Press Conference, Canberra

AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Today, the government introduced an incredibly important bill to the parliament called Priya's Bill. This is an amendment to the Fair Work Act to give clarity in the event that a baby is stillborn or indeed as an early infant death. What this bill does is make sure that if a policy or workplace agreement is silent when it comes to the stillbirth or early death of a baby, an employer cannot cancel the employer paid parental leave. The reason we're doing this is because of Baby Priya.

Baby Priya died at six weeks and her parents have been advocating ever since to make sure that people are not forced to go back to work, and can actually have their full paid parental leave entitlement. If you think about the time of a stillbirth or early infant loss, it is absolutely tragic. It is something that I can't even imagine, and to have to deal with not only navigating the grief and loss, but also navigating demands to come back to work early, not have the financial security that comes with recovering from childbirth, but also grieving and loss through having that guaranteed paid parental leave is just unimaginable.

So today we're fixing it. We’re fixing it as a government. We've introduced this bill, and I would like to really pay tribute to Baby Priya’s parents and family who have been very much advocating so that their circumstances that they endured would not have to be endured by other families. And it is a real testament also, and I'd like to acknowledge Baby Priya as well. From all accounts, Baby Priya was a fighter. She was an alert baby and she brought so much joy to her parents, but also, as we heard, people working in the NICU. Her loss is a tragedy, but with this bill and the work that parents and the example that Baby Priya has shown, parents will not have to endure this. Australia is a very safe place to have a baby but sadly we know there is still stillbirth and children that die, and so this bill is making sure that the gap that some parents have been falling through gets closed.

Did you want to ask questions now? Alright, questions now and then we'll go to statements.

JOURNALIST: So, just so I can get an understanding of what has happened before this bill came into place, what are the legal circumstances around taking leave when these sort of circumstances happen, before the bill and then after?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: Some workplace arrangements have specific explicit conditions about what happens in a stillbirth or early death of an infant, if those parents are entitled to paid parental leave, and so that's very clear. In a lot of workplaces where employer paid parental leave is offered and the agreements are silent, it is at the discretion of the employer about whether or not they cancel the paid parental leave.

In some cases, in the event of a death of a child, if the parent was, say, taking the first two weeks of their paid parental leave and the baby then died, in some circumstances we've had employers immediately cancel that leave and ask parents to take annual leave, or if they don't have annual leave come back to work straight away. So the circumstances where it is unclear or a grey area means it's at the discretion of employers, and so what this bill is really doing is making it very explicit about what the expectations are, and this is not just good for parents but it gives absolute clarity to employers.

Someone in the HR department doesn't have to wrestle about whether or not they should cancel leave and make people take other leave. This makes it explicit that you are able to keep taking your entitlement of paid parental leave until it's exhausted. And so that really does give certainty to everyone, irrespective of whether the baby was stillborn, passed away, or indeed, of course, lived.

JOURNALIST: And how common are these sorts of circumstances?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: I can't tell you exactly how many face this grey area. What we know is that there's six stillborns a day in Australia. Now, not all of those people may be working or have the entitlement of paid parental leave. But what we do know is that I think one person to experience this is one too many. And so while it doesn't impact large numbers of people, for those people it does impact, it is profound. And I think that is the key to this, that certainty knowing you can keep taking your paid parental leave while you deal with the physical and emotional recovery of childbirth, and indeed the grief and trauma that exists is really important.

JOURNALIST: And just finally, what are the legal frameworks here? So say that this does happen to someone in the future once the bill does pass, what do they do? What are the legal avenues that they go through?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: There are no legal avenues to go through. This in the law makes it a principle of the Fair Work Act that the employer must provide the paid parental leave that they are entitled to. This puts no obligation on employers that do not pay paid parental leave to somehow do it. But for those that do offer paid parental leave, then they will be obligated now as a principle to keep paying it. So people don't have to apply or anything. This just clarifies the law and what the obligation on employers are. And it does importantly bring it into line with the government paid parental leave. These arrangements in the event of a stillbirth or indeed an early death of a child apply to the government paid parental leave scheme. What we are doing is making sure that paid parental leave under the employer schemes really are in line with the government program.

