Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise today to speak about the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (More Support for Working Families) Bill. The coalition supports this bill, but my intention is to move a substantive amendment calling on the government to amend the act to require the secretary, as defined by the act, to pay paid parental leave instalments directly to employees of small businesses, except in cases where a small business opts to pay the PPL instalments directly to the employee.

The coalition has had a strong record of supporting government funded paid parental leave and has seen women's workforce participation reach highs when it was in government. In March 2022, as part of the Women's Budget Statement, the coalition underlined its commitment to PPL by announcing enhanced paid parental leave. Enhanced paid parental leave would have seen an investment of $346.1 million over five years to expand PPL, giving working families full choice and control over how they would use 20 weeks of taxpayer funded paid parental leave. It was pleasing to see Labor adopt key elements of the coalition's enhanced paid parental leave in the last tranche of PPL reforms, which the coalition also supported. Today the coalition continues to support the expansion of PPL but will move a substantive amendment to the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (More Support for Working Families) Bill to support small business.

This bill expands the scheme by two weeks each year until it reaches 26 weeks in 2026 through two parts. Part 1 extends the PPL scheme by two weeks each year from 1 July 2024 to reach 26 weeks by 1 July 2026. It extends the reserved period for certain claimants who are partnered at the time of their first effective claim by one week each year from 1 July 2025 to reach four weeks by 1 July 2026. It increases the number of days that can be taken concurrently by multiple claimants in relation to the child to four weeks by 1 July 2025 and amends part 2-3 of the PPL Act to clarify the eligibility criteria for claimants in exceptional circumstances, including claimants who are gaining parents in a surrogacy arrangement, and it makes consequential amendments relating to the measures described above.

Part 2 deals with the application of amendments to claims made before, during and after the transition period from 26 March 2024 to 30 June 2024.

Under section 60 of the PPL act a person can make a claim for parental leave 97 days before the expected date of the birth of the child. The minister can also make rules with respect to matters of a transitional nature. As we know, the PPL scheme includes a mandatory employer role, which requires employers to pay government funded paid parental leave to eligible long-term employees. Employers are required to provide PPL taken by the employee only in continuous blocks—at least 40 consecutive weekdays—at the beginning of their entitlement, and Services Australia provides any PPL days taken outside of this block.

According to the government, the purpose of the employer role in administering the scheme is to maintain the connection between employees on paid parental leave and their employers. The coalition believes that the current Paid Parental Leave Scheme disproportionately impacts smaller businesses, imposing an additional red tape burden on small businesses by making them the pay clerk for a government scheme. The coalition calls on the government to amend the Paid Parental Leave Act to require the secretary, as defined by the act, to pay paid parental leave instalments directly to employees of small businesses except in cases where the small business opts to pay the paid parental leave instalments directly to the employee.

Small businesses with no human resources department are drowning in red tape already. Administering these payments increases the administrative burden on resource-poor small businesses and adds to payroll processing times. Under the coalition's proposal, small businesses could opt in to administer the scheme or have Services Australia administer the scheme to small business employees, reducing the regulatory burden on the small business sector. With many small business employers finding no benefit to their relationship with employees while administering the scheme, it's time this unnecessary burden is lifted from small businesses, the engine room of our economy.

While supporting the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (More Support for Working Families) Bill 2023, the coalition will move these amendments seeking to remove the red tape burden from small business at the appropriate time. I commend the bill and hope that this chamber will see fit to approve and support our amendments.