economic Equality Task Force. One thing that motivated a lot of voters at the last election was a very real sense that we had a government which didn't understand the concerns and priorities of women—and didn't have enough women in the government either—and had no interest in learning, let alone acting. So I gratefully acknowledge the change we have seen over the last 18 months and the progress that is being made against some of those concerns. The bill today, the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (More Support for Working Families) Bill 2023, is part of that progress. It is a step towards the equality and equity that so many Australians want to see, and I welcome it. It implements a further expansion of the Paid Parental Leave scheme, expanding the total leave entitlement for partnered parents to 26 weeks over the next three years, up from the current 20 weeks. It also increases the number of reserved weeks—that is, weeks that can only be taken by the second parent—from two to four, and it does the same for concurrent leave.

The expansions are important and they are welcome. They will make a real difference in the lives of many new parents. But, honestly, we should not believe for a second that these movements and changes are sufficient. In particular, I do not believe they will change the culture of parenting in Australia, which is that it is predominantly the responsibility of the mother, and that must be the ambition of future reforms and of this parliament.

Let me give you some personal examples. I and many of my friends had children around the same time, and many of us had partners—in the cases where it was a man and woman—with similar careers, similar ambitions and similar career trajectories. I would say that probably in at least 80 per cent of cases the partners were relatively equal in their careers, and that changed when children came along, because with my family and those of my friends, in 80 per cent of cases, it was the women who took a back seat, because they took a front seat in caring for children. There are a number of men, who I'm very proud of, who took an active role, taking on significant care of children, going part time themselves and taking significant parenting leave when the children were born. But these were not the majority. This is a culture that I think we need to change, because that time when the women take on more care of the children has a significant impact on women's economic equality. It certainly did for me and the friends that I have in this space. This is why I think it's so critical that we change the culture. I think that this parenting bill could have gone further, and I urge the government to continue to go further in changing the culture and making parenting a truly shared endeavour.

Let's look at the research on this, beyond the anecdotes from me and my friends. Research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that the average number of hours worked by fathers doesn't change significantly after the birth of a child, while the situation for mothers is completely different: the number of hours they work falls by around two-thirds on average. We have a gendered segregation of parenting responsibilities, and this is an enormous issue for the economic participation of women. This is one of the main drivers of the motherhood penalty, the 55 per cent reduction in women's earnings once they become mothers. This is not appropriate.

We are a country that invests heavily in educating our women and promoting an equal and equitable society, but the fact is that, honestly, these efforts are not translating into the outcomes we want to see.

Research by the Grattan Institute has shown that, on average, female parents do two hours more of unpaid care per day than male parents, and male parents do two hours more of paid work per day. Parenting habits at the early stages of a child's life, at those critical early days, are critical in determining future parenting strategies and that sharing of caring, and that is why supporting new parents to equally share the parenting is absolutely critical.

Debate interrupted.

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