Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I am so pleased to be speaking on the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Adding Superannuation for a More Secure Retirement) Bill 2024 today. Paid parental leave is good for parents, it's good for kids, and it's good for our economy. This reform that our Labor government is bringing into today to pay superannuation on government paid parental leave is a huge win for Australian families and a huge win for Australian women. This recognises that paid parental leave is a workplace payment, just like all the other types of leave that we have in our workplace, and that taking time out of the workforce to care for young children is a normal part of a working life. It builds on reforms that our government has already made to extend the length of paid parental leave and to make it more flexible for both parents to take time out for caring responsibilities.

We know that at the moment women retire with a superannuation gap, on average, of about 25 per cent less than men. That is actually unacceptable and it is not a given—that is something we can fix, and that is something we are starting to fix through the work our government has been doing to promote gender equity and through the work that will happen as a result of putting superannuation onto paid parental leave. From day one our government has been working hard to improve paid parental leave for working families. We made changes from 1 July 2023 to give more families access to paid parental leave, we made it more flexible to support parents in the transition back to work, and we made it much easier for both parents to share care by creating a single payment that both parents can access—that is a significant change. Then, from 1 July, we will be delivering the largest expansion to paid parental leave since Labor established it in 2011. By expanding the scheme to a full six months by 2026, we ensure families will receive an extra six weeks of paid parental leave following the birth or adoption of their child. We are now taking action to make sure that this expansion also supports parents' retirement income. We are building on the reforms we have already made to paid parental leave by paying superannuation on government paid parental leave from July next year. This is significant reform, and it is the reform that Labor governments do: supporting Australian families now, supporting Australian women now, and also setting them up for the best possible future.

Through this bill, our government is investing $1.1 billion over the forward estimates to pay superannuation on government paid parental leave. In doing so, what we make sure is that parents can take time off to care for their children in those critical early years, when we know that so much of a child's life and a family's life is being established. Paying superannuation on government paid parental leave helps to normalise paid parental leave as a workplace entitlement, just like annual and sick leave, and it reduces that gap that we have on women's retirement incomes.

This is something that I have been passionate about for many years, and it is one of the reasons I am so pleased to be standing here today. Paid parental leave is a proudly Labor reform. It was Labor, under the leadership of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and my predecessor as the member for Jagajaga Jenny Macklin who introduced Australia's national Paid Parental Leave Scheme on 1 January 2011. It is really important that we do not underestimate how crucial that leadership was to making paid parental leave a reality in this country. The reality at the time was that we were a laggard, and it took a Labor government and Labor women to make sure that Australia got its first national paid parental leave. All the data tells us that since that scheme was introduced it has made a massive difference in women's life, particularly for women who work in lower-paid or casual industries and who, in the past, didn't tend to receive any paid parental leave at all. At the time of paid parental leave's introduction in Australia, I worked with Jenny Macklin, and it was certainly a busy period of reform. Over the course of a few years, we introduced the NDIS, we made important changes to our social security system, we worked on First Nations policy and we introduced paid parental leave.

At that time and since then I've had the opportunity to speak to women right across the country about the significance of this reform, about the change it has made and the security they feel in their working life and about the ability it has given them to start their journey right when it comes to being a family. In particular, this goes for women in areas like retail and women in hospitality and small businesses. These are all areas where, previously, women had no access to any form of paid leave. They are finally able to take the time they need to look after their baby without having that financial stress.

As I said, this is something I have been passionate about for a long time and in fact it's something I spoke about in my first speech in this place, five years ago. I spoke of it then in the context of a coalition government which very clearly did not have any appetite for reform or improvements when it came to paid parental leave. You will excuse me for quoting myself, but at the time I said:

Labor started making it easier for parents to juggle work and family when we introduced paid parental leave. It has made a huge difference in the lives of many Australians, but there is more work to be done. I am convinced that we need a culture shift in our workplaces so that they are no longer built on the premise that there's a wife at home who is the primary carer. We need to address the bias—conscious or not—that after a baby is born it is women who will work part time before the children start school, who will carry the mental load and who in some cases will leave the work force forever.

Five years on, and two years into the life of this Labor government, I am so pleased at the substantial change we have made to so many of those points. Since the election of the Albanese Labor government, the reforms we have made to expand paid parental leave and make it easier for both parents, for women and men, to take leave and share the care are so important.

This bill today is the next step in these reforms. It is a Labor government that is making this happen because we understand the reality of modern Australian families' lives. We understand that women want to be supported economically to take that time out to look after their children, but we also understand that Australian men want the flexibility to do that as well. They want to be able to share the care. So part of the reforms we have introduced include 'use it or lose it' provisions for the secondary carer, which is really important in terms of that uptake from men.

