I also rise to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025. The bill before us is named in honour of Baby Priya, who tragically passed away just 42 days after her birth. It is an immeasurable loss and grief for any family to endure, but for Priya's family it was a turmoil that was compounded, as Priya's mother, in her grief, was forced to negotiate with her employer about returning to work. This is something she never expected to face, and yet it is an experience that is not unfamiliar to too many bereaved families in our community. No parent should ever have to go through what Priya's mum experienced, and yet it's a story we know exists too often.
It's certainly something that was experienced by a close friend of mine, who has given me her permission and blessing to share her story as part of my contribution. When my friend's son was stillborn at 32 weeks, she was forced to negotiate with her employer and was advised that her return to work should be just five weeks after the loss of her son. During those five weeks, she was in and out of public hospitals no fewer than seven times, including a two-night admission because of retained placental products. This was hardly the grieving period my friend required to mourn the loss of her son.
As she returned to her work in a diverse retail management role, she told me she felt as though she was going to cry or vomit every time a healthy newborn baby entered her store. She was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. If she had had the time to grieve, she could have received a diagnosis for this and the support she then required, but she didn't. This was the reality for my friend. It is the reality for so many women like her.
While my friend was forced to take medication to suppress the milk that she would never be able to feed her baby and as her body was recovering, she was forced back into a role where she was instructed to meet key performance indicators, manage staff performance, oversee payroll and write rosters. My friend had no time to experience the grief she needed to. At this time she found tasks like grocery shopping truly overwhelming. Her grief was just so consuming that making those decisions each week became overwhelming. The most meaningful gifts she received during this time weren't flowers but groceries because they spared her from having to make those decisions and do those tasks in daily life. If these things felt impossible for my friend, how can we expect bereaved parents to navigate complex negotiations with their employers about when to return to work?
This system is failing due to a lack of understanding of what these women and these families are going through. Ambiguous workplace policies fail to acknowledge a devastating public health issue that impacts more than six Australian families every day. If paid parental leave schemes do not acknowledge the lives of babies born without breath or babies who pass away shortly after birth, they help nobody, but they sure as hell have traumatised too many women.
As a Government we have the opportunity and the responsibility to remove this ambiguity by strengthening the Fair Work Act to support bereaved parents in their most vulnerable moments. In doing so, we legislate for clarity, for certainty and for compassion. This bill will ensure that employer-funded parental leave cannot be cancelled if a child is stillborn or if a child dies shortly after birth. It introduces a new principle into the Fair Work Act that, unless employers and employees have agreed otherwise, employer-funded paid parental leave must not be cancelled because a child is stillborn or dies shortly after birth.
I want to acknowledge, as many senators have done, Baby Priya's parents, who, through bravely telling their story, brought attention to an issue not adequately addressed in existing workplace laws. After their baby's death, her parents advocated to ensure no other parent would have to face what they did. Baby Priya's loss is an absolute tragedy, and this bill honours Baby Priya and it honours her parents by creating a legacy that will touch countless lives. I want to thank them for their advocacy on this essential reform. Parents must have certainty about their entitlements at such a difficult moment. They need time and they need space to grieve.
This bill provides transparency for parents and employers. It means bereaved parents will not have to deal with the stress and uncertainty about their entitlements during one of the most traumatic times in their lives. Likewise, for managers, it doesn't place them in the position of having to make a potentially fraught discretionary judgment call on such a delicate matter—a call which could compound grief and trauma for their staff.
The loss of a child is a profoundly traumatic event. While Australia is one of the safest places in the world for a baby to be born, in 2022, more than 3,000 families lost a child to stillbirth or within the first 28 days of their birth. I want to acknowledge and recognise every family who feels this grief and every family who lives with this loss—those families and those mothers who hold their babies not in their arms but only in their hearts. Stillbirth is a public health issue shrouded in stigma, but through awareness, education and policy change, we can actually save the lives of our littlest Australians—Australian babies who are so deeply longed for. In recognition of those babies who are so deeply missed, we can create better systems for those who experience stillbirth or neonatal loss to support them in their grief.
I am deeply proud to stand in support of this bill as a friend of someone who has experienced the most traumatic of losses and as a representative of the women in my community who have felt and experienced that too. This is why we must pass this bill with the utmost urgency and importance. I acknowledge the contribution of every senator who has come and spoken in support of this bill with sensitivity and with care and with compassion. I commend the bill to the Senate.
