Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the Coalition has made a mockery of its public statements on working women by refusing to let a Labor MP leave Parliament to be with her sick child.

Labor backbencher Michelle Rowland requested a pair earlier this week so she could leave Parliament tonight to be with her daughter in Sydney.

But the request was refused by the Coalition.

A letter from the Opposition's chief whip Warren Entsch, to Government chief whip Chris Hayes, appears to show the Coalition knew that Ms Rowland's child was sick.

"I am writing to you in relation to your request to provide a 'pair' for Ms Michelle Rowland, Member for Greenway due to her child being unwell," the letter, dated May 15, says. "The period sought for the 'pair' is from 6pm until House rise on Thursday, 16 May, 2013. "The Opposition will not provide a 'pair' for the Member for Greenway on this occasion."

Mr Entsch says he refused the pair on the basis there was no sense of urgency.

He has now issued a statement saying if Ms Rowland's "child is sick then she should leave the Parliament immediately and a pair will be granted".

Speaking to The World Today, Mr Entsch said he granted Ms Rowland leave when he read about the matter in this morning's paper, but labelled her leave request "a stunt".

"The issue of backbench pairs was raised with me first at a meeting I had with the new chief Government whip on Monday," he said.

"Included in that was a request for Mike Kelly. He sought a pairing for a family medical matter, and I said to him at that time, send it over to me but there's not a lot of detail there, I'll need more than that to be able to approve it.

"There was also a request there from Michelle Rowland where she said due to her child being unwell that she'd be grateful if she could return home on Thursday night.

"My comment to Chris [Hayes] at the time was that if the child is unwell, she shouldn't be down here, she should be with her child.

"It seems rather bizarre to be putting in a request on Monday or Tuesday asking for a leave on Thursday night because a child is unwell.

"If it's unwell now, she should be with it.

"No other information was available to me and on the basis of that I said look, I can't approve it on the basis of the information that's been provided to me.

"Now later on [Mr Hayes] came back to me and he said to me that Mike Kelly's wife was sick. She'd been in hospital for a couple of weeks and he needed to sit with her. On that basis I changed my position and approved that.

"At no point from that discussion until I read about it in the paper on Thursday morning had there been any further discussion to me or my office in regards to Michelle Rowland.

"If it had been me and it had been my sick child, I would have been sitting with my sick child. I wouldn't have been spending a week in the Parliament.

"I actually gave her leave when I read about it in the paper and instead of grabbing the first flight home, which she portrayed being concerned, she sat in three divisions. She could have been halfway back to Sydney in that time."

Earlier Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said Ms Rowland's request only said she had a sick family member.

And he also questioned why Ms Rowland wanted to delay her departure from the House until this evening.

"If we'd known it had been Michelle Rowland's child we would have given her a pair," he said.

"It could have been a cousin, it could have been a parent, it could have been an uncle.

"More importantly we would have said why would you wait until five o'clock Thursday to go home? You need to go home today."

'He doesn't get it'

Ms Gillard has criticised the Coalition's handling of the matter.

"What has happened with this matter makes an absolute mockery of everything the leader of the Opposition has ever said about working women," she said.

"It just shows so clearly that he doesn't get it."

Ms Rowland says she did make the fact that her child was ill clear.

"My application explicitly said that my baby's at home sick, I'd be grateful to be at home with her Thursday night," she said.

"If more information was requested I would have been more specific about what her illness was.

"He's saying well leave the Parliament immediately a pair will be granted. Well thank you very much, I will be going home now.

"Quite frankly I think we've become a bit mean," she added.

"When people are ill or they have legitimate reasons for why they need to take leave I would have hoped that a bit of common sense would have prevailed.

"I'm a regular contributor to Parliament. I'm not a slacker. I simply wanted to leave at the suspension."

Earlier the Opposition signalled it was going to make it harder for Labor MPs to be granted a pair when they are unable to vote in Parliament.

The conditions for pairing have already tightened significantly because of the hung Parliament.

"If they want pairs in the future they are going to have to be able to produce a darn sight more evidence in relation to the validity of what they are trying to apply," Mr Entsch said.

"People's obligation in the first instance is to be in this Parliament."

Mr Entsch has also rejected suggestions Mr Pyne misled Parliament yesterday.

During a debate in Parliament Mr Pyne said Coalition MP Alex Somlyay was ill and had left to go home.

But independent MP Rob Oakeshott later said he had seen Mr Somlyay soon afterwards in the Parliament building.

Mr Entsch says Mr Pyne was given out-of-date information about Mr Somlyay's whereabouts, and he did not deliberately mislead the House.