Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

We will not be supporting these amendments. The bill does provide that a person can have a break of up to eight weeks between consecutive working days and be regarded as having worked continuously. It is a fairly generous arrangement, which we think will pick up people like school teachers and others who have quite a serious break within their working year. A working day is defined as a day on which a person has worked for at least one hour, so it is not a big hurdle in that regard either.

This, of course, means that for the first time many women in seasonal casual work, as well as contractors and self-employed people, will have access to paid parental leave—so it is a big step forward. They will get access even though there are some significant periods when they will not be at work.

While the work test needs to have some notion of a permissible break to ensure those workers have access to the scheme, we do have to find the right balance. We believe an eight-week break finds that balance and we do not support pushing that out even further to three months. You have got to retain a genuine attachment to the labour market, and we are not convinced that a person who has a genuine attachment to the labour market would be unable to find one hour of paid work within a two-month period. This is all it takes to retain continuity of work over the required 10-month period: one hour of paid work every two months and a total of 330 hours of paid work in the 10-month period then the person will meet the work test.

It is a pretty generous arrangement and it is designed to address the concerns of some about casual workers and contractors. We think it does that. Obviously though, if there is a problem we can address that in the review of the act. But we think this will meet those needs and it will extend an entitlement well beyond previous arrangements and try and pick up all those who are maintaining serious contact and genuine attachment to the labour market. We think the balance is better placed with the eight-week proposal in the bill and do not support the Greens suggestion to extend it even further.