Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for the Public Service
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE: I have here a two weeks' supply of nappies for the two additional weeks of paid parental leave that started on 1 July. Because of Labor's commitment to paid parental leave, families who have a newborn bub on or after 1 July, get an additional two weeks of paid parental leave. And new babies mean lots and lots of nappies.
I couldn't be prouder to be a member of the Labor Party. The party that introduced paid parental leave, fought for it against the Liberal Party where they thought it was a crazy idea, and has continued to expand paid parental leave, to make sure that parents and families get the time with their newborn in those really precious early months.
Like so many in this building, I've benefited from paid parental leave, spending time with my family. My wife has benefited from it. I know, because of the changes we've made, some 180,000 Australian families will benefit from the paid parental leave expansion that started on 1 July.
And yes, like most Australians, I bought these nappies from a supermarket. And I think when you're in this building, in Parliament House, there's always one thing that's really confusing.
If you see a plan that has no costings, no detail and no timeline. It's really confusing to tell whether it's a Liberal plan, a National Party plan, or a Greens Party plan. What we've seen is that the Liberals, Nationals and the Greens have teamed up this week for the super-Marxist plan to try and take over Australian supermarkets, pushing up the prices of everything from nappies, to household goods and food for all Australians.
Australians deserve better than this from the Liberal Party and the National Party. When coming to the ability to afford the essentials, Australians deserve to know what will be the economic impact of Mr. Dutton's divestiture plan? What will it mean?
We've seen Mr. Dutton this year have some pretty wild ideas about supermarkets. In January, he wanted all Australians to boycott Woolworths. Now, he wants a hostile buy out of Woolworths. And I think we've seen when it comes to Mr Dutton, we've seen what he did when he was in charge of the Department of Home Affairs. I don't think it's time to put him in charge of home supplies. Thank you.
