Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. How will the Albanese Labor government's paid parental leave changes provide cost-of-living support for new families? How will the policy changes help Australian families?

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

I'd like to thank the member for Adelaide for his question, as a fierce advocate for families in his electorate. I know he has welcomed the paid parental leave changes. The Albanese government has made cost-of-living relief a priority in this recent budget. It focuses on keeping money in the pockets of Australians. Our budget is delivering cheaper medicines, cheaper child care and of course our plan to get wages moving again. But families are front and centre of this budget—in particular, helping them ease the burden of juggling care and work. That's why we are investing in an expanded paid parental leave system that will be boosted to six months by 2026. This will increase support available to families by almost $5,000 and will help take some of the pressure off households' budgets, and our measures will encourage the sharing of care responsibilities between both parents.

Paid parental leave that encourages sharing of care was one of the most prominent calls at our most recent Jobs and Skills Summit. We know that shared caring responsibilities promotes gender equality in this country. But we also know that this helps many dads who want to take time off work following the birth or adoption of a child. I recently met with Alex Edgar at West Beach Kindergarten, who talked about how important our paid parental leave changes will be for dads and mums. He said: 'Recently I changed employer because my wife is pregnant. We're having a third child and I wanted to access gender-neutral paid parental leave through my employer. It's very impressive that the government has made these changes and listened to Australian dads, who overwhelmingly want to be able to take leave.'

The current arrangements for shared care of children isn't working. We know that only half of dads are accessing dad and partner pay. That is why we're reforming the paid parental leave system so there is greater uptake of shared care of children between mums and dads, making it easier for dads to take paid parental leave by removing the current barriers and making it more flexible around when and how parents take leave. We are making a real difference to advance the way paid parental leave works for families. This is in stark contrast to those opposite, who when in government wanted to take the scheme back in time.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the Manager of Opposition Business.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on relevance: you have directed a minister back to the question previously when they've strayed. The minister was doing quite well. She managed to stay on the government's own record, but when we got to 30 seconds to go she just couldn't resist. She should be directed back to—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for the point. The question was about what the government has done to provide cost-of-living support to families, and I invite the minister to conclude her answer.

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

What we're not doing is limiting parents in the leave they can take by saying, 'You only get to choose your employer leave or your government leave,' because that, as the Human Rights Commission said, was a regressive measure that was inconsistent with Australia's human rights obligations. We will not do that, even if those on the other side decide to.