Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, seek to make a contribution on this incredibly significant bill, the Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Adding Superannuation for a More Secure Retirement) Bill 2024. I acknowledge the contribution from Senator Duniam about the valuable work of the ASU and particularly of our friend and colleague Senator White. The campaign for super on PPL has been longstanding, and it is really pleasing and historic that we have now reached this point and that we have a Labor government prepared to deliver superannuation on paid parental leave.

I want to add to the contribution of my colleague by reiterating the support that this scheme and this proposal has from stakeholders across the country. We know that many groups have come out in support of the proposal to pay super on paid parental leave. Of course, we've seen that support from the unions, the ASU in particular, and the ACTU. It's worth mentioning that other groups have come out to support this proposal, including the National Foundation for Australian Women, the Australian Institute of Family Studies, the Diversity Council of Australia, KPMG and the Business Council of Australia. We know that this is an important step forward for women's economic security. These peak bodies have made it clear that reform is both wanted and needed. When listening to the research and the data that these stakeholders are providing, it's clear that this amendment to the legislation will be essential for improving gender equality and women's retirement savings.

I also want to take this opportunity to object in the strongest possible terms to the proposal being put forward by the Liberal and National parties. The coalition has come out proposing amendments to this legislation and tried to frame this about choice. But this proposal from the Liberal and National parties to not support superannuation on paid parental leave is a false choice for Australian women. They have completely missed the point about what this legislation is trying to address. It's about creating a strong parental leave system that is empowering and that increases the super that women will be able to receive in retirement. It's about making sure that women don't retire poor, and yet the proposal from those opposite misses that point completely.

The proposal that the government has put forward is about acknowledging the role of care within our country and how important it is to the economic security of women in our country. We know that, under this government, we've made incredible inroads when it comes to the gender pay gap and that super on paid parental leave is the unfinished business of that work. That's why we seek to make these changes. The proposal put forward by the Liberal and National parties does none of that work, and it never would. It's not surprising that, after a decade of turning their back on the project of women's economic security, they hardly touched paid parental leave when they were in government, and now they're putting forward a scheme or proposal that would undermine the very principles of super on paid parental leave. But this is what they do.

During COVID, the Liberals encouraged people to raid their super, against the advice of economists. They've encouraged women fleeing domestic violence to raid their super to escape violence. It's absolutely shocking. Now they're encouraging people to raid their super for a housing deposit. Whenever you hear a scheme or proposal from Liberals that has to do with super, they cannot be trusted. A party that seeks to make super voluntary should never be trusted when it comes to super. That's why the Albanese Labor government is putting forward this incredibly important scheme for women's economic security. We seek to make sure that women do not retire poor. We seek to make sure that care, women's work and the process of having a family are valued in our country. That's what our legislation seeks to do.

What those opposite are seeking to do is the complete opposite: to devalue the work of women, make sure that women retire poorer and turn their back on the idea that, somehow, working women and working families don't deserve a secure retirement. Women see this. They see through you. They see what you are doing—

Debate interrupted.