Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1973

Where an employee is, in accordance with section 6, absent from duty for a period:

if she has been paid, whether under subsection 6(3) or otherwise, in respect of the period or of a part of the period—the period, or the part of the period, of absence for which she has been so paid forms part of her period of service or employment for all purposes of this Act, of any other Act and of any Ordinance; and

subject to subsection (2), if she has not been so paid in respect of the period or of a part of the period—the period, or the part of the period, of absence for which she has not been so paid does not form part of her period of service or employment for the purposes of this Act, or of any other Act or of any Ordinance, but shall not be taken to have broken the continuity of her service or employment.

Where an employee who is, in accordance with section 6, absent from duty for a period in relation to her expected confinement or her confinement had not, immediately before the commencement of that period, been an employee for a continuous period of 12 months, the period of the absence or the period comprising the first 12 weeks of the period of the absence, whichever is the less, forms part of her period of service or employment for all purposes of this Act, of any other Act and of any Ordinance.