Sam Mostyn, From Ideas To Impact, Lasting Change In Action

Begin with the outcome. From 1 July 2025, parents who receive the Australian Government’s Paid Parental Leave will also receive a superannuation contribution. This is a structural fix that grows retirement balances and narrows the super gap, recognising that care is part of the real economy, not time out from it.

Why this mattered to Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, is straightforward. Before her vice regal appointment, Ms Mostyn chaired the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce. The Taskforce argued that unless policy values the months that matter for families, the lifetime gaps will never close. Paying super on government Paid Parental Leave became a headline recommendation, then a government decision, aligned with Australia’s gender equality strategy, Working for Women. It is expert advice turning into household impact, one contribution at a time.

The reform sits inside a larger shift. Working for Women sets a ten year lens linking paid leave, affordable early education and care, flexible work, and education pathways. Super on Paid Parental Leave is the keystone that signals a principle, value the care, fund the future, lift participation, and allow prosperity to compound across a lifetime. Policy is catching up to real lives, and budgets are starting to invest in the workers who hold the country together, at home and at work. Read on