Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022 - Senate standing committees on community affairs - January 2023
The Salvation Army provided a response for the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvement for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022, based on our experiences in working with women across all of our frontline services.
The Salvation Army’s submission described the economic inequality faced by women within the workforce, and the Paid Parental leave barriers which contribute to workforce participation, and the gender pay gap. The submission also discussed the economic ‘penalty’ faced by women in regard to superannuation and life savings, as a result of being defaulted as primary carers for children.
Our submission supported the proposed amendment to extend Parental Leave Pay to a period of 26 weeks, and further urged the Commonwealth Government to pilot and consider increasing the Paid Parental Leave scheme to a period equal to one year at full wage replacement, to be shared equally between parents.
We discussed concerns related to stigma around fathers and non-birth parents taking leave, and supported the amendment to combine Dad and Partner Pay with the Parental Leave Payment into one flexible entitlement, providing parents and carers to better manage work and caring responsibilities between them, and therefore challenge carer stereotypes. We also supported the use of ‘use it or lose it’ weeks within the scheme to further incentivise non-birth parents to access the scheme. We suggested that the flexibility of the scheme could be further enhanced through introduction of a single-family application form.
Our submission supported the aim of the amendments to the scheme to support gender-neutral and non-birth parent claiming, though discussed the impact this may have on those experiencing domestic and family violence. We suggested that the Commonwealth Government implement family and domestic violence training for frontline staff responsible for gaining permission from birth-parents in order to recognise and respond to any safety concerns.
Our submission welcomed the introduction of a family income test for those who fail the individual income assessment, including sing-parent families, allowing greater access to the scheme and financial security for more Australian families.
Finally, we discuss concerns related to the implementation of the amended scheme. We highlight concern that implementation based on the expected due date of a child may act as an additional stressor for families who may be required to re-negotiate work and care arrangements if the child is born prior to the commencement date. We urge that commencement of the amended Paid Parental Leave scheme be in accordance with the date that which applicants elect to commence Paid Parental Leave.