JOURNALIST: Given that it seems to- you're saying that it's fixing a gap or a weakness in the law, do you expect that it will be bipartisan support?

AMANDA RISHWORTH: I don't know what the Opposition would do, but what I would say is I've been very encouraged by many employer groups who have reached out and given support to this provision. Of course, this was motivated by Baby Priya's parents. They were backed by a number of organisations, including their union. So this was motivated from an employee rights perspective. However, I would say that many employers have reached out and welcomed this change because it does give them clarity on what to do in these difficult circumstances. So I hope that the Opposition does support this bill. I expect that they will, but it is broadly supported across the board by employee organisations and employers.

JOURNALIST: Great. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER, PRIYA'S MUM: I have such conflicting feelings and emotions today. My heart aches with sadness because more than anything, I wish my daughter Priya was here with me. At the same time, today I feel such immense pride and joy knowing that she's creating meaningful change for future working parents in Australia. I'm deeply grateful that her name will be enshrined in law soon as Baby Priya’s Act. Given our situation, I can't think of any better way of honouring my baby girl than having her name as the law and her name as part of history and a part of the future. I still can't believe how far we have come. There is no greater way to honour my little girl than to have her name forever tied to this law, a legacy that will touch countless lives. Priya lived for only 42 days, yet her presence left a profound imprint on me, my family, friends, and now on all of Australia. Though her time was brief, her impact will be everlasting. I will continue to love and honour my daughter every single day, and I promise to live my life in a way that makes her proud. My life will be my love letter to Priya. Today and as always, I stand tall and proud to be Priya's mum.

I would like to thank my husband, Chris, for standing by me and supporting me in this life-changing endeavour and for honouring Priya alongside me. I would like to thank my parents for their immense support to this day, especially my mum. Thank you for your unwavering love and support for Priya and for cherishing her as much as I do. I'm also grateful to my parents-in-law, our family here in Australia, and to my wonderful family overseas for their constant love, support, empathy, and compassion. I extend my heartfelt thanks to the Labor Government for keeping their election promise and making this enormous dream of mine a reality. Thank you to the Prime Minister, the Honourable Mr Anthony Albanese, for the honour of your presence today. It means so much to me that you could attend today. A special thank you to the Honourable Minister, Ms Amanda Rishworth, for your dedication and hard work in ensuring that this law change is taking place and for ensuring Priya’s name is written into law. You have been so wonderful. Working with you and your wonderful team to bring this vision of mine to life has been extraordinary.

I also wish to thank Change.org and especially Paige for providing the platform that helped our voices be heard. To the Australian Services Union and Bears of Hope, thank you for supporting me and my cause from the very beginning. Thanks also to the media reporters and writers who respectfully and sensitively told my story. I want to thank the strangers, who are now friends, supporting me with my advocacy. And to our 32,378 supporters who signed Baby Priya's petition, this would not have been possible without you. I'm forever grateful and indebted to you all. Your support, love, and compassion has touched me deeply and left a forever profound impact on me and my life.

To every grieving parent, I want to acknowledge you with the deepest respect. You've endured the greatest pain imaginable, yet you continue to take one step at a time, day by day. I hope the world gives you sensitivity, compassion, kindness, support, and some grace on an ongoing basis. For the working parents of stillborn babies and infant deaths, I respect you truly. My hope is that this law will grant you the time, support, and financial assistance that are rightfully yours so that you can have the time to take care of yourselves.

Finally, I want to thank my daughter, Priya. You have given me so much love and given me the strength and courage to make this change possible. You've given me a mother's strength, the kind of strength that knows no bounds for her child. You're my greatest gift and I'm so grateful to you, deeply grateful to you. Priya, your dad and I will love you forever to the moon and back and back again. With love, Priya's mum.

CHRIS BREEN: Baby Priya’s Bill is an important step towards respecting the grief of working parents who suffered such tragedies as my wife and I did with the loss of our daughter, Priya. It will make a real difference to grieving parents across Australia. Labor's new legislation will prevent parental leave being cancelled at the whim of employers in the tragic event of stillbirth or early infant death. Employers will be able to negotiate arrangements with unions for future enterprise agreements, but Labor's legislation sets a standard that employers can't cancel already granted parental leave if no other agreement is in place. I think the legislation is a tribute to my daughter Priya, to the tireless efforts of my wife in raising awareness about the issue. I'm very proud of the work my wife has done to honour Priya whilst carrying the heartbreak of her loss.

