Queensland employers will no longer be allowed to use the terms “maternity leave” or “her” and will instead be forced to adopt gender-neutral terms “long birth-related leave” and “pregnant employee.”
Criticism has been ongoing for months after the Palaszczuk government introduced several amendments to the state’s Industrial Relations Act 2016.
The new provisions aim to promote gender pay equity, strengthen protections for workers subject to sexual harassment, and improve the entitlements under the Queensland Employment Standards, including parental and adoption leave.
In a contentious move, the new changes will jettison terms like “maternity” and “maternity leave” in a bid to avoid any implied gender division of parental care. For example, Clause 11 proposed changing the phrase “from intention to take maternity leave” to “intention of pregnant employee to take birth-related leave.”
Five babies sitting on a white cloth. (sirtravelalot/Shutterstock)
Jarrod Bleijie, Queensland’s opposition industrial relations minister, called the move “disgraceful.”
“I would ask the minister: what on earth is wrong with the word ‘maternity?' Why can a mother not be proud to be a mother and give birth?” he told Parliament during the debate on Oct. 28.
“The reality is that men cannot have babies. Men cannot give birth. The woke-ism that is being driven by the Labor party federally and in the state system is detrimental to every woman and young girl who wants to be proud of their biological sex.”
Meanwhile, John-Paul Langbroek, the member for Surfers Paradise, said on Oct. 27 that the Palaszczuk government was stripping away the rights of health workers at a time when the system was at crisis point.
Langbroek argued that regardless of the bill, many rural and regional Queensland will still be without “birth-related services.”
Maternity Choices Australia also opposed the move, noting in a submission to the government that they were “deeply offended at the removal of mother, she, and her from the Bill.”
Protections Against Sex-Based Harassment
Meanwhile, Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace described the new amendments as “nation-leading reforms.”
She said the changes will empower the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) to better protect victims of sexual abuse as well as to set minimum conditions and entitlements for independent courier drivers.
Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace speak's to the media during a press conference at Everleigh State School in Brisbane, Australia, on Feb. 1, 2022. (AAP Image/Darren England)
“Minimum employment standards now align with federal standards by providing greater flexibility for paid and unpaid parental leave to include adoption, surrogacy or parentage transferred under a cultural recognition order,“ she said in a press release on Oct. 28.
“The bill also provides enhanced birth related and parental leave, and allows individual parents to allocate childcare responsibilities in a way that works best for their family’s circumstances.”
A mother leans lovingly above her newborn baby, ca.1950s. United States. (Photo by Tom Kelley/Getty Images)
The government will also extend paid domestic and family violence leave to casual workers, who will be able to access 10 days of leave when escaping domestic violence.
“While collective bargaining has delivered stronger wages and working conditions in exchange for flexible and productive workplaces, we still have gender pay inequality,” Grace said.
“That’s why we have introduced provisions in the act to ensure the promotion of gender pay equity in the bargaining process.”
Nina Nguyen is a reporter based in Sydney. She covers Australian news with a focus on social, cultural, and identity issues. She is fluent in Vietnamese. Contact her at [email protected].
