Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022, and I'm going to make only a short contribution on this bill, as I understand there is some urgency to this. If the bill is passed by the end of this sitting week, it will allow parents expecting to give birth on or after 1 July this year to claim three months in advance. You'll notice the government decided to include the words 'gender equality' in the title of the bill, because gender equality is at the heart of what this bill is about. As a nation we need to ask ourselves why there is a 13 per cent gender pay gap and why women retire with super balances on average 23 per cent lower than men. These gaps are closing but not fast enough, and to address this inequality we need to address a number of underlying causes.

One of these underlying causes is that women, more than men, make the sacrifice to put their careers on hold to care for children. We can see the stark figures in the Australian Bureau of Statistics head of household survey, which in May 2021 showed 38 per cent of women spent five hours or more on unpaid caring or supervision of children, compared to only 28 per cent of men. The same survey shows that, on just about any measure, women take on substantially more unpaid household work than men. Under the Paid Parental Leave scheme the notion of primary, secondary and tertiary claimants and the requirement that the primary claimant must be the birth parent meant the system was geared towards an expectation that women would bear most of the responsibility for spending time raising their children.

The flexibility this bill provides is for the benefit of both women and men. Many birth mothers would like more opportunity to advance their careers, while many dads and partners would like more opportunity to spend time caring for, playing with and forming bonds with their children. It's about providing the flexibility parents need to come up with the arrangements that work for their individual family circumstances, but this is also critical for children. From my experience as a parent but also as an early childhood educator observing other families I've seen how critical those early months of a child's life are to forming a lasting bond with their parents, regardless of gender.

As the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in their submission to the inquiry into this bill:

These changes should deliver significant benefits to the economy by boosting women's workforce participation, improving flexibility in the use of paid parental leave, enhancing gender equity outcomes, and ensuring businesses continue to have access to a diverse, experienced productive labour force.

Labor understands that. We understand that the right set of policies, getting the balance right between giving parents the time they need with children while maintaining their connection with work, is boosting labour productivity, promoting gender equality and also improving development outcomes for children. This is also what we sought to achieve with cheaper early childhood education and care for Australian families. It is not, as one senator in this place once described it, the hand of government reaching in and taking away the youth of our children.

I note the inquiry into this bill showed broad support for the provisions, including from representatives of employees and employers, such as the ACTU and ACCI. There were also a number of community groups backing the changes. In this bill we're extending the shared paid parental leave entitlement from 18 weeks to 20 weeks, and we will go further in accordance with our election commitments. This is just the first point. This is just the first step. The Women's Economic Equality Taskforce is currently examining the best model for the expansion to 26 weeks and will provide advice to the government later this year. This is the type of action Labor take to help improve the lives of working women and men, and we will continue to assist families wherever we can.