MATERNITY LEAVE

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:46): In only two OECD countries women do not have access to paid maternity leave. I must say that, after all these years of being an activist in the Labor movement, I am very sad to say that here we are in 2008 and we still have not been able to amend our equal opportunity legislation to bring it up-to-date with the rest of the world and we are still arguing the case for access to paid maternity leave. I was very pleased in the very early days of the Rann government that paid maternity leave and parental leave in paid form was made available to state public servants, and I think we need to commend particularly the Premier in ensuring that that was delivered. The two countries, of course, are the United States and Australia.

Currently, two-thirds of Australian women do not have access to paid leave when they have children. Those who have had paid maternity leave are really found in the better paid industries. While many industries in the private sector such as hospitality and retail are dominated by women, in the main, they do not have access to paid maternity leave. I was very pleased that the Rudd Labor government has at least asked the Productivity Commission to conduct an inquiry into the potential for the introduction of a paid maternity leave scheme in Australia.

The reason why I was positive about this is that, having read a number of Productivity Commission reports, particularly the Annual Report Series 2006-07, which looked at enhancing labour force participation and challenges, they were saying that paid maternity leave would improve women's workforce attachment. Also findings in the ABS show that women curtail their workforce participation in peak child bearing years, are not able to move back into the workforce as much as they would like and make up the majority of underemployed workers.

The Parental Leave in Australia Survey 2006 Report by G. Whitehouse, G. Baird, M. Diamond and A. Hosking and the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency annual survey, 'Paid Maternity Leave—Business Case' have tracked the availability of paid maternity leave. It has increased in the private sector, particularly in workplaces with more than 100, but this is still a very poor percentage. In its report last year, the ABS found that 34 per cent of women were able to access paid maternity leave to take time off work for the birth of their child and, of course, there was a greater prevalence in the public sector than in the private sector. It outlined the details of this in the ABS publication, 'Pregnancy and Employment Transition 2006'.

Sadly, paid maternity leave is not available to most women, particularly those working in the low paid areas. Even the international labour organisation, Maternity Protection Convention 183, outlines a national paid maternity leave scheme which has very minimal principles. Those principles include: the majority of women workers should be covered; the period of paid leave should be at a minimum of 14 weeks; payment during maternity leave should be in a cash form and at least two thirds of the woman's earnings; and the right to breastfeed or express milk upon return to paid work. For a maximum number of women to access such a scheme there needs to be provisions that recognise the reality of women's work because, as we know, women make up the majority of the part-time paid and contract workers.

I call on the federal government to look positively at all this research, and I look forward to the Productivity Commission supporting the fact that we need paid maternity leave in this country. We also need—and I support—parental leave for people who have major responsibility for children and other people.