Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The second recommendation of the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce states in big, bold print:

The Australian Government must invest in policies and programs that recognise the economic importance and value of care work in Australia and help families to better share caring responsibilities.

For many families, the household division of caring responsibilities starts the moment a child is born. This triggers a pattern of unequal care and work during prime working years for both parents, with the responsibility of care falling more heavily on women. This results in women's participation in the workforce sitting well below that of men. To quote the Business Council of Australia:

Increasing the workforce participation of women is one of our nation's biggest economic and social opportunities.

It is an opportunity, and it's one we cannot squander by tinkering around the edges. We have done too much of that in the past. As leaders, we need to grasp this opportunity now and make the right decisions that remove the structural barriers for women who want to participate fully in the paid workforce. This will make Australia not only a fairer country but a stronger one, because increasing women's participation is good for the economy.

To achieve this ambition, we need to shift the dial; what we need is systems change. In their 2021 report, Back of the pack: how Australia's parenting policies are failing women & our economy, Equity Economics reported that Australian women fall behind in the labour market when they have children and never catch up. They estimated that as a result women retire with 47 per cent less in superannuation savings than men. Their modelling found that if an average Australian woman had the same workplace participation patterns after having children as an average Swedish woman, she would earn an additional $696,000 over her working life and retire with an additional $180,000 in superannuation.

One lever that can drive women's workforce participation is a fair and equitable paid parental leave system. The burden and joy of caring for young children should be more evenly shared between mothers and fathers, enabling more women to participate consistently in the workforce during their career. Quite seriously, I am sick to death of repeating elements of this speech over and over again in this chamber, but I will continue to do so because half of our potential economic advantage is locked up and we need to unlock it. The Paid Parental Leave Amendment (More Support for Working Families) Bill 2023 is another small step towards a fairer system, and I commend the government for building on the changes to paid parental leave that came into effect on 1 July last year.

The key measures of this bill include extending the scheme by two weeks each year from July 2024 to reach 26 weeks by 2026—currently, a working family can access up to 20 weeks of paid parental—and extending the reserved period for each parent on a 'use it or lose it' basis by one week each year from July 2025 to reach four weeks by 2026 to encourage shared care. Currently, two weeks are reserved for each parent on a 'use it or lose it' basis. Coupled parents will also be able to take up to four weeks of PPL at the same time from 2025. Currently, parents may take up to two weeks together.

The 'use it or lose it' element is a critical piece and will help foster a culture where men's role in caregiving becomes accepted and encouraged. The importance of this cannot be overstated. We know from international experience that the key to men taking parental leave is a 'use it or lose it' component for an extended period—that is, more than two weeks. In Denmark, 'use it or lose it' provisions saw a significant increase in men's uptake of parental leave, and men were subsequently more likely to continue shared care of their children throughout the early years. The use of parental leave by fathers in Australia is very low by global standards. Fathers in Australia take less than 20 per cent of the parental leave their international peers take, and, because caring patterns are established in the first year of a child's life, that entrenches stereotypical gender roles.

According to the World Economic Forum's Global gender gap report 2020, the gap between how mothers and fathers work, care and earn after a baby is more pronounced in Australia than in comparable nations. We should be encouraging men to take up parental leave to normalise flexible work and shared care responsibilities and to strengthen women's workplace participation and financial security. But it's not only good for women; it's healthy for men. When fathers take parental leave, they, their children and their partners benefit from stronger relationships. This is why I would have liked to have seen a more ambitious non-transferable six-week 'use it or lose it' provision when paid parental leave entitlements grow to 26 weeks by 2026 to incentivise men to access the scheme.

The evidence is clear. Accessible and well-funded paid parental leave is crucial if we want people to stay connected to the workforce, but it's also vital to support the health and wellbeing of women, men and children and to improve wider gender equality outcomes. We need to talk about paid parental leave from an investment model, not a deficit model. We need to be bolder.

I would like to finish where I started, with the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce ten-year plan. Getting to 26 weeks of paid parental leave by 2026 is only one piece of the plan. As the WEET report outlines, 52 weeks of paid parental leave is where we need to be, and this should be phased in and achieved by 2030. Payments should be at replacement pay level to incentivise men to use it. We need to also legislate the payment of superannuation on all forms of paid parental leave. We also need to legislate to establish and invest in universal, high-quality and affordable early childhood education and care. We need to abolish the childcare subsidy activity test, and, more broadly, we need to elevate the status of care work and attract a diverse and skilled workforce by valuing and adequately compensating care workers.

Only when we have all these reforms will we unleash the full capacity and contribution of women to the Australian economy. The evidence is clear, and the case for change is powerful. According to Deloitte Access Economics, removing the persistent and pervasive barriers to women's full and equal participation in economic activity will add $128 billion to the Australian economy. As has been said before, if that were a minerals deposit, everyone would be rushing to get it out of the ground. As Sam Mostyn, the chair of the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce says, women 'are tired of waiting for action to feel safe and valued and have equal access to economic prosperity'. Women's economic equality is one of my key platforms, and I will continue to repeat myself on this issue in this chamber. This bill is another step in the right direction.

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