Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (More Support for Working Families) Bill 2023, and, just as Senator Smith has laid out, I am one of the many women across our country for whom paid parental leave really changed my own parenting and my participation in the workforce, and it certainly benefited me, my children, my partner and my family. The Greens welcome the extension of paid parental leave and the scheme. Increasing availability of leave to 26 weeks is a positive step towards ensuring parents are supported in the crucial early months of parenthood and motherhood. Australian parents, at an absolute minimum, should have access to 26 weeks of paid leave to allow for recovery from birth, to maximise the chance of establishing breast-feeding, to cope with that intensive early parenting and caring and for the development of connection between parents and their infants.

Extended leave provides the best chance of a good start for our kids in the early years and healthy patterns of shared care and good maternal health and wellbeing. But Australian parents should not have to wait another two years to get access to 26 weeks of paid leave, which is an international minimum standard. Supporting new parents and the wellbeing of children and advancing economic equality for women has to be at the centre of decision-making around paid parental leave in Australia. It's vital that the employer role in administering this scheme is preserved. There is extensive research from Australia's researchers about the benefit of maintaining and building the connection between a woman and her workplace at the time of birth and, vice versa, of maintaining and keeping that connection of the employer to their employee at the time of having children. Let's remember that all our businesses, including our many small businesses, are the beneficiaries of the reproductive work of women in the workforce. Without women having children, there is labour force of the future. We all have a contribution to make in supporting the reproductive work of new parents, and small businesses have a role to play. It's tiny, the administrative requirement for small businesses to pass on to women the payment taxpayers think those workers should get when they have a baby. It's an important part—