I'd also like to thank the Australian Services Union, Bears of Hope, Change.org who supported our petition from the outset. I'd like to thank the over 30,000 people who signed the petition and made this change possible. I'd especially like to thank the other grieving parents who signed the petition and told their own stories in the comments. I mean, you asked the question earlier about how many other people does this affect. There's around 3000 people in Australia each year who suffer stillbirth or early infant death, and I don't know how many of those are in the same circumstance. But if you look at the petition, there are a lot of stories from other parents saying this also happened to me. It touched a nerve about respect at work and the often unspoken topic of stillbirth and early infant death, so I'm glad that other parents will not have their grief compounded by being made to go back to work unexpectedly. It is worth speaking out for fair treatment at work and change is possible. Thank you.

JOURNALIST: Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions if that's okay?

CHRIS BREEN: Yeah, that's fine.

JOURNALIST: So as a partner, what was your reaction when you heard about what your wife's employer was trying to make her do, given the circumstances of your family at that time?

CHRIS BREEN: I thought at the time that it was terribly unfair. I said to my wife we should do something about it. She wasn't in a position at that stage. It was much later after we'd had a chance to process that we came up with the idea of doing a petition that nobody else should go through that. Particularly because I got leave. I'm a teacher and I've got decent employment conditions, and so I got leave and she didn't.

JOURNALIST: Yeah. That's crazy. And were you- it's perhaps been a long journey, in some ways, these sorts of things, they start out with just normal people who want to make a difference. How does it feel, or what was the journey like? Maybe I'll rephrase that. But are you almost surprised perhaps that you have reached such a high point where you actually have been able to enact change?

CHRIS BREEN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes and no.

CHRIS BREEN: Do you want to go?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah.

JOURNALIST: I think we’ll- just because of the framing. If that's okay, sorry.

CHRIS BREEN: I remember saying to my wife at the start when we put the petition up, this could go nowhere. It could strike a nerve. So the 30,000, we really didn't expect that at the start. Getting that amount of support and change just from a petition is unusual. So yes, it was a little bit of a surprise.

JOURNALIST: And how does it feel now being in this building with a bill being introduced to Parliament and something really happening to change?

CHRIS BREEN: It's- as my wife said, it's mixed feelings. So of course, it is- my whole adult life I've wanted to try and make the world a better place, and to get that in a small way is really heartening. On the other hand, we would rather have our daughter.

JOURNALIST: Yeah, it's a mixed feeling. Yeah, absolutely.

JOURNALIST: What hope does this bring, do you think, to other families in particular situations where, yeah, their employer just- it wasn’t even a consideration?

CHRIS BREEN: I think it brings a lot of hope. Reading the stories of people who signed the petition, in really difficult circumstances that we hope that nobody have to go through but people do, it just means that they won't be put in a similar position to us. And that is important that Priya’s legacy is making the world a little bit better for other parents in the future.

JOURNALIST: And how proud are you of your wife in this circumstance?

CHRIS BREEN: I am enormously proud of my wife. I think one of the things that has been, I guess, most heartening is- I mean, she's had a difficult life in some ways, and I remember one time she broke down crying, just saying that she'd never had so many people and people she didn't know support her. And that really made a difference to her, and yeah, it's- I’ve been- she has worked tirelessly trying to get the petition known. Yeah, she did a fantastic job.

JOURNALIST: How long, sorry, did the actual process take? The petition …

CHRIS BREEN: The petition, we got …

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It started in March, so yeah, possibly seven months or eight months. It's incredible. And thanks to the Labor Government as well.

JOURNALIST: Very fast.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We didn't expect it to be this fast. It's amazing. [Laughs] Minister Rishworth is amazing.

JOURNALIST: And can I also just ask, when did your daughter die? Was that this year?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: 2024, yeah.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

ENDS