QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Minister for Social Services) (14:40): Thanks so much to the member for Jagajaga for her question. I know that, as a mum herself, she knows how important Paid Parental Leave is for her constituents, and over 2,000 parents benefited in her electorate just last year from Paid Parental Leave. I recently met a beautiful little baby, Zoe, who was one of around 460,000 children last year right across Australia whose parents benefited from Paid Parental Leave.

What's interesting about Zoe is she's the youngest of three, and, each time her mum and dad took Paid Parental Leave they got a bit more leave because of the changes that we have made under this government. Each time they received a bit more time and a bit more money and that's made all the difference to their family. In fact, right across Australia what we see is that parents are benefiting from more time.

We are now at the full six months of Paid Parental Leave—more money. Since 1 July, that rate has gone up again. Paid Parental Leave is now more than $1,000 a week, and of course, since July last year, parents have been getting paid superannuation on top of that.

There's more flexibility too, which is really important for families with young children, and more people are eligible because each year we're increasing those thresholds of eligibility. Thanks to the changes that this Prime Minister has made, that this government has made, families now get almost $30,000 of Paid Parental Leave. That is an enormous change from 2022.

It's more than doubled since 2022, and it's the sort of help that families desperately need. You would think it's the sort of help that the whole parliament would universally support. I am very sorry to inform members that that is not the case.

We know, of course, that the shadow Treasurer has managed to not be here again when we are talking about Paid Parental Leave. We know what he said about it. But, you know, the Liberals have never liked it.

Mums were 'rorters' and 'double dippers'. One Nation as well—Senator Hanson in 2017 claimed that women get themselves pregnant for the money. She said this year, 'Listen, love, you have the equipment.

That's what you're here for. If you don't want to interrupt your career, don't have a baby.' At the Press Club, she said, 'The gender pay gap is all smoke and mirrors. Women take time off and they're not paid their wages because they're not working.

Well, fair enough.' We say it's not fair enough that families need help. That is the time in life where they need the most help, when they've got new little babies, and we are proud of the fact that we have more than doubled that help.