Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025

Ms PENFOLD (Lyne) (18:42): It is a privilege to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025. This bill is a reminder to all of us of the good work that this parliament can do. This bill is a reminder that, in the cut and thrust of what the public sees, this work goes on to address those issues that make us the very best of legislators and politicians.

I come to this bill without the personal experience to fathom the loss, the pain, the grief and the day-to-day struggle of losing a child—a child that a woman has carried, loved, cared for and talked and sung to, a child that will never get the chance to take a breath or grow beyond those first few weeks. Humanity can be cruel, but worse is when policy and laws double down.

I'd struggle to understand why anyone in this place would not support this bill. It is what I believe is an ethically, morally and technically correct thing to do. I want to take a moment to extend my deepest condolences to the thousands of parents dealing with the loss of an infant, the loss of a baby, the loss of a loved child.

Words are few, but actions can mean a lot, and I hope that the passage of this bill with bipartisan support has meaning beyond words. The Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025 will amend the Fair Work Act so employers shall not cancel employer funded paid parental leave if an employee's new child does not survive. During the 2025 federal election, the coalition offered bipartisan support to this bill.

Today, we give effect to that support. The bill is named after Baby Priya, who passed away when she was just 42 days old. After informing her employer that her child had passed away, Priya's mother was faced with negotiating with her employer about a return to work she had not planned for, at the same time as grieving the loss of her child.

Priya's parents sought advice from the Fair Work Commission, who advised there was no further avenue to pursue. Priya's father was able to utilise three months of paid paternity leave through the New South Wales system, while Priya's mother faced returning to work. On 17 April 2025, the then minister for employment and workplace relations, Senator the Hon.

Murray Watt, committed to amending the Fair Work Act. On 24 April 2025, the then shadow minister for employment and workplace relations, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash, confirmed coalition support for the bill to ensure individuals who suffer the tragedy of losing a child whilst on parental leave will not have that leave cancelled by their employer.

Employee groups have been consulted and have raised no amendments to the bill and are supportive. A petition established by Priya's father for this bill has received over 32,000 signatures, and can I say I simply cannot imagine the depth of character of Priya's father, in that period of intense grief, to have the presence of mind to put in place a petition and fight for his child.

That is an incredible, extraordinary human being. The bill has had the support of a unison of voices, from employers to organisations, such as Bears of Hope, an organisation that helps families who experience the loss of their child. The bill amends the Fair Work Act 2009 to make entitlements for parental leave in cases of stillbirth or the death of a child more consistent, whether the leave is unpaid or paid parental leave.

The bill only deals with the operation of entitlements to paid parental leave. It does not alter the existing provisions dealing with employees' entitlements to unpaid parental leave in the case of a stillbirth or death of a child. The bill will prevent employers from unilaterally cancelling periods of paid parental leave in cases of stillbirth.

However, the bill will not prevent employers and employees from agreeing to cancel such periods of leave. My speech today is a modest one, because time is of the essence. To give parents the dignity and the time to grieve, the time to begin to heal in the face of unimaginable loss—this is good family policy.

This is good work of this parliament, and I commend the bill to this House.