Moroney Sue: Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17943. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery can I say that I am only a little flattered—only a little flattered—by the Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill. What should have been 26 weeks of paid parental leave is a miserable 18 weeks. But that is not now—not any time soon. It is not until a 2-week extension next year 2015 and a further 2 weeks in 2016. But there is good news. There is good news for New Zealanders because before then New Zealanders get to vote in an election where they can actually vote for a Government that actually gets this that actually believes it and that fights in a principled way forextending paid parental leave supporting families prioritising them and actually putting them at the front of the queue not like the National Government’s johnny-come-latelys trying to pick up Labour’s ideas and water them down thinking that that is going to do it. Well I do not think that will do it.However I do want to say at the outset that Labour will be supporting this bill because it is a little progress. It is a little progress but I will at this stage remind the members opposite that there is a superior bill in front of this Parliament which still remains in this Parliament and that they still get to do the right thing despite this poor measure that the Government is bringing in. They can actually vote for 26 weeks of paid parental leave because that bill is still coming before this Parliament and I look forward to that. I am surprised to be speaking on this bill in urgency because after all nothing in this bill comes in until 2015. So I am quite surprised. I am not sure what the urgency is over passing this bill through all stages tonight. I can only think that the Government is embarrassed by my bill which is still on the Order Paper and it wants to try to get in front of it.Well here is another issue that I want to raise. I have got to say that although I will get on and talk about children’s things because I think that is important—because that is what this is all about; this is all about the children—what I have learnt through this exercise is to never trust a Tory. I have learnt to never trust a Tory. It is a disgrace that Chris Auchinvole was on his feet and even speaking on a bill about this issue I have got to say because Chris Auchinvole was the MP who made the agreement with me on behalf of his caucus that if there was to be any extension to paid parental leave it would be done in my bill in my name.Chris Auchinvole: Oh!SUE MORONEY: Yes you did Mr Auchinvole—yes you did. That is why I will never trust a Tory. It is why I will never trust a Tory. There he is pretending that he never made that agreement on behalf of his caucus but he did. National came to me and asked for an extension because it was going to reconsider its position. National said it was going to make amendments to my bill and discuss that with me.Chris Auchinvole: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Although it is a reasonable debate and it is an important one I really do object to being called a Tory.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): That is not a point of order.SUE MORONEY: I am not going to continue to talk about that particular issue any more except just to note that Mr Auchinvole did not object to being called untrustworthy. To continue speaking about what Tories have had to say about this issue I do want to talk about one more Tory before I talk about children and that is Judith Collins who in 2004 said about paid parental leave: “It is another example of the Government using taxpayers’ money to try to win some votes.” That is what Judith Collins said in 2004. If she were here now if she was not on leave as she is—Hon Trevor Mallard: No no. She’s here. She’s hiding in the Beehive.SUE MORONEY: Oh she is here. Well look come down Judith. Come and take a call on the debate—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Do not refer to the absence of a member.SUE MORONEY: Judith Collins? OK. