Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to the motion put forward by Senator Moore in relation to the Paid Parental Leave Scheme, but most particularly the issue that she raises in relation to the division and dysfunction in the coalition government. I must say that I find it quite bizarre that you would refer to somebody having their own point of view and standing by what they believe in, and just because it does not necessarily coincide exactly with party policy, that that is division and dysfunction. I would have called that a democracy where people are allowed to have their own opinion.

I suppose it is very pleasing to hear Senator Moore say that those opposite do support a Paid Parental Leave Scheme. Obviously they are standing on ceremony and not supporting this particular one—and it is their right not to support the detail of it—and, as we rightly notice, there are some people on this side of the chamber who have not supported the entire detail of it. I think we are all okay with that. So I am at a little bit of a loss as to why we are even standing here today discussing this when we all agree that a Paid Parental Leave Scheme would be a positive thing in our workplace and it is only the detail that we are messing around with.

One of the things that has been first and foremost in my mind for many years since paid parental leave has been on the agenda in the world and in Australia is the debate about what it actually is. I think the most important thing is that this is about women's participation in the workforce—women's continued participation, women's return to the workforce after they have had children. If you look at the statistics across Australia, you realise that the participation of working women during the period of time in which they have children is a lot lower than it possibly could be. It is particularly noticeable for women who have invested a lot of their time in going to university and getting themselves careers, careers that are so terribly important to our community.