SpeechIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): I would like to start where others have started by congratulating the member in charge of this bill Jan Logie. She was very humble in her first reading speech by recognising that the work—as is always the case with these things—started outside Parliament with Women's Refuge with unions bargaining for changes through collective bargaining and with all the other groups that I am sure have worked closely with Jan Logie on formulating this bill. But the truth is it does actually take someone in this Parliament to put the bill into the ballot and then when it comes out of the ballot to actually champion it to have the negotiations and to work with colleagues around the House especially the hard work to get to the point where it appears we will have unanimity when we come to the vote on this first reading. So I want to acknowledge that work by Jan Logie. We all like to be humble in this place but we have a job to do and when those opportunities come up—when that bill comes out of the ballot—it does take a lot of work to get to the position that this bill has got to. So congratulations to Jan on doing that.I also want to acknowledge the Minister of Justice Amy Adams for her leadership because—I will say this gently and like the previous member Chris Bishop I do not want to be party political—the Government's initial response was negative. The Government's initial response was that this would cost too much and Michael Woodhouse as the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety stated that on the record. Clearly some conversations have gone on within the National Government aided I am sure by the lobbying from the member in charge of the bill and it is pleasing to see that Amy Adams' leadership has won through and the Government has decided that this is a worthy piece of legislation to at least take to a select committee where we can have the conversation.And there has been some conversation tonight about what the Government's role is in this. I think the Government certainly does have a role but at the very least our role as a Parliament is to lead the conversation and to show the way. By getting this bill to a select committee where businesses will have the opportunity to come and speak with us about the challenges that it may present to them but also the opportunities and I hope they will work with us on how we can make this work because we have heard from some organisations that the cost may be unbearable for some businesses particularly small businesses. I implore them please come and speak with us about how we can make this work. Do not simply come to the select committee and say: This can't work. We're not supporting it." Parliament is of a clear mind that we want to make this work so I ask everybody who is planning to submit to the select committee to come and speak with us about how we can work together to make this work.I would actually like to look at some of the provisions in the bill because much has been made of the leave provisions—the additional 10 days' leave that would be available to victims of domestic violence—but the bill does much more than that particularly in the area of flexible work arrangements which allow people who have been victims of domestic violence to have flexibility around their hours of work their days of work their place of work their location of workplace etc. Again I think the member in charge has been a little bit conservative on this—and Sarah Dowie touched on this—and we actually might just need to loosen things up a little bit here to make this allowance for flexibility at work more permissive. I think those of us who are in the Opposition tend to be a little conservative so that we can try to get the Government's support and get it on board. I took Sarah Dowie's comment as quite a constructive one and a positive one that actually we might be able to get that part of the bill to exactly where Jan Logie would like it to be. So that is good.Obviously there are the changes to leave. The changes to health and safety at work—I think those are incredibly positive. To actually acknowledge domestic violence as a workplace hazard—that is a bold step forward. Again it speaks volumes as to how important this issue is and the type of leadership that Parliament can take.So I do encourage people to see this bill in its totality. This is not just a bill about leave. This is a bill about how businesses and employees and the Government and Parliament can all work together to say that we do not accept domestic violence and we will take every step possible not just to mitigate it but to stamp it out. The last point I want to make as others have made is that it is important that men take leadership and take ownership and acknowledge that when men stop committing violence towards women we will make a significant step forward."