Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am very disappointed that the government is overlooking a significant group of female employees in this country—those who work in our universities educating the future leaders of tomorrow who finish their teaching in November and do not resume until March. There is no way they can fit into the eight-week permissible break period. That is the evidence that was given by various people to the Senate inquiry. I would like the minister to address that specific example. How does the minister excuse not giving parental leave to a woman because of the birth of her child who has to take more than the eight weeks off simply because she works in a university as part of the core teaching staff?