Senator FIFIELD (Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) (6:16 PM) —Just picking up where I left off before question time, allowing the government to drop small business right into paid parental leave obligations and duties simply sets up the machinery to fit up small business to pay the cost of fixing the shortcomings of Labor’s flawed scheme. While not impeding the introduction of the government’s scheme, the coalition will move substantive amendments to extend the role of the Family Assistance Office in administering the scheme indefinitely. I acknowledge here the ceaseless advocacy in this area by Mr Billson, the shadow minister for small business, and also the small business champion in this chamber, Senator Boswell. This measure will make ongoing use of the taxpayer investment in the establishment of the necessary payment and operating systems beyond the initial six months. The government is urged to embrace the coalition’s amendment to avoid the imposition of unnecessary and unjustified cost, regulatory burden and compliance risks to the small business community.

Labor’s second-rate scheme does not sufficiently recognise that parents have different patterns of family responsibilities and paid work. It fails to recognise the current economic circumstances Australian families are facing, from increasing interest rates to the housing affordability crisis to increased costs of living and the proposal of another great big new tax on everything. More and more families are now requiring two incomes just to make ends meet. In Australia today parental leave is available to parents through both private enterprise and the Public Service. Conditions such as the length of the scheme vary from very short periods to 18 weeks, yet few schemes provide the ideal leave period of six months. Mums working casual jobs who do not have accrued leave will lose out under the government’s scheme. Labor’s 18-week scheme was recommended by the Productivity Commission as a result of an expectation that an employer would effectively provide a top-up to the leave to reach 26 weeks, thus delivering the internationally recognised standard of six months. But of course casual workers will not have accrued leave and therefore it is unlikely that they would get the top-up.

The coalition has put forward its proposed scheme, which is in stark contrast to the Labor second-rate scheme. The coalition’s scheme is a wage replacement scheme that would provide primary carers, predominantly mothers, with 26 weeks paid parental leave at full replacement pay up to a maximum salary of $150,000 per annum or the federal minimum wage, whichever is greater. The coalition scheme would be available to all employees including full-time, part-time and casual workers, contractors and the self-employed who meet the eligibility test. It would include superannuation contributions at the mandatory rate of nine per cent and it would facilitate an easier transition in and out of the workforce for Australian women during their childbearing years. It would signal to the community that taking time out of the workforce to care for children is a normal part of the work-life cycle for parents. The coalition scheme would promote an increased female workforce participation, leading to productivity gains as it would create a financial incentive for women to be engaged in paid work prior to childbirth and to return to the workforce after their period of leave. The coalition scheme would provide paid parental leave for a period of 26 weeks to afford all mothers the opportunity to breastfeed their infant for the minimum six-month period recommended by the World Health Organisation. Labor’s scheme does not. The coalition scheme would provide women with a replacement wage to a cap or minimum wage, whichever is greater, to adequately support working families when they are at their most financially vulnerable. Again, Labor’s scheme does not.

The scheme Labor is proposing also fails to ensure that all Australian families, regardless of whether a mother is at home or in the paid workforce, are afforded the flexibility to choose what is right for their specific individual family circumstances.. Labor’s scheme is far from perfect but ultimately on balance having a second-rate scheme is better than not having a scheme at all. The coalition has a second reading amendment that further details our concerns with this legislation and our alternative approach. I move the second reading amendment circulated in my name:

At the end of the motion, add “but the Senate: