ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee to call for paid miscarriage leave

Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee will move a motion asking for five days of paid leave for all full-time, part-time and temporary public sector workers who experience a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Partners of those who have experienced a miscarriage would also be able to access the leave.

NSW implemented a similar scheme early this year, which offered their public sectors five days miscarriage leave.

The federal senate also passed laws in September to make changes to the Fair Work Act to allow two days of paid leave following a miscarriage.

ACT public sector workers can already access 18 weeks of leave, through their maternity leave provision, if their child is stillborn after 20 weeks.

Government employees can also use their personal leave or access compassionate leave if they experience a miscarriage.

But Ms Lee said she thought it was important to differentiate the type of leave for people who experience the heartbreak of a miscarriage.

She also said it was an important recognition for those who lost their child before 20 weeks.

"I think it's an important symbolic gesture by this government so that families do not feel so alone," Ms Lee said.

"The loss of a child, either through stillbirth or pregnancy, isn't an illness, it is something that needs to be appropriately recognised and I think that providing this type of leave is going to go a long way to ensuring that families feel that they are being looked after and the government has their back when it comes to a devastating circumstance like this.

"Having access to this leave, if they so choose, just means that their loss and grief is being recognised."

The ACT government will seek to amend Ms Lee's motion, saying the leave already exists and had been clarified through a recent enterprise bargaining agreement.

"The government will be moving amendments to ensure we continue the current leave arrangements, and we will not agree to a reduction in these conditions," a government spokeswoman said.

"Eighteen weeks of birth leave is available following stillbirth, while Ms Lee's motion only calls for five days. The government already offers five days compassionate leave for miscarriage, with managers being able to provide more leave days on compassionate grounds."

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Ms Lee revealed last month that she has experienced two miscarriages this year. She also experienced an earlier miscarriage in 2018.

She said after her first miscarriage she returned to work the next day because she didn't feel she had a choice.

"With my first miscarriage, I was right in the middle of estimates and I was actually on the select committee ... and I actually did rock up to work the next day and at the time I felt I had no choice.

"And it's that kind of thinking, I think, which I hope that others, you know, don't have to go through that they have this entitlement and it's something they can access."

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