Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Adding Superannuation for a More Secure Retirement) Bill 2024 brings together two great Labor economic reforms: universal superannuation and paid parental leave. It brings together the two things that drive our government: delivering for people here and now, and building for the future. This is about a modern economy that works for modern families, and it represents another vital step forward in our government's commitment to economic equality for the women of Australia.

We reflected on this commitment in the caucus room of the Labor party on Monday evening. We came together to celebrate 30 years since delegates to the 1994 Australian Labor Party National Conference took the decision to adopt affirmative action with the aim of equal representation. I spoke in that debate as a rank-and-file delegate, one of the 99 who made that decision that has made a difference to our party and, therefore, made a difference to the nation. Ten years after the great Susan Ryan gave Australia the Sex Discrimination Act, Labor took the crucial step of adopting quotas for women to be preselected in winnable seats, and every day that we come into this place we can see the wonderful, history-making consequence: Australia's first ever government made up of a majority of female members. When we look across to the other side of the chamber, we see the consequences of not supporting women to enter parliament in safe seats.

Australia's first ever female majority government keeps delivering result after result. It is absolutely true that men can make decisions that benefit women as well as that women can make decisions that benefit women, but, when you have a caucus room, a cabinet and a ministry made up of equal representation, you ensure that it is never an afterthought. Gender equity in this country is front and centre. I want to see a parliament that looks like Australia and looks like the Australian people, not just in gender terms but in faith, in ethnicity and in background. That is what my government is moving towards, more and more.

It makes a difference. The number of women in the workforce is at a record high. The gender pay gap has been reduced to 11.5 per cent, reduced by almost three per cent in just two years. We have established 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave because no woman should ever have to choose between her financial security and her physical and mental safety. We are lifting wages in aged care and child care, two workforces which are dominated by women. Later today, the Minister for Education will introduce into this chamber the legislation for the 15 per cent increase in the pay of early educators, an important step forward. Those people—by and large feminised work forces that look after our youngest Australians and our oldest Australians in aged care—will get not just our thanks but also the wages that they deserve, in order to show them respect and in order to make sure that those important services can attract the workers and the skilled workers that they need.

We reformed the tax cuts that we inherited and made them fairer for working women. Under Labor's tax cuts, every female taxpayer got a tax cut, and nine out of 10 got a bigger tax cut because we still have that wage differential. Lower income people who will benefit from that decrease from 19 cents down to 16 cents in that first marginal tax rate—rather than the $4,500 reduction in the tax cuts that people in this parliament and other high-income earners will receive—will tend to spend more; they have a higher propensity to consume and spend it rather than save it. When we sat in cabinet, we got that analysis from the Treasury. The reason that isn't inflationary is that it will encourage more women into the workforce. It will encourage more workforce participation through working an extra day or two or re-entering the workforce earlier after having a child or after an absence from the workforce for some other reason. This is critical reform, just as cheaper child care for 1.2 million families that we have delivered is important, providing cost-of-living relief, investment in early education and economic reform that delivers for women. Making child care cheaper makes it easier for parents to return to work sooner. Doing so, of course, boosts productivity and participation.

Last Friday, I announced the next step in our work to address the national challenge of family and domestic violence, a package that includes an investment of $3.9 billion in a new national access to justice partnership, the biggest single Commonwealth investment in legal assistance ever since Federation. In our first budget, we delivered the biggest expansion in paid parental leave since the previous Labor government created it. There's a pattern here. The big reforms—the big changes that take Australia forward—are done by the Australian Labor Party.

In our first budget we delivered that expansion from 20 weeks to 26 weeks, a full six months. We are making paid parental leave more flexible as well, so parents can share the caring responsibilities and share the experience. Through this legislation being debated here this morning, we are adding superannuation to paid parental leave. This is what happens when women have a seat at the table and seats in the parliament. This is the progress our nation can achieve. This is how Australia can draw on the potential of all of our citizens, not just some. This is how we continue to build an economy that works for people, not the other way around.

The first months of your child's life are so special—exhausting at times, but uplifting. Every day brings new challenges and new joys. You can't put a price on spending that precious time with your new bub, and you shouldn't pay a price for it, either. No mother should be penalised for taking time away from work to do the most important job there is. That is the principle behind paid parental leave and that is the principle behind adding superannuation to it.

This will help narrow the gender gap in retirement savings. We know that, at the moment, that gender gap is around about 25 per cent. We also know that that has an impact on the rising rates of homelessness we've seen in older women. The sector that has seen the biggest growth in homelessness in this country over the most recent period, the last decade, is older women. The relationship between lower retirement savings and that is direct and is clear. This will deliver greater economic security for around 180,000 families this year by adding the extension of paid parental leave. Superannuation being paid will make an enormous difference.

When we announced this change back in April, I, together the member for Richmond, met some new mums and their children in Ballina. It was a terrific day. It was with The Parenthood as well, led by the remarkable Georgie Dent. They spoke to me directly about what it meant. Caitlin said:

It's so important that super will be paid as part of the paid parental leave. A lot of women get to retirement age, and they don't the same amount of funds as men do, and it's so important for their financial security.

Ebony said:

Having the super there shows that we value the role of mothers in society and acknowledge what they do is worth paying for.

I can't put it better than that. This legislation affirms our government's respect for the women of Australia, and it's a renewal of our commitment to economic equality.

I would have thought this was legislation that should have just sailed through the parliament—legislation that those opposite would looked at, thought about and said: 'Yes. The time has come.' But, of course, that's not the case. They still don't get superannuation and the important role that it plays in economic security. They never see an issue for which superannuation shouldn't be raided. We now hear that it should be raided for home purchases. We have had proposals that women who are the victims of domestic violence should raid their superannuation as well. Now, with this issue, we don't have them saying, 'Yes, it's a good idea that people have higher retirement incomes and that we close that 25 per cent gap in equality.' They have a range of options, but none of them are about superannuation and none of them are about higher retirement incomes for working women. They just don't get it. So ideological is their opposition to the concept of universal superannuation that they've never seen any reason why it shouldn't be raided over and over again.

They apparently have a range of proposals and alternatives here—lump sum payments, extensions of terms and a range of things—all of which would destroy the very reason why this legislation is coming forward. They should go and talk to working women about why this is an important initiative. This is something that has come from women in the business community. This is something that has come from women in the union movement. This is something that has come from women in civil society and from equity advocates, but those opposite are going to, once again, try and undermine it.

This is the writing of another chapter in the Labor story of fair pay, better conditions of work and dignity and security in retirement, and I'm very proud to join my colleagues in commending this bill to the House.

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