Lees-Galloway Iain: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (6 Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionLees-Galloway Iain: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (6 Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 08 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11828. Text is subject to correction.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): It seems to be my lot in life at the moment to follow Paul Foster-Bell in this debating chamber which is fine by me because he gives me plenty of material. So what this comes down to is whether the Government will support extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks or whether it will not and it comes down to priorities. We have heard from the Government that it is not prepared to spend the money on extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks. That is all it comes down to.Then we heard from Paul Foster-Bell: “Well if we did that we’d have to take the money from health or we’d have to take the money from education or we’d have to take the money from some other part of the welfare State.” I have got a suggestion. The Prime Minister says we can afford $3 billion worth of tax cuts—not $3 billion over 15 years or $3 billion over 20 years but $3 billion year after year after year. The Prime Minister says we can afford $3 billion worth of tax cuts. Take it from that. Take it from that.I am not even sure what the percentage is because it is so minuscule. It is such a tiny number—far less than 1 percent of what the Prime Minister says we can afford in tax cuts—that we could use to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks. That is a far better use of that money. The return we would get on that investment is far better than simply handing out $3 billion and we know where it goes when the National Government gives tax cuts. It goes to the people at the very top. It certainly will not be going to the people who would benefit from getting paid parental leave extended to 26 weeks. So there is the solution.Paul Foster-Bell has been asking questions. He wants to hear the answers. Where is the money coming from? There is—Paul Foster-Bell: What’s the answer?IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: There is the answer Paul Foster-Bell. There is the answer—0.03 of a percent. So the Prime Minister can still have his tax cuts and we want just 0.03 percent of that to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks. There is the answer—there is the answer. I get all these spurious questions and Paul Foster-Bell laments the fact that he is not getting answers from Sue Moroney in the chair or from the members opposite. There is the answer. It is very straightforward.This Government can find money for its projects that it prioritises. It has already accepted that paid parental leave is a good investment. It took it a while. It took a long time to catch up. It insisted back when Labour and the Greens—and I am not sure what New Zealand First’s position on it was at the time so I will not put words in its members’ mouths but back when paid parental leave was first introduced back when we had those surpluses David Seymour was talking about earlier on National members said it was not affordable then. So they have never thought it was affordable because it has never been a priority to them.The money can be found. It can be found from all sorts of different places if we just set this as a priority if we just make children a priority. But the easy answer is to take 0.03 percent of the tax cuts the Prime Minister says are going to be affordable. Take that money and extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks. It is not hard.