Young Jonathan: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYoung Jonathan: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6356. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): I am very pleased to stand and speak on the Employment Standards Legislation Bill at its first reading. I am sure that when this bill comes to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee we will work through all the issues and that will bring the clarifications that the previous speaker Iain Lees-Galloway does not see.It is quite difficult to have just one-size-fits-all—we know that—when it comes to people who are on call. There are people on call right throughout our workforce such as glaziers. If a building is broken into or a storm shatters a window of a department store then the glazier comes in at all hours of the night to repair it. There are other people who are on call such as plumbers. I received a phone call from a friend of mine at 10 o’clock at night. I was driving to Auckland and got a message on my cellphone asking whether I knew a plumber because of a leak that had sprung in their house. I was able to get the person there to repair the leak. That person was on call. Of course they do get reimbursed and when the bill came in the following week we understood just how much people who are on call can charge.There is a lot of complexity about being on call. I understand the concerns and sentiments of the previous speaker. All of that will be become clearer and clearer as we go through the select committee process.What I want to speak on principally tonight is the paid parental leave component of this bill that has been presented. Thank you to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety for I think the broad range of amendments that this bill contains. They are determined to make this provision far more flexible for the modern workplace. It is so important that our legislation is not only the rule of law but also encompasses the will the understanding and the cooperation of people as people in the workplace have all sorts of different employment scenarios these days.The number of live births registered in New Zealand in the year ended March 2012 was 60860 and data shows that the proportion of paid parental leave recipients as a percentage of births was around 42 percent. So this does affect a very large significant number of people. The purpose of this bill which makes amendments to the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act is to create a greater flexibility so people can take hold of these entitlements which can work for their family situations while at the same time they maintain build or support the connection with employment that they have had previously and desire to return to. That is very very important.There is no doubt that parental leave has economic and social benefits including a positive impact on a child’s cognitive development on child health on economic growth and on labour force participation. It also reduces child poverty. We are going to hear about all of these provisions in the select committee process. We look forward to submitters submitting and then coming to the select committee and I am sure we are going to have a very interesting and a very good debate over the issues.I believe we will end up with legislation that is going to greatly enhance the employment provisions of people in New Zealand. I am very happy to commend this bill to the House.