E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
CANBERRA
WEDNESDAY, 24 JUNE 2026

Topics: PAID PARENTAL LEAVE; NDIS

MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, TANYA PLIBERSEK: It's such a pleasure to be here this morning with the Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, with Ged Kearney and Rebecca White, also in our women's policy team, and with so many beautiful little babies. We've got the caucus members who are recent new parents with us this morning, and we've got Joseph and Auggie as well, who are doing so well. This morning we're talking about the fact that in one week's time Australians will have access to an even more generous paid parental leave scheme. Since Labor came to government, we have more than doubled support for new parents, and from the 1st of July this year, we'll see new parents getting a full six months of paid parental leave. They'll get more than $1,000 a week. Parents will be able to take more time off together, and more people will be eligible, because the eligibility thresholds will also increase. Before Labor introduced paid parental leave, Australia was one of the very few developed countries in the world that didn't have a paid parental leave scheme. I'm proud of the fact I was there in 2010 when we did that work in the Rudd Gillard years, and I'm proud of the fact that now under the Albanese Labor Government we have more than doubled support for new parents. It means more time, more money, more time off together, more support, we're paying superannuation on paid parental leave for the first time as well. So not only do new parents get more support now, women who have traditionally seen that gap in their superannuation in retirement will actually be better off by thousands of dollars in retirement as well. We know that paid parental leave is so good for babies, it's good for mums, it's good for dads, and of course, businesses have recognised that too, because 68% of Australian businesses now top up government-sponsored paid parental leave as well. Any questions? 

JOURNALIST: Is there any chance that the six months could be extended? Is that a further ambition of the government to keep extending the amount of government paid parental leave? 

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, you know, there was no paid parental leave before Labor introduced it, and since coming to government in 2022 we have more than doubled paid parental leave. We're spending close to $5 billion a year on paid parental leave now. So our first priority is making sure that this current round of increases is bedded down. Right across our social security system we always look for ways of doing more to support families when we can. What I'd say is that there is a risk to paid parental leave when you look at the way the Liberals, the Nationals, and One Nation have responded to paid parental leave over the years, we need to protect what we already have. The Liberals and Nationals, you'll recall Joe Hockey and Scott Morrison calling mothers "rorters" and "double dippers". You'll recall Tim Wilson, the current Shadow Treasurer, saying that it's not his choice that women have babies, it's genetic, and you'll recall that Pauline Hanson, since 2017 has been saying that paid parental leave is a rort. She said in 2017 that women will just get pregnant to get the money. She said a couple of weeks ago that women have the equipment, so if they take time off to have a baby, that's their business, and she said, as recently as the Press Club, that paid parental leave is going to send small businesses broke. So, when you look at paid parental leave, the first thing to say is, of course, we're proud of the expansions we've made. We'll always look to do more to support working families, but we also need to protect what we have from the conservative parties who would cut it if they could.

JOURNALIST: Obviously, Pauline Hanson had some criticisms of the policy over the last week and yesterday, some of which were not entirely accurate.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: That's a very generous description.

JOURNALIST: But in that, there is an aspect of this in which large organisations are able to add additional funds, offer more paid parental leave. Is there a world in which Labor would consider creating an additional benefit for small businesses, so that they can offer a little bit more and be competitive with bigger businesses when it comes to paid parental leave?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we think that six months paid parental leave is a really important investment to help Australian families. It's almost $30,000 for a family having a baby. It means a full six months of paid leave to spend with that tiny new little addition to the family, we think that's an important investment. If companies want to and are able to do more on top of that, we very much welcome that. And 68% of Australian businesses have chosen to do that. They choose to do that because they value their staff, they want their staff to come back. It's a big investment they make in training and retaining staff, and it does make them competitive as employers. We encourage businesses to do that. Our contribution is that six months of paid leave and superannuation paid on top of that, so that the long-term disadvantage that women have faced for taking time out of the workforce to care for babies is reduced.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask the finance minister a question on the budget negotiations? The Greens this morning are saying they're going to use every tool in the toolkit to try and continue to delay the NDIS overall. Are you willing to extend anything beyond the eight week extension, or what's your message to the Greens as they try and delay this? 

MINISTER FOR FINANCE, KATY GALLAGHER: Well, the agreement we've reached with the Greens is, as people know, is there an extension to that inquiry until August. We intend to deal with that bill in the second week of the August sitting, that is our position. The Greens understand that we understand their position, and so it really comes down to how do we get the votes through the Senate, and that will rely on the Coalition working with us on delivering the NDIS bill. We're not going to convince the Greens they've taken a decision, they don't want that bill to pass. Our view is in order to protect and safeguard the NDIS into the future, we need to manage some of the broken costs associated with that scheme, and therefore we'll be calling on the Coalition to work with us to pass it.

JOURNALIST: Are the Greens and the Coalition making it a bit easy for you guys and holding themselves completely [inaudible]?

MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, I can't speak on the negotiating tactics of other parties. I mean, we haven't really been able to land a deal with the Coalition on pretty much anything since the election, because they're a fragmented party. There's three parties of the right, they're all kind of trying to do each other over, and so therefore there's not really a block that you can negotiate with to secure the votes. So we've more often than not we've found a pathway through the Senate with the Greens, but you know, negotiating tactics and whether people are ruling themselves in and out is a matter for those parties. We've put forward the legislation, we wanted both bills to pass. We don't have the numbers on the NDIS yet, so it's not able to pass. We'll seek to do that in August. We'll pass the tax bills tomorrow afternoon, and then a range of other bills that we've secured agreement with the Greens on will pass on Monday.

JOURNALIST: What concessions are you particularly looking at in order to get the NDIS bill over the line with the Coalition, like given that they're now the only path to really get the NDIS changes through?

MINISTER GALLAGHER: Well, I'm not aware of any amendments that the Coalition have put forward. We've had some good discussions with them since the Bill was tabled. We've had some positive soundings that they want to see some of these costs reined in as well, but we haven't seen anything from them. You know, the negotiations they were having was to delay NDIS for six months, for the tax bills to be delayed six months, so you know those negotiations weren't successful with the Greens. We've secured agreement on tax bills, we'll work with the Coalition, hopefully, if they get their act together on passing the NDIS in August.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thanks everyone.

ENDS