POLICY & ADVOCACY
Movember launches Dads Caucus at Parliament House as new research reveals 56% of Aussie fathers say their parental leave wasn't enough
Dads, kids and MPs gathered on the lawn at Parliament House for the launch of Movember's Dads Caucus.
Movember descended on Australian Parliament House the day after Father's Day to continue its push to support Aussie dads.
It followed Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, joining Movember in April to shine a light on new fathers' mental health.
This time, the focus was parental leave. On Monday 7 September, Movember launched a landmark cross-party Dads Caucus and unveiled new research, More Time With Dad, into how much time Australian fathers actually get with their newborns, and what's stopping them getting more.
They were joined by some of Australia's most iconic dads, a cross-party group of MPs, and family advocacy group The Parenthood.
The morning began on the Parliament House lawn with a family activation, a Hills Hoist strung with tiny branded onesies, filling up as dads, kids and MPs wandered over across the morning. The Wiggles couldn't resist an impromptu a cappella jam before the day had even properly begun.
Joining Movember on the lawn were some of the country's most recognisable dads: Matty J and Ash Wicks from the Two Doting Dads podcast, The Wiggles' Simon Pryce and Lachlan Gillespie, Sean Szeps, Ben Tate from Ben and Zara, viral songwriter Joel Phillips with his son Miles, Movember Community Ambassador Zach Perez and developmental paediatrician and author Dr Billy Garvey.
Aussie dads and their kids helped kick off a new conversation about parental leave at Parliament House.
What the research found
Movember’s More Time With Dad research, based on a national survey of 1,216 Australian fathers, found almost a third (29%) took no parental leave at all, and of those who did, 56% said it wasn't enough. Among fathers who took no leave, most pointed to financial pressure (36%) or a lack of employer support and fear of career damage (37%); even among those who did take leave, over half (52%) said taking more would have risked their career.
Where fathers did get real time, the benefits were clear: 70% said it was good for their mental health, 83% said it helped them bond with their child, and 78% said it was beneficial for their relationship with their partner.
But whole groups of fathers fall through the cracks entirely, the research found: tradies, FIFO workers, the self-employed and small business owners, locked out by design, not by choice. The system assumes a job that can be handed to someone else while a father's away, a reality that doesn't fit how they actually work.
The Dads Caucus launch put fatherhood and parental leave reform on the national agenda.
Paid parental leave is offered by 88% of large employers in education, but by fewer than half in transport, manufacturing, construction and agriculture. Sitting behind it all: Australia ranks 34th of 38 OECD countries for dedicated, well-paid leave reserved for fathers.
Movember's Director of Policy & Advocacy (Australia and New Zealand), Jeremy Phillips-Yelland, became a first-time father to baby Leo earlier this year, and said the findings were personal as well as professional.
"Since Leo arrived, I've felt firsthand how quickly the systems around you either show up or don't. This Caucus is about making sure every father gets that chance, not just the ones lucky enough to have the right employer or the right job."
The Wiggles' Lachlan Gillespie, father of twin daughters, said the time he had at home in his daughters' earliest weeks shaped the family they are today.
"Being there every day and every night created a bond that's only grown stronger over five years. There'll always be another work day, but you don't get those early moments back."
Time at home in those early weeks can shape a father's bond with his child for years to come.
The day was co-hosted with The Parenthood, an advocacy movement of more than 80,000 Australian mums, dads and carers campaigning for family-friendly policy reform. Its CEO, Georgie Dent, said the research showed dedicated leave for fathers isn't a concession to mothers, it's what gives every family a genuine choice in the first year. As Dent put it: "Dedicated leave for fathers is where shared care begins."
The Dads Caucus
The day then moved inside for a media conference, before the main event in the Senate Courtyard: the launch of the Dads Caucus.
The new cross-party group brought together Australia's Special Envoy for Men's Health DanRepacholi MP , Member for Casey Aaron Violi MP, Peter Khalil MP, Jerome Laxale MP, Josh Burns MP, and Matt Thistlethwaite MP. With the aim of meeting several times a year, the Caucus gives MPs a standing forum to share their own experience of fatherhood and carry the stories of dads from their electorates into the reform process.
Repacholi said he was proud to see the Caucus officially launch.
"Movember and I have been in this together for a while now, we stood side by side back in April for new dads' mental health, and I'm proud to be back again today for this Caucus. Blokes deserve to be there for their kids without it costing them everything else. I reckon this is just the start."
Movember's research puts a spotlight on the gap between the parental leave dads get and what they need.
Alongside the Caucus, Movember wants to work with the Australian Government to establish a cross-departmental working group, spanning Social Services, Health, Employment, Finance and Treasury, to lead a review of the next phase of Paid Parental Leave, the first ever conducted through the lens of fathers and men's health.
To wrap up the morning at Parliament House, Joel Phillips took to the Senate Courtyard with his son Miles for a performance of their breakout hit "Eastern Rosellas", before The Wiggles closed out.
More TimeWith Dad is the second phase of Movember's fatherhood research in Australia. In April 2026, Movember and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, launched the first, More Than a Provider, at the Western Bulldogs' Whitten Oval in Melbourne, revealing the hidden mental health toll on new Australian fathers.
That research led to formal parliamentary recommendations, accepted by all parties, for routine mental health screening for new fathers across the perinatal period, work Movember is now extending across the states.
