Kaye NikkiHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central): I rise on behalf of the National Party to commend this bill to the House. Firstly can I take a moment to acknowledge everybody who has been involved in the development of this bill: firstly Kathryn van Beek—what an extraordinary amazing woman. I have read her comments around the development of this bill. She was a New Zealander that chose to fight through courage and resilience to have this issue brought to Parliament. In doing so she has fundamentally changed the course of history to ensure that a group of women and families in my view are better off as a result of this law. Secondly can I acknowledge her local MP: Clare Curran. The reality is that like many of us I know in my electorate I would have somewhere over 10000 constituency cases or queries or contacts that come through my office each year and often when people sit in my office and they say Well will it really make a difference—sitting down with your local MP?" I say "Yes actually there are times where I've written to Ministers and policies have changed and laws have changed as a result of it." So I acknowledge you Clare as well and that as a result of someone approaching you—a constituent—we're now in this position where law in my view will change and then obviously Ginny Andersen because you've then taken up the mantle of putting forward a bill that has been drawn out of the members' bill ballot. That takes work. It takes quite a lot of drafting and it takes the ability as well to work across the House to try and gather support for it. So I want to acknowledge all of those people that have worked hard to get to this point. But fundamentally the reason that the National Party supports this law change is we understand the real trauma that occurs as a result of a miscarriage but also stillbirth and we don't want to leave it up to chance. That's why we're prepared to support a law that says that as of right women will have access to three days' bereavement leave. So the question then becomes: well what's been happening now? Now the reality is we do acknowledge that there are many employers out there that have done the right thing: naturally when they have someone who is grieving they have given them leave. But what this bill is about is actually establishing a much stronger parliamentary provision in law that says actually as of right people should have that right to have three days' bereavement leave. I do want to acknowledge the real—both physical and emotional and mental—impact of a miscarriage. There's research that demonstrates many women experience depression. They experience anxiety. There's increasing research that demonstrates that for a number of women there's post-traumatic stress disorder as a result and also there are physical impacts that occur often for many women when they have a miscarriage. So from our perspective this is absolutely the right thing to do. It's not just about being a compassionate country; it's also about recognising the real health and wellbeing issues and the trauma that is often for many people lifelong that results as a result of having a miscarriage or losing a child. I just want to acknowledge as well—and we hear it when we read some of what Kathryn van Beek has written—the fact that there are women in New Zealand and families that have had to deal with being turned down and not have leave. So not only have they been through this extraordinary trauma they're dealing with of having a miscarriage but then at that moment of extraordinary trauma where they could have depression or anxiety or have post-traumatic stress disorder and they could be dealing with physical issues as a result of the miscarriage they've been told that they will not have leave. We've heard women who have spoken out on this and I guess what I would say from the Opposition's point of view is our heart goes out to you and to all of those people that have experienced that terrible horrific situation of basically having further trauma at the time of your greatest need. Again that is why our party have said we support this law proceeding because we understand there are real people that have had additional trauma as a result of being turned down. I do want to acknowledge as well—and I'm sure that this will be discussed at select committee—that people will raise real privacy issues in terms of the mechanics around how this all works. I think we should have that debate at select committee but I think the principle that we strengthen the law is incredibly sound. I have no doubt that there will be some employers that will turn up to select committee and say "Well as a blanket rule this Act could add additional cost." From our perspective on this side of the House we are absolutely supporting this bill because we would actually argue the additional cost in trauma—can you put a price on the trauma and additional depression anxiety the physical impacts that women and families are going through? What this is about is just ensuring that we entrench that right that people can take that time period off. I would acknowledge—and I heard it obviously in Ginny Andersen's speech—that the world is watching. There are only a few jurisdictions potentially that do this but I do also acknowledge that if you look at a country like India for instance they have actually a number of weeks. As I understand it in Canada they also have a number of weeks. So you can argue that well this is a small number of jurisdictions across the world but the other argument is actually that in other jurisdictions they've done a lot more. But we look forward to having that debate at select committee around the time period and the appropriateness of that and we look forward to investigating further what other jurisdictions do. But ultimately I would step back and say that look fundamentally we are a kind and compassionate nation. We have demonstrated on numerous issues in the past that we can be incredibly progressive and that the Parliament can work together cross-party on a number of those issues. Again I don't think that it matters whether it's dealing with issues of health and safety or dealing with this particular issue and the ability of entrenching the right of people to take bereavement leave where there is a miscarriage. I think we can do more in this area and that's why the National Party want to support this bill. Finally I do want to make my final comments to again Kathryn van Beek who has worked incredibly hard with both Clare Curran and Ginny Andersen. I just acknowledge you. I acknowledge all of the other women that have raised their voice on this issue and from the National Party's point of view we will absolutely be supporting this bill to the House because we want to do everything that we can to reduce where possible additional trauma and anxiety and to give women and their families the ability to have the time together to appropriately grieve in what is one of the hardest situations that you can imagine in life. National supports this bill to the House."