Every bill that comes to this House sounds very routine and official and doesn't stand out, really, from all the other bills that come to this place, but the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya's) Bill 2025 is a very important one. Sometimes, in this place, good things happen, and this is a really good thing. I was listening to the member for Riverina's speech yesterday about this bill, and I commend him on his speech. It was an absolute example of something that humanises everyone in this place. There can't be a person in this parliament that isn't moved by this bill.

I come to this as a father, a grandfather and a paediatrician. I've seen babies die. I've seen what families go through. I've seen it in neonatal intensive care units. I've seen it in hospital emergency units. I've seen it, even, in people's homes. I don't know how people find the strength to deal with the death of their child, their brother, their sister, their grandchild. I don't know how people find the strength to deal with it. I know that there are people in this place—I hope that my friend, the member for Werriwa, doesn't mind me mentioning her. I know what she's been through. I don't know how she found the strength and I don't know how many of the families find the strength to deal with the death of a child. This bill goes a little way to showing people that we care. We want to be on the journey with you and we want to be part of your family, even for a little while, so that we can support you in your grief and help you in one of the most difficult times of your life.

I've seen, in my own profession, people who have tried to support families in their moments of grief. With permission, I'd like to mention some of their names. Eric Burnard ran the neonatal intensive care unit at the Crown Street Women's Hospital in Sydney for many years. He was the first recognised neonatologist in Sydney and the work that he did to support families who were going through the loss of a newborn—he did a great job. Without a lot of support he set up a social network and support for parents who had lost a child, and maintained contact with them long after they had left the hospital. He was really the first to provide that sort of support for neonatal death in Sydney.

Then there's my great friend—who, sadly, has passed away—David Henderson-Smart. He came back after training as a neonatologist in the United States to run the neonatal unit at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He set up a parental support network where families could contact other parents who had lost children in neonatal intensive care in Sydney and did a lot of work in that space in the late seventies and early eighties.

Then, of course, Peter Barr, who was a neonatologist at the north shore hospital in Sydney under whom I trained. He provided support for those who had lost young infants on an ongoing basis for many months after they had died. I pay great respect to him and the lessons he taught us all.

Lastly, I would like to mention my friend and colleague Andrew Berry, who set up the newborn emergency transport system in New South Wales, which is a model that has been copied around Australia and overseas to make sure newborn babies with problems could be retrieved to a tertiary hospital as quickly as possible, to get them to the treatment they needed within a very short space of time. Unfortunately, many of those babies died because they had problems like congenital heart disease or extreme prematurity, but Andrew maintained follow-up of those babies and follow-up for the clinicians who looked after those babies for many months after their deaths. That has been part of my history.

This bill does fulfil an election commitment from the Albanese government to make sure employers continue to pay their paid parental leave requirements to employees whose children have either been stillborn or who have died. This is something also that had been heavily promoted by Kristina Keneally, a previous Senator in this place and ex-premier of New South Wales. I pay tribute to her efforts to support families who have lost a baby by stillbirth. It is important to remember that the grieving process for many of these families is often a very complicated one. In the case of stillbirth, it's not just a matter of dealing with the death of a loved child and all the potential that would hold but it is also a matter of dealing with what the reason may have been for the child to die in utero, whether there were genetic causes or congenital causes or problems with the maternal health that can increase the risks of stillbirth—preeclampsia, diabetes et cetera. It is important that women have time to allow those investigations to happen for resolution of the cause and also to deal with the trauma that they face when they lose a baby during the neonatal period or as a stillborn. Sometimes understanding how to deal with other families who they have developed a relationship with who have babies of their own is also a hugely complicated process. It really is important that we support those families to not only resolve their grief but go through the process of trying to understand what has happened and looking at the causes.

A common thing I have heard from families who have lost a child is that the parents of these babies sometimes feel abandoned, saying, 'We lost our child, we left hospital but then we were told to move on.' Of course we know you cannot do that. There needs to be resolution of all the issues that I've mentioned previously. The parents need to be supported, and certainly financial support is a very big part of that. Paid parental leave, as has been strongly promoted the Albanese government, is a very important process in this day and age of the 21st century. It is important that everyone who has had a child does get the benefit of it and does feel that society supports them, particularly if they have lost a child.

The Albanese government has strengthened our government funded paid parental leave and this is another step in the process. I know those on the other side support this bill, which is really important for us, and I congratulate the opposition for supporting this bill. I think that this parliament is a better place for passage of this bill. As a politician and as someone who has children and grandchildren, I feel very strongly supportive of this. As a paediatrician, I know my neonatal colleagues all feel this is a really important piece that will not only help us as physicians but will help the families who have had a stillbirth or a neonatal death.

Australia is a safe place to have a baby, and Australia is a safe place to bring up your child, but, unfortunately, we still do see deaths. Recently, in my electorate, we saw a very young child die from influenza A infection. More recently, we saw another very young child die from herpes virus encephalitis. It still does happen with the very best medical care in the country. As a society, we need to be able to help parents who are dealing with the grief of losing their child. Giving them paid parental leave and making sure that they get their entitlements is very important. We still do have issues in neonatal intensive care. We are able to help babies survive, even at very small sizes, sometimes under 700 grams, sometimes under 24 weeks gestation, but those babies often spend very prolonged times in hospital. It's important that those families are supported, and we know that some of those babies can die, even after a long time in hospital. To support those families in the process of their grieving is very important.

People grieve in different ways. We know some people may want to get back to work early. They need to have that option, and that is very important. I congratulate the minister on bringing this bill to the parliament. I know that she understands this issue very deeply. I know that having her as a minister to be able to do this has been a really important factor in bringing it through, and it will go through. I feel sad for all the families I've looked after who've lost children. It is a complicated process, and it's something that we are getting better at helping them with and, as I said previously, finding a cause.

I pay tribute to all my neonatologist colleagues and the neonatal nurses, who do such a fantastic job in trying to get these babies to survive. I, first of all, should thank Priya's parents, because what they have done is important for the whole country. All of us understand and believe that and want to wish them the very best and make sure that they understand that they have been a very important part in bringing this to fruition and bringing it through the parliament. Without sounding too personal, I'd like to really express my admiration and my love for all the families who've lost kids in this way. I think we all do that. Just reading through this bill brought back memories to me of families I've seen and babies that have been lost. I wish all of them the very best. So I commend, of course, this bill to the House. I thank everyone, on both sides, who've spoken on this bill. It's a great thing for Australia and a great thing for our parliament, so thank you.