QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Minister for Social Services) (14:48): Thanks so much to the member for Bean for his question. More than 2,000 parents in his electorate benefited from paid parental leave last year, and, as the Minister representing the Minister for Women pointed out, paying superannuation on paid parental leave is one of the most important ways that we can end that retirement income gap that has been so prevalent in Australia for so many years.

There is a big difference between those opposite and those on this side when it comes to super. We want people to have more when they retire, and you want people to have less when they retire. When it comes to paid parental leave, we have increased paid parental leave since coming to government in 2022 to almost $30,000 for that leave.

It's more than double what it was in 2022, and for just over a year we've been also paying superannuation on top of that. I released figures today that, in that first year of paying paid paying superannuation on paid parental leave, 200,000 people have benefited to the tune of 285½ million dollars. Now this is a huge difference for those mums when they retire.

If you've got a woman with a median superannuation balance, she would be about $5,400 better off in retirement because of the change that we've made. Let's just take a fictional example: Let's call her Rachel. She's 25, she goes on to have three children and she takes paid parental leave for each of those children.

Because of our changes in paying superannuation on top of that paid parental leave, Rachel could retire with an extra $17,600 in retirement. That's the difference that we're talking about. One Nation have made it clear they want people to have less money in retirement.

The Liberals have made that clear. They want people to have less in retirement. The Nationals have made it clear that they want people to have less money in retirement.

We, on the other hand, are delighted that not only are we dealing with the gender pay gap and not only are we helping mums when they take time off work to look after their precious new babies but we are not condemning them to poverty in retirement as well. Welcome Caelan.