Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (18:18): I admire the member for Melbourne. It's not often that, in the House of Representatives chamber, when there aren't a lot of us in the chamber, somebody gives a speech and it's listened to attentively by the minister at the table and the opposition member on duty—in this case, the assistant minister and member for Fremantle and the member for Wannon, respectively—and by all sitting in the chamber.

Quite often we're getting on with paperwork, scrolling on our phones and doing the House duty we normally do. But everybody stopped and listened. This is the second night in a row that the member for Melbourne has given a speech, heartfelt and personal, about her experience in this tragic circumstance of losing a bub.

Thank you, Member for Melbourne. Thank you for bringing your story and your beautiful words not just to the House of Representatives but to the nation. That would have been really hard; I know that.

My heart goes out to you. As I said last time in the Federation Chamber, my late mother, Eileen, had a stillborn baby which she carried to full term. Deputy Speaker Freelander, I know you've delivered a lot of babies.

This poor little bub, a beautiful little blond-headed boy, died the night before he was due to come into the world, on 15 July 1972, and Mum carried that mental anguish and those scars for the rest of her life. It wasn't much talked about in the early seventies. Thankfully, we are much more open as a society now, and it is much more talked about.

On this legislation in particular, the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025, I also want to thank the coalition senator Michaelia Cash for the work that she did in this space when it was first raised. I appreciate that it is a government bill, and good on the government for bringing this important bill to the parliament. We will never know the identity of Baby Priya, and nor should we.

But the legacy of that little girl who passed away at just 42 days old will be something that is powerful, particularly for mums but also for parents right across Australia—fathers, too—who lose a loved one, either in a stillborn situation or very much in infancy. It will make an amazing, remarkable, much-needed and timely change to their lives. It aims to change the Fair Work Act so that employers cannot cancel employer funded paid parental leave if a child is stillborn or dies.

I want to dwell on the experience of two ladies from the Riverina who started an organisation which is bringing hope to heartbreak. They have formed the Vilomah Community, an organisation founded by Megan Gaffney and Bek Baker after both women lost their daughters, Ruby and Mia. There's a couple who I know very well—Sam Armstrong and his wife, Maddy.

I've known Sam since he was a little boy, playing alongside my youngest son, Nicholas, in junior Aussie Rules competitions in Wagga Wagga. He was always a lovely kid; he's grown up to be a wonderful man. He and his wife found out that their little girl Joy's heart had stopped beating at the eighth month of pregnancy.

How heartbreaking would that have been? Vilomah, through Megan and Bek, came to Sam and Maddy's assistance, and Bek was able to explain what was going to happen. Megan visited after Joy was born and helped the Armstrongs with keepsakes of Joy as well as a promise of ongoing support.

That's heartfelt; that's genuine. It was in a quote in the Daily Advertiser just yesterday, timely as that was, where Mrs Gaffney said that her experience was that the doctors and nurses were absolutely beautiful but something was missing in the stillborn tragedy. She said: There was no heartfelt photography— But it was this sentence that stuck in my mind— Nothing like that, we received a folder that had Centrelink forms in it and off you go.

That's really bringing home the harsh reality where you're trying to cope with the traumatic loss of a loved one, of a family member who you have to bury in a tiny coffin. My late father, Lance, went through that on his own. In this situation, at least they won't have the awful reality of having their rightful due being cancelled by an employer at a time of grieving—and it is a huge time of grieving.

No more will they just have to get on with life; they will have that time to grieve and, at least, the financial security of knowing that they have this legislation in place to provide them that comfort and support. As I say, Priya's parents deserve great recommendation and commendation. Her mum has chosen not to be identified, and that is fair enough—absolutely understandable.

But, after she lost Priya, she soon found herself in negotiations over returning to work. How hard must that have been? Her husband said: I thought at the time that it was terribly unfair.

I got leave and she didn't. Around one per cent of babies born in Australia each year are stillbirths or result in neonatal deaths. Six babies are stillborn every single day.

That is according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. That's six families grieving every single day. And it's hard enough to explain to family and friends, let alone to just acquaintances, why you're not pushing a stroller down the street, why you're not going to the local coffee shop with the new bub in your arms—let alone having the necessity to return to work straightaway because there aren't the security measures in place to help you.

The Baby Priya bill has been introduced, and I say to the government thank you. Well done. The coalition supports it.

Senator Cash, before the election, gave an assurance that the coalition would support it, and this is perfectly understandable and appropriate, because this is a difficult subject area. And no-one understands this more than mums who've lost bubs. So, to the member for Melbourne, to Maddy Armstrong, to those who have founded the Vilomah Community in the Murrumbidgee local health district: our hearts are with you.

Our condolences are there. And now we have the proper security in place so that other mums who will be in your shoes in future years will at least have the comfort of knowing that they are supported in this time of grief. I also want to acknowledge Jac Marshall, a journalist at the Daily Advertiser who wrote: The professional distance of a journalist is impossible for me here, as I carry the memory of my own daughter, Hope, who died shortly after she was born in 2007.

Infant loss carried such a stigma when we had Hope, and to a point it still does, but two women who have also suffered loss, have created The Vilomah Community, helping families navigate their infant loss journey. The journalist went on to talk about Megan Gaffney and Bek Baker and the role the Vilomah Community is playing in my local Riverina area. I thank them, and I also thank Baby Priya's parents, her brave parents.

Whilst we don't know Baby Priya's identity, the name will forever be attached to this very appropriate and emotional legislation. The parents of Priya got 30,000 signatures in their advocacy. You can imagine being in their position—and many mums are; many parents are, but it's especially hard on mums—but they made their campaign count.

They brought it to Canberra. They knew it was right, and they had listening ears in government. To those people in government who have made this legislation possible I say, again, well done.

It is bipartisan. I think this parliament is best when we come together on legislation such as this, which is righting a wrong. It was called terribly unfair by Priya's dad—and it was—but it was probably just one of those things which was unnecessarily and unwittingly overlooked.

But we will fix that. We will fix that with this legislation, which will no doubt pass the House of Representatives with support from both sides of politics. This is when politics is at its best—when we can come together in common agreement for a social cause such as this, particularly in support of those mums who don't deserve further impact on their lives in a time which is so devastating.