Topics: Paying superannuation on Paid Parental Leave; Gender equality.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Today is a very important day. Our legislation to pay superannuation on Paid Parental Leave has passed the Senate. This means from the first of July next year, women taking the government Paid Parental Leave will attract superannuation on to their Paid Parental Leave. Equally, dads that might take Paid Parental Leave as well will also receive superannuation on that government paid leave. We know that there has been a gender pay gap, not just when women are working, but also in retirement. And it's really important that we recognise that women, on average, retire with 25 per cent less superannuation than men. So this piece of legislation really ensures that we are addressing the motherhood penalty that comes along with taking time out of work in retirement savings. Now, this is the third piece of legislation that we've put through in the last two years to improve Paid Parental Leave. The first piece of legislation ensured that there were more flexible, more targeted and supportive Paid Parental Leave laws, including a higher means test for families, so that more people could get Paid Parental Leave. Our second piece of legislation allowed for 26 weeks, increasing by two weeks each year until 2026. Now with this piece of legislation, we will see superannuation paid on the payment. That will mean for people taking Paid Parental Leave as of the first of July next year, they will have close to $3000 put into their superannuation account as a result of the leave they take.
JOURNALIST: Minister, paying superannuation on Paid Parental Leave has a pretty small impact on a woman’s retirement savings. Is more still needed to be done to help close that gap?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well of course we're always looking at how we close that retirement savings gap. And of course, paying superannuation on Paid Parental Leave is a really critical part of that. But we're always looking at ways we can better support women. One of those ways is closing the gender pay gap. Because we know that the gender pay gap now does also contribute to the problem with retirement savings. So we'll continue to work very closely, of course, across the board of looking at how we can make a difference. But also point to, for example, those highly feminised industries, like early education, like childcare workers, like aged care workers. The wages increase that we have supported as a Government, not only support workers getting more money now, but that also helps with them putting more away for superannuation. So this is a multi-pronged attack, but of course, we need to make sure that when we look at the government Paid Parental Leave, that we normalise it like any other workplace entitlement. And that's why we have put this legislation through to pay superannuation on government Paid Parental Leave.
JOURNALIST: Minister, you've just spoken about women retiring with 25 per cent less than men. How will this new superannuation payment reduce that percentage? Have you done any modelling around that with the numbers?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: As I said, this will contribute $3000 extra into someone's retirement income at the maximum rate, when they take the leave. So that is a big contribution initially [and more over the lifetime]. But of course, it's not the only contribution. We need to see many policies working together to reduce that retirement income gap, and that includes ensuring that there is pay equity, that there is a reducing the gender pay gap. That is critical, it is one of the other critical areas that we can do to address this.
JOURNALIST: How much will this cost taxpayers annually?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Over the forward estimates, this is a $1.2 billion investment. It's a significant investment, but it's investment that's right for the country. It will benefit 180,000 families each year that take the Paid Parental Leave.