Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. As I was saying, Mr Morrison called the new mums rorters, then, to make matters worse, Mr Hockey, the former Treasurer, when it was put to him by Laurie Oakes that accessing the two schemes was a 'fraud', agreed. So they are double dippers, rorters and fraudsters. That is the language we heard from the government about new mothers.

Parents who want to spend more time with their newborn babies are not rorters, and they are not fraudsters. They are accessing the scheme just as it was designed.

But apparently the attack on Australian mothers in order to justify the savage cuts does not stop just because Mr Abbott has gone. Under Mr Turnbull's plans, new mums will no longer be able to top up their paid parental leave beyond 18 weeks with support from employers. This means that around 80,000 new mums will be forced to spend less time with their new babies, and they will lose $11,800. These cuts—

Senator Bushby interjecting—

It is interesting that you should say that because obviously under our policy, Senator Bushby, there is leave for new dads as well. You should actually know that. Given that your government has been hell-bent on destroying paid parental leave, I am not surprised that you are not aware.

These cuts will rip $3.7 billion in support from parents over the next decade. These cuts are due to come into force from July and could slash as much as $11,800 from the household budgets of young families. However, the government is yet to get the legislation through the parliament. This means that women who are pregnant right now and due from July have no idea what paid parental leave scheme they will have access to when their baby is born.

I want to take a small amount of time to look at what the Hon. Jenny Macklin MP, the shadow minister for families and payments, had to say about the coalition's paid parental leave chaos. That is exactly what we have seen from the coalition—chaos. Ms Jenny Macklin said:

Thousands of pregnant women have been caught up in the Turnbull Government’s paid parental leave chaos, not knowing what support they’ll receive when their new babies arrive later this year.

The Coalition’s cuts to paid parental leave—first announced in the 2015 budget—will rip $3.7 billion dollars in support from parents over the next decade, and leave—

as I have said and as every government senator knows—

80,000 new mums worse off every year.

These cuts are due to come into force from July …

That is what this will do—it will take $11,800 off those young families. The government has not got the legislation through the parliament so these parents have no idea. There is complete and utter chaos. We know on this side that this is not the only area where there is complete and utter chaos. This is an extremely important piece of legislation. The legislation you want to get through should be withdrawn and thrown out. You should support the Labor Party's legislation.