Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Boothby for the question. From day one, this government has been working hard to improve paid parental leave for working families. First, we made the changes from 1 July 2023 to give more families access to the payment, made it more flexible to support parents and the transition back to work and made it much easier for parents to share care by creating a single payment that both parents can access. This week we took another significant step forward. With the successful passage of our legislation in the parliament, we are delivering the largest expansion of paid parental leave since Labor established this back in 2011. By expanding the scheme to a full six months by 2026, families will receive an extra six weeks of paid leave following the birth or adoption of their child when fully rolled out. That is over $5,000 more to help with the family budget but, speaker, we're not stopping there.

The Albanese government has recently announced that we will pay superannuation on the government paid parental leave scheme. Paying super on the government paid parental leave scheme will help normalise paid parental leave as a workplace entitlement just like annual leave and sick leave and will reduce the impact of taking parental leave on retirement incomes. Many, many people have called for this and have welcomed this announcement.

The Women's Economic Equality Taskforce have provided their report to the government, and they made this a key recommendation. Chief Executive Women said, 'Paying super on paid parental leave is a huge milestone for women.' The Business Council of Australia called it the 'right thing to do for both women and the economy'. The Parenthood said, 'This is a game changer for families across Australia.' The Financial Services Council said it would increase the financial and wellbeing of Australian women. CPA Australia said, 'Paying super on paid parental leave is well worth it.' And the ACTU, of course, called it a 'historical step'.

Amongst all this positivity about our super announcement, it was disappointing that the first instinct from those opposite was to express negativity and reservation about our positive plan. Now, this is not a surprise, considering that those opposite called women of Australia, the mums of Australia, double dippers when they dared to take their leave provided by their workplace and the government's Paid Parental Leave scheme. Well, this government is standing up for working women, and we hope those opposite will too. (Time expired)

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