Josh Burns is the federal member for the Victorian seat of Macnamara, but more importantly he’s a father of one and has another on the way. He and his partner, Victorian MP for the Animal Justice Party Georgie Purcell, have welcomed their first child together. We chat with Josh about preparing for fatherhood and his hopes for other dads around the country.
I love being a dad. It’s the best thing in the world. And I’m excited to be welcoming a baby next year with my partner, Georgie.
I’m in a modern family where my ex-wife and I are separated, but we share a beautiful seven-year-old daughter who is the joy of both of our lives. She’s so excited that she is going to get a little sister. Sharing the news with her really crystallised how life-changing this will be for all of us, growing our little family.
On public life
Georgie and I are in this slightly unique scenario that we’re both MPs, albeit in different parliaments and parties. There’s an interest there that we both find a bit bizarre, but it’s more boring than people think.
When we announced the pregnancy publicly, Georgie had the foresight of knowing the sorts of criticisms and questions that would immediately follow for her as a female politician in the public eye. She had to talk about how she intends to go about running again, how she still holds a lot of her positions around reproductive health really closely – she hasn’t changed any of her views on that. Because she’s a smart and talented politician, she had to front-foot that.
On the contrary, I got to say how excited I am that I plan on being a present dad and that I love being the member for Macnamara. But being a dad is number one and that’s something that I’ll have to navigate as we move through 2026.
The responses to our news show the different standards that people have of public life, of people becoming parents and how their assumptions about how they would navigate their commitment to work. As a society, we still have a way to go in these conversations.
On pregnancy
Being present and being a team has been a priority during Georgie’s pregnancy. Being away for work has been really challenging, but whenever I’m here in Melbourne, I’m trying to make sure that I’m present and I’m supporting her – not just for appointments, but also the other 99% of the time that we’ve got throughout the week. Making sure that I’m doing my bit so that Georgie doesn’t have to.
A piece of advice that was good for me was about the mental and physical load and the long list of things your partner is thinking about, constantly. And it’s not about asking what needs to be done or why your partner didn’t ask you for help with things.
“It’s about looking around and thinking, ‘what are the things I could do right now that will make things easier for my partner?’, especially when they’re pregnant. “
Taking something off their list that we don’t necessarily hold in our minds but, I can guarantee, your partner holds in theirs.
On parental leave
I took a little bit of time off – a month or so – when my daughter was born, but this time it’ll be a bit different. We’ll be taking it step by step. It will be a combination of seeing how Georgie is, how the baby is and in the first part of the year, trying to work together to ensure that we both can do as much as possible. You just never know what the sort of specifics of the days might look like. However, Georgie has got an election next year. She’s eminently qualified and one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. We’ll find ways to logistically share parenting – frankly for me to take on more.
“As a government, one of the things we have done around parental leave was make it more flexible. You don’t have to choose between which parent is taking time off.”
Being a dad is one of the most beautiful and wonderful things in my life, but it’s also about my daughter. It’s about what she needs. It’s about spending time with her. It’s about doing logistics. It’s about showing up. It’s not an ethereal concept. It’s very practical. It’s very day-to-day. It’s about making sure that the things she needs, whether they’re emotional or physical or time-based, it’s about being there and not missing that. Being a dad is about showing up and doing your best. That doesn’t happen unless you get to just spend time with them.
It should be possible for dads to go on that amazing journey themselves in learning about their kids. That time builds confidence and space to be a dad.
On flexibility
I’m fortunate in my role that I have a bit more flexibility, that I can work in the hours that I design, sometimes it’s weekends, sometimes it’s nights – it’s not a nine-to-five job being a member of Parliament, by any stretch. I’m away a third of the year in parliament where there’s long days. But when I’m home I’m doing the school pickup, and doing that is really important to me. I also know that for a lot of people in the workplace that’s not really normalised or it’s not possible. People either end up working less or working part-time. Often it’s the mum who needs to structurally change their career in order to facilitate parenting.
We’ve done a lot of work as a government trying to make parenting equitable, but frankly as a society, it’s still unequal in the way in which it’s being shared between mums and dads.
“Whatever it is, it’s about being able to provide for the logistics of being a parent, and that shouldn’t just fall onto the mum. That needs to be normalised for dad too. That should change.”
On the future
There’s a natural self-reflection with fatherhood that, when you think about your baby or in my case, my beautiful daughter, I want to be there. I want to be there to help her, to nurture her and to give her stability. As a result of that, you want to try and look after yourself and place a level of self-care and look after your own health, not just for them but to ensure that you’re giving them your best self as well.
Fatherhood certainly grounds you, it reminds you that actually you’re not just here for you, and you need to look after yourself with the people who rely on you.
For that little person you come home to, you’re a big part of their world. Being careful with that awesome responsibility is something that we should all do a good job of.
