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

I'd like to thank all of those who have contributed to this important debate on the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Adding Superannuation for a More Secure Retirement) Bill 2024. This bill is the third significant improvement the Albanese government has made to paid parental leave. Paying superannuation on paid parental leave is an important step to reducing the gender gap in retirement savings and supporting a dignified retirement for more Australians.

The government has listened to calls from the union movement, the women's movement, economists and employers. We know that women make up the majority of primary caregivers in this country. We know that women with children face an average 55 per cent drop in earnings in the first five years of parenthood. We know that the effect of lower income compounds over time, increasing the gap between men's and women's superannuation balances at retirement. The data is clear: women retire with around 25 per cent less super than men.

What we are doing with this bill is a making a positive investment into the future of working women. For babies born or adopted from 1 July 2025, this bill delivers all eligible parents an additional 12 per cent of their paid parental leave as a contribution directly to their super fund. This super contribution will match the superannuation guarantee rate and will include an additional interest component. It will rise with any future increases to the legislated superannuation guarantee. Around 180,000 families will benefit from the changes each year. Once the paid parental leave scheme reaches 26 weeks in 2026, based on the superannuation guarantee rate of 12 per cent, the maximum amount a family will receive in superannuation contributions is around $3,150.

This bill has been warmly welcomed by parents, employers, unions and economists. It has been praised as an important step to narrow the gender pay gap and boost women's financial security, and it builds on the government's broader efforts to strengthen the superannuation system, including legislating the objective of superannuation, making superannuation concessions fairer and more sustainable and criminalising superannuation theft.

I note the second reading amendment moved by the member for Deakin and wish to state clearly from the outset that the government will be opposing this. This is an underhanded move by an opposition that has spent decades trying to undermine superannuation. Their amendment mentions their old, rolled-gold paid parental leave, but it fails to mention that, when they actually had the power and were in government, they axed this idea and then turned to calling mothers 'double-dippers' and 'rorters' and tried to take away their paid parental leave entitlement instead.

What they are proposing now is to encourage parents to cash out paid parental leave superannuation contributions, rather than contribute to their retirement savings, wilfully missing the intent of this bill, which is about closing the gender pay gap in retirement savings and ensuring that the government's paid parental leave is treated like any other workplace entitlement that attracts superannuation. Women deserve to retire with the same financial security as men. Under both alternative options proposed by the coalition, parents are going to be disadvantaged at retirement, thousands of dollars worse off.

But there's also an equity issue, on the point of women being paid, that the coalition have missed in their proposal. Their option for a parent to take an additional two weeks of paid parental leave equates to about $1,830. In comparison, as I've stated, the maximum paid parental leave superannuation contribution will be over $3,000, and obviously this will increase over time. I don't think it was their intention, and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, but, however you look at this, their proposal is a dud for women.

Thanks to Labor's significant investment in paid parental leave, families are already receiving extra support at the time of the birth of their newborn baby, with greater flexibility, a higher income test and more weeks of paid leave. Our reforms have made the scheme stronger and more suitable for the needs of modern families, and through this bill we are not only ensuring families receive extra support at the time of a birth but also boosting their retirement incomes as well. I commend the bill to the House.

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