Up to 180,000 new parents could benefit from proposed legislation that would pay superannuation on top of paid parental leave. If passed, the new laws will ensure parents taking time off to care for their children won't fall behind on their superannuation. Political Reporter Isobel Roe has the details from Parliament House in Canberra.
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00:00It will apply, if the laws pass, to anyone who has a baby after July 2025, so they will
00:09be able to have superannuation paid on top of their paid parental leave.
00:14As you say, this is expected to affect 180,000 families per year and it will cost the government
00:22$1.1 billion over the forward estimates.
00:26Now under the current program, a couple with a newborn or a newly adopted child can access
00:3122 weeks of paid parental leave.
00:34That will extend to 26 weeks in 2026 and so now superannuation would be able to be paid
00:41on top of that.
00:43This is a measure that the Labor government has wanted to do for some time and it's something
00:47they say is a policy really for women because women still are the majority carers of children,
00:53they still are the people who take more time away from work and therefore they end up further
00:59behind.
01:00Research says sometimes 25% behind men on their retirement savings when they reach that.
01:07Here is Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth announcing this policy a short time ago.
01:12This is a really significant reform to ensure that those receiving the government paid parental
01:18leave not only get the support at the time of a newborn baby but also don't miss out
01:25on their retirement savings in the form of superannuation.
01:30And over time it's going to make a substantial impact on women's retirement incomes which
01:36we know is part of our agenda about addressing gender inequality and making sure that we're
01:41doing everything we can to drive the economic empowerment of women.
01:47The Coalition has previously expressed some support.
01:51There is some conjecture within the party about whether or not they fully support this
01:54policy but in general they have expressed support so it will be interesting to see what
02:00happens when that goes through Parliament.