Paid Parental Leave Amendment

The Importance of The Paid Parental Leave Bill

VIDEO

The Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Adding Superannuation for a More Secure Retirement) Bill 2024 is an important and absolutely critical piece of legislation from this government. It will add superannuation for a more secure retirement. That of course is the name of the bill. This is an important thing, in particular for women across the country. We all know that women finish work with less in their superannuation. In fact, they often have half of what the male population finish work with. Some of that is due to the child-bearing years, and some of that is due to the time they spend out of work because they're caring for children.

This superannuation added to PPL will make an enormous difference to the end outcomes for women. Of course we have the compounding interest impact of those superannuation savings over the course of decades. That will make a difference in terms of what's happening to women's superannuation when they're in their 20s and their 30s, all adding to a finish. If I take my superannuation, for instance, I'm sure that, in real terms, my superannuation lump sum is going to be very different from that of some of the men sitting in this chamber now, because I was a teacher, I'm a mother of three and I took six years out of employment in my child-bearing years to have my family. So my superannuation has already been impacted by that because, of course, there was no paid parental leave superannuation when I was having my family. So this is a critical piece of legislation, and it needs to be passed in this chamber. We need to ensure that it comes into law so that women can have the surety that their superannuation on retirement will come near matching that of their partners, their brothers and their fathers.

It is a hallmark of this government that we take seriously women's participation in the workforce and women's financial security, not in terms of welfare for women but in terms of women's earning capacity and their legitimate right to the same outcomes as the male population. It is not an accident that a 15 per cent pay rise for the feminised workforces in aged care and in early childhood education is coming from this government, because it's a government with a majority of women—women who are driving policy to improve the lives of women. That includes the financial lives of women, ensuring that they have a similar retirement capacity to men. It is critical that this bill be passed through this House uncontested.