Politics can be a cynical and nasty business, but outbreaks of grace and compassion do occur. One happened on Wednesday during a parliamentary debate for the second reading speech of “Baby Priya’s Bill”.

MP after MP rose to speak with sensitivity about one of life’s most devastating experiences – the birth of a stillborn baby.

Anthony Albanese meets with baby Priya’s family ahead of the Fair Work Amendment (Baby Priya’s) Bill. Credit: Getty Images

The bill will amend workplace laws to ensure employee entitlements to parental leave extend to parents whose baby has been stillborn, or who has tragically died in infancy. The bill is named after baby Priya, who was born prematurely at 24 weeks in June 2024. For six weeks, she battled for life in the neonatal intensive care unit. Then she died.

Her mother was an employee of a large organisation; she had worked there for 11 years. When she notified her employer of her baby’s death, she was told via text message that her parental leave had been cancelled, and she would get just one month of personal leave.

Priya’s father was able to retain his full paternity leave in the NSW industrial system – an inequality he thought was grossly unfair to his wife, who was not only bereaved but was also dealing with the physical difficulties of postpartum, but without the delight of her baby to buoy her.

The bill had bipartisan support, but several male MPs used the debate about this sensitive issue to shoehorn in their objections to late-term abortion – on which more later.

Sarah Witty, the member for Melbourne, has spoken about the experience of loss. Credit: Alex........

© The Sydney Morning Herald