Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Stott Despoja for the question but, as I said in answer to her primary question, the government strongly believe that when it comes to paid parental leave it is best negotiated at workplace level. We think that the figures indicate that that is taken up by a lot of employment agencies and certainly by a lot of employers. It is certainly taken up under federal collective agreements. The fact that our workforce participation for women has increased substantially indicates that these policies do assist rather than inhibit women. We think that the approach that we have taken has very adequately targeted the need to assist women and families at the time of the birth. The $30 billion and the baby bonus are a pretty impressive suite of measures that support women and support families. That is the government’s approach to the matter. (Time expired)