The Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya’s) Bill 2025 (the Bill) amends the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act) to make entitlements to parental leave in cases of stillbirth or the death of a child more consistent, whether the leave is unpaid or paid parental leave. At the time of writing, the Bill had not been referred to or reported on by any parliamentary committees.

The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Act to prevent employers from refusing or unilaterally cancelling certain paid parental leave (PPL) entitlements in the event of stillbirth or early infant death. This paper sets out the purpose of the Bill, its background, the policy position of non-government parties/independents, and key issues and provisions.

Key points

• The Bill only deals with the operation of entitlements to paid parental leave under the terms and conditions of an employee’s employment in cases of stillbirth or death of a child. It does not alter the existing provisions dealing with employees’ entitlements to unpaid parental leave in the case of the stillbirth or death of a child.
• The Bill will prevent employers from unilaterally cancelling periods of paid parental leave in cases of still birth. However, the Bill will not prevent employers and employees from agreeing to cancel such periods of leave.
• The Bill does not impose any requirement on employers to provide employer-funded paid parental leave.
• For stillbirths that occur under surrogacy arrangements, whilst the surrogate parents will have their PPL entitlement protected, it does not appear that this will be the case for the intended parents if the stillbirth or death of the child occurs prior to the legal parentage of the child being transferred to them under state and territory legislation.