Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025

Ms MILLER-FROST (Boothby) (18:30): This is a bill that I think tugs on the heartstrings of all in this chamber. I thank the member for Riverina for his heartfelt offering. Unfortunately, I missed half of the member for Melbourne's offering.

But it is pleasing that this is a bipartisan approach. As a mother of three who went through a high-risk pregnancy and had three babies in NICU, the neonatal intensive care nursery, I can say that this bill really tugs at my heartstrings. Can there be anything worse than the death of your child?

My heart rebels even at the thought of it. Having a child die while your body is still recovering from carrying and bearing it, and picking out a tiny coffin and farewelling your beloved, much-longed-for child while the paint on the nursery is still fresh really doesn't bear thinking about. Australia is one of the safest places in the world to have a baby, but, tragically, we know stillbirths and infant deaths do happen.

I'm speaking here today on a matter of profound human and ethical significance, on the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025. It is a bill born from heartbreak and, now, transformation. It is a bill named after one brief but powerful life—the life of Baby Priya.

Today, we're asked to do more than amend legislation. We're asked to affirm that, when grief visits our citizens, the law will not abandon them. This bill is born of a terrible grief, a grief we would not wish on anyone, and of compassion for that grief.

This bill is for Baby Priya and her parents. In June 2024, a little girl named Priya was born prematurely at 24 weeks and six days. She battled for life for 42 days, and then, tragically, the fight ended.

Her mother, an employee of a large workplace, notified her employer of the death of her daughter. Just five days later, she was told via text message that her approved employer funded paid parental leave had been cancelled and replaced with just one month of personal leave. Priya's father was able to retain his full paternity leave in the New South Wales industrial system.

He commented on how deeply unfair this was. Priya's mother, grieving the loss of her child, faced not only deepest sorrow but also corrosive uncertainty about returning to work, about her leave and about how she would carry on. We should not and cannot allow that to stand.

The experience of Baby Priya and her parents is rare but not unknown. In 2022 more than 3,000 Australian families lost a child to stillbirth or in infancy. Those parents, these families, deserve our compassion.

They deserve certainty. They deserve the knowledge that, when they have been preparing for paid parental leave, the death of their baby will not in itself strip away that entitlement. That's what this bill seeks to achieve: to embed in the Fair Work Act 2009 a new principle that, unless otherwise expressly agreed, employer funded paid parental leave cannot be cancelled in the event of a stillbirth or infant death.

It aligns the private sector entitlement with the Commonwealth government Paid Parental Leave scheme, which already does not cancel payments in those circumstances. It is to fix a gap—a gap of humanity, a gap of fairness, a gap in compassion and a gap in our national workplace relations code. It also helps employers and managers, who no longer have to make the call on whether parental leave still applies or not.

It provides clarity and strengthens workplaces. A workforce that feels supported in personal crisis is more likely to be sustained, more likely to be loyal and more likely to engage. Employers benefit from clarity and policy and from the moral economy of their workforce.

As the minister noted, putting this right not only is good for parents but also gives absolute clarity to employers. So how does it work? The bill amends the Fair Work Act 2009 by inserting a new principle to the effect that an employer funded paid parental leave entitlement of an employee cannot be cancelled or cease solely because the child is stillborn or dies, unless the employer or employee have expressly agreed otherwise.

The bill preserves the ability of employers and employees to negotiate alternative arrangements, recognising that enterprise bargaining flexibility remains central to our workplace relations framework. The bill clarifies an area of ambiguity in existing law. Currently, the ability of an employer to cancel paid parental leave is determined by whatever policy or contract applies, and there's no clarity in the national system.

It sends a message that, when Australians experience the worst imaginable loss, they should not then face a sudden withdrawal of the very support they were counting on. By enshrining this principle, we give grieving parents time and space, not simply to grieve but to recover, to navigate the next steps and to live again. At the heart of this bill is a principle of decency and respect.

It says that your place of work will not punish you further in your darkest hours. It says we will respect and honour the depth of what you are going through and the impact the short life of your child has had, and will continue to have, on your life going forward. As one grieving mother said, 'It made a big difference to me just to have the space to deal with those emotions.' It's just an unfair situation.

In short, this bill is a moral, practical and economic imperative. This will not impose undue burdens on employers. The bill does not enforce employers to provide additional leave above what is already agreed under enterprise agreements and policies.

Rather, it ensures that an existing employer funded paid parental leave entitlement cannot simply be taken away because the child did not survive. Many employers already treat these tragic cases with humanity, and what we are doing is removing uncertainty and codifying a standard of decency. Employers retain the ability to negotiate and agree policies for stillbirth and infant death situations, and that flexibility remains intact because we are aligning with what many employers already do.

The additional cost burden is modest and, in many cases, non-existent for those workplaces which already honour full leave. These situations of stillbirth or a death of an infant are thankfully rare: around one per cent of pregnancies. Many employers will never have to deal with such a situation; others, rarely.

It's a matter of fairness, not a radical change. The entitlement only applies when an employer funded paid parental leave entitlement already exists. The bill does not create a new entitlement where none existed.

It preserves one where it has been approved, and it aligns its application with the event of a stillbirth or infant death. The risk of misuse in these tragic circumstances is negligible because the loss of a child is documented, verifiable and devastating. The bill explicitly allows negotiation and agreement between an employer and employee.

It simply ensures that the cancellation of a preapproved paid parental entitlement cannot be done unilaterally by the employer on the basis of stillbirth or infant death, and the core structure of enterprise bargaining remains untouched. As Minister Rishworth said, promoting enterprise bargaining and good-faith workplace discussions is central to the government's approach.

This bill is about dignity, belonging and fairness. For working Australians, especially parents, the transition to and from work should recognise that life does not pause for employment. The bill signals that our workplace relations system will not abandon someone in their grief.

It complements other reforms that are about supporting families, extending paid parental leave entitlements to 24 weeks, adding superannuation to paid parental leave, focusing on flexible work and ensuring that our workplaces reflect the modern family and modern expectations. In doing so, this bill also reflects the values Australia has long held—that we support families in their time of need, that we recognise the burden of loss and that our laws act as a shield, not a burden, in the face of tragedy.

Naming this bill after Baby Priya is more than symbolic. It honours the lived experience of her family and it ensures that the change we make is rooted in real people and, sadly, real pain. It reminds us of the cost of doing nothing.

As Priya's mother said: 'My hope is that this law will grant parents the time, support and financial assistance that are rightfully yours, so you can take care of yourselves'. In putting Priya's name on the law, we commit ourselves to not treating such events as just another HR matter but as human moments deserving of empathy and protection. The government thanks Baby Priya's parents for their courageous advocacy in their time of grief, for bringing attention to this important issue and for making things better for those parents who, sadly, will follow behind them in experiencing the same tragic circumstances.

This bill honours Baby Priya, it honours her parents' advocacy and it honours what our society should be: compassionate, fair and humane. I commend the bill to the House.