Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in full support of this bill, the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Adding Superannuation for a More Secure Retirement) Bill 2024, as a critical gender equity measure that is desperately needed. There are long-term structural reasons why women who are over the age of 50 are the largest group now facing homelessness. This bill implements a straightforward and commonsense reform, paying superannuation at the usual rate of 12 per cent on top of Commonwealth government parental leave payments. Giving birth or adopting children and the months afterwards are among the most precious moments in our lives, moments that I think most people later look back on with rose tinted glasses, forgetting what it's like to be in the trenches in those early months and early years. But it is precisely because that time in people's lives really can feel like being in the trenches that they need all the support they can get. Paid parental leave is a critical part of that, and the additional payment of superannuation will be something that gives parents peace of mind about their future financial stability.

I personally know women who went back to work earlier—sometimes far earlier—than they would have liked after having children because they were worried about the impact that so much time away from the workforce would have on their financial security, both at that time and in retirement. It's very clear that when it comes to having children it's generally women who still shoulder the majority of the burden, with 88 per cent of primary parental leave taken by women. It is a very significant disruption to a woman's career. The time away from work is long, It's often taken repeatedly and usually at a critical time in the development of a career.

I've also spoken previously in this place of the multiple repeated and lifelong reasons women are often forced to take time out of the workforce. Many of the causes of women taking these breaks are unique to women—in other words, women are taking career breaks that men will never need to take. They include pregnancy and childbirth, maternity leave, and gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis, heavy menstrual bleeding and menopause. That last one, menopause—a condition which afflicts 51 per cent of our population and has done since the dawn of time—is only now starting to be recognised and managed as the serious condition it can be for women. On average, women retire 7.4 years earlier than men at an age that often coincides with the onset of menopause. Leaving aside the significant impact this has on the economy and productivity, the hit to a woman's superannuation balance is also often immense.

Other reasons women take breaks from the workforce more often and for longer periods than men include caring for children or caring for elderly, injured, unwell or disabled relatives. This time away from the workforce adds up. It leads to lower lifetime earnings; this is before taking into account the gender pay gap. It also leads to lower superannuation balances at retirement. In fact, in 2021-22, the gap between the median male and female superannuation balance approaching retirement was 25.2 per cent. It is this last issue that the government is addressing with this bill.

This bill comes on top of other initiatives that I have supported to help women get back into and remain in the workforce. These initiatives and bills have included increasing the length of paid parental leave, making child care cheaper, introducing paid domestic violence leave, the establishment of the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce, ending pay secrecy clauses and requiring big businesses to publish their gender pay gaps.

It is beyond time for the role that women play in all aspects of our society, as paid and unpaid workers, as paid and unpaid carers and, yes, as child bearers, to be properly recognised and properly compensated. The gap is big, but with measures like the payment of superannuation on paid parental leave it is incrementally decreasing. I commend the bill to the House.

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