The other part we've seen, alongside the reforms that the Labor government has brought in, is that the private sector is also improving their schemes and recognising that modern Australian families want to be able to take this time. They want the flexibility of being able to take paid leave for both men and women, and it is really heartening to see that change in culture in workplaces, normalising both parents taking leave and taking time to get their family on the best possible footing in those crucial early months of their child's life.

I want to acknowledge that this is work the government has done not on its own but across the board with a lot of support from other organisations. We have had support from the Business Council of Australia, The Parenthood, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, the Australian Council of Social Service, Diversity Council Australia and Impact Economics and Policy—all doing important work. I want to say a particular thank you to the union movement, who I know have fought for this reform and for paid parental leave for a very long time, including unions such as the ASU, the SDA and others.

Unions have been longtime advocates for expanding and reforming paid parental leave. They are at the coalface of recognising both the need for and the benefits of this. I want to highlight in particular the tireless advocacy on this issue from the late Senator Linda White. Linda's time as a senator in this parliament was short, but her decades as a leader with the ASU saw Linda work tirelessly to improve the lot of workers and women workers in particular. Seeing superannuation paid on parental leave was an issue that Linda championed for at least a decade alongside ASU members, particularly through the Not so super, for women report in 2017. This advocacy has really meant we are now where we are today. So, while I am very sad that Linda is not here to be able to see this bill pass through the parliament, I know she would be so proud to see that work resulting in this big win for Australian women and Australian families.

While we know that our paid parental leave reforms are widely supported in the Australian community, unfortunately it seems that not everyone in this place is a fan. In fact, the track record of those opposite when it comes to paid parental leave and supporting paid parental leave is pretty poor. The Leader of the Opposition was a cabinet minister in previous Liberal governments that accused women of double-dipping when they were trying to access both the government scheme and their employer funded scheme. We do know at the moment there are members of the Liberal Party who see paid parental leave as a welfare payment rather than a workplace entitlement. Again, it does seem like every time this government puts up a positive plan for Australian women, a positive plan for Australian workers, those opposite want to quibble and walk away from it. There is a pattern here, and it is a pattern of saying no to things that advantage Australian women. Labor will of course always stand up for Australian women. We understand the realities of their lives, and we are working to make their lives better.

Here are a few other moments that we might have forgotten from those opposite and their track record when it comes to paid parental leave. We had former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who, in opposition, promised a rolled gold scheme. Of course, he never delivered on that scheme—again, a tendency of drift, of a failure to support women in this country. Now, most recently, we have just seen the opposition start to engage with this bill, with the idea of putting superannuation on paid parental leave. I am sorry to say that it is not an intervention in support of Australian women. It is not an intervention in support of financial security for Australian women in retirement. It is not an intervention in support of that structural work to get the equality that we need in this country. No—those opposite once again are saying no. It is the usual negativity that we get from Peter Dutton, the Leader of the Opposition, and those opposite, who did seem to indicate earlier on that they were going to support this measure but now are walking away.

What we know is that there are long-term benefits from paying superannuation on paid parental leave. It does go to those structural inequalities. It goes to the way we view women's participation in the workforce. It goes to the way we view taking time out to care for young children. By saying no to this, essentially what those opposite are saying is that they're not interested in fixing this problem. They are not interested in doing the work to make Australian women more equal, to support Australian women to have secure retirements. They would rather walk away from a bill that gives Australian women and men superannuation on their paid parental leave. I'm not often surprised by those opposite, but I am surprised that they could not bring themselves to support this proposal for women's equality, for Australian families, for our economy more broadly, to put superannuation on paid parental leave. Mums and dads across the country will benefit from this. Australian women will be able to see some movement in that 25 per cent superannuation gap that we have. So those opposite really do need to explain to working women and to working men now why they don't want them to have paid parental leave on their superannuation. They can look, at the moment, at older women in this country who are facing a more uncertain retirement than their male counterparts often are because they haven't had the benefit of this kind of reform.

So, again, I am so pleased, so proud, to be standing here talking about this great Labor reform, so pleased for the very real difference it will make in the lives of Australian families, so pleased for the difference it will make to Australian workplaces, so pleased for the signals it will send right across our country about how we value the work of caring for our children, setting them up on the best possible path and setting our country up for the best possible future, making sure that we are supporting women to have a more secure retirement, recognising the contribution they make. This is a great Labor reform. It will make a significant difference. I commend the bill to the House.

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