Page 2662 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 October 1992
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MR DE DOMENICO: That is right, a code of practice by agreement between employers and employees. That means consultation - something your Government prides itself on. For all those reasons, Mr Berry, the Liberal Party will not be supporting your Bill. It is a faulty Bill.
MS SZUTY (11.29): Mr Deputy Speaker, as a former employer in the community sector, I am aware of the need to ensure that workers not covered by awards receive equivalent treatment to their fellow workers who have award coverage. At times this is not easy. However, I believe that most employers at least try to give their employees the benefits expected in the wider community. It is important that as a society we ensure that there is support for employees whose employers do not feel compelled to provide benefits. I am therefore pleased to see this Bill come before the ACT Legislative Assembly for consideration.
By providing both men and women with parental leave, we as an Assembly reassert the idea that men and women both have a part to play in the early lives of their children, and that we no longer hold archaic views about which parent is responsible for the rearing of children. In the 1990s we are seeing increasing evidence that men also want to share in the parenting of their children. It is important in the emotional development of children to see the role of parenting shared and to perceive that both parents take an active interest in their well-being. Sharing of child-rearing duties should be encouraged, as it breaks down barriers that have been erected in the past by our society's former strict rules on employment.
It is important that we disregard stereotypes so that male and female roles in a relationship are seen as capable of being shared equally. It is not uncommon nowadays to find men who take on more of the nurturing role with their children. Whereas a house husband was once an oddity, males who choose to take a major part in their children's early development are now more common. The support this Bill gives to that joint responsibility for child rearing, as well as its recognition that men and women have a right to enjoy both their place in the work force and their parenting responsibilities, will be appreciated by many in our community.
Adoption leave is an important part of parental leave provisions, as it recognises the needs of parents of children who are not born into families but come at some later stage. Adopting a child is a tumultuous time for families, when they open their homes to a newcomer, often with a much longer time to wait than the nine months of pregnancy. I am pleased that this important element of our society's way of caring for children is given the recognition it deserves as true parenting. We will deal with adoption issues in more detail at a later time. However, at this time it is important that it be recognised as parenting.
Other issues were also considered with some sensitivity in the parental leave case decision of 26 July 1990 by Justice Cohen, Deputy President Moore, Deputy President Polites, Commissioner Griffin and Commissioner Turbot. Circumstances including where the pregnancy does not end happily with a live, happy baby, and the issues of miscarriage and stillbirth, are given explicit treatment, which gives parents support at an extremely stressful time in their lives. If I have one criticism of this initiative by the Government, it is that it has taken some two years to adopt the recommendations of the Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission with regard to this matter.
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