From July 1, Australian families who are caring for a newborn or adopted child will be able to claim six months (26 weeks) of parental leave with superannuation.
This payment is subject to an income test, work test and rules around visas and can be shared between carers. In fact, it encourages shared caring responsibilities in two parent families. It’s also provided on top of any employer parental leave schemes.
It’s the most significant milestone in Australian family policy reform since the Albanese government extended paid parental leave from 20 weeks to 22 weeks in March 2024.
This further extension is very welcome. Even though it doesn’t meet the recommended 36 weeks, it is still an encouraging recognition of the importance of caring for newborns and adopted children and will have positive flow-on effects for wages and employment.
But paid parental leave isn’t the only way to support working parents, particularly mothers, especially as their children get older. The government should be doing more to help women once they return to work.
Balancing work and children
Women continue to do most of the childcaring in Australia. For example, women in couples who have children under 15 do an average of 52 hours a week of unpaid work and care, compared to 35 hours for men.
Having children affects the ability of many women to work. It’s one reason why their workforce participation continues to be lower than men’s. Only 63% of women worked in December 2024, compared to 71.2% for men.
Much of this is due to a lack of childcare. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 25% of women were unable to start work due to caring for children.
This reason was understandably more prevalent (56%) for mothers with children aged under 15.
Research has shown mothers are more likely to return to work and full-time employment after their children reach school age. Women with school-aged children working full time has increased from 54% in 2009 to 72% in 2023.
This seems to correlate with improved, if imperfect, access to early childhood education and care.
Earning less for longer
But motherhood continues as a penalty in the workplace.
Research has shown a mother’s earnings fall by an average of 55% in the first five years after having children. The effects of this loss in earnings linger for at least a decade.
Why does this happen? Is it because mothers are less ambitious or less productive? The short answer is no.
A 2025 report suggests women’s ambitions are tied to the support they receive. As Australian families still rely on unpaid care, which largely falls onto women, insufficient support can prevent women from pursuing their careers as much as they’d like.
This situation, dubbed the “motherhood penalty” is partially a result of women with children being more likely to work part-time than those without.
But working fewer hours often isn’t a matter of preference. Many women report wanting to work more, but not being able to because of care commitments.
Migrant women hit hard
These challenges faced by parents, particularly mothers, are not faced equally across Australia.
In Western Sydney, for example, population growth and migration, combined with specific family dynamics, intensify the care burden placed on many women.
More than one million residents (40.9% of the population of Western Sydney) were born overseas. Of those, more than half a million (26.3% of people aged 15 years and above) provided unpaid childcare in 2021, and more than 221,000 provided unpaid care to a person with disability, chronic illness or older age.
These figures remind us that care plays a central role at the community level. Care should be understood not as individual family responsibilities but as part of the broader economy nationally.
In my qualitative research with 33 women, migrant professionals often reduce their working hours, quit their professions or delay career progression when they cannot balance childcare with work.
This is often due to migration status and cultural responsibilities.
There were 215,768 temporary employment visa holders in Australia nationally at the end of 2025. They do not have access to childcare subsidies or any income support from the Australian government, but they are still keen to work.
More broadly, 1.9 million people in Australia were recent migrants or temporary residents in November 2019 – the most recent data available. This cohort had a workforce participation rate of 72% across all genders.
Migrant women face particular disadvantages, with higher unemployment rates than non-migrant women across most states and territories. Caring responsibilities play a huge role in this difference, along with other factors such as language barriers and qualification recognition.
The new parental leave regime is a great start, but we need more than that in Australia. These reforms should be paired with affordable childcare, secure work and flexible work arrangements.
There should also be support systems that are culturally responsive. For example, community-based peer support, flexible childcare for women working irregular or casual hours and return to work and mentoring programs designed for migrant mothers.
We must also remember that pressure on parents does not end after six months of paid parental leave. Only when we address the entire impact of having children can we ensure that it does not place unequal pressure on women and culturally diverse communities.
