Skip to content

DEEP DIVE: Do Australian workers need reproductive leave?

October 30, 2026 · 14 min

Show notes

Right now a federal parliamentary inquiry is looking into national employment standards across Australia.

One of the key issues being considered is whether or not Australian workers should be entitled to paid reproductive leave, on top of existing sick leave entitlements.

Unions want workers to have access to at least 10 days of leave, which could be used for things like IVF, menstrual pain, vasectomies, endometriosis and other chronic conditions.

So how would that work? What impact would it have? And can businesses afford it?In this week's deep dive we break down how reproductive leave could work in Australia and the latest push to have it legislated.

Guests:

  • Michelle O'Shea, Senior lecturer, School of Business at Western Sydney University

Get the whole story from hack:

  • Follow us on Instagram and TikTok
  • Subscribe to the hack podcast
  • Listen on the triple j app or on your radio live every weeknight at 5:30pm

All episodes of Hack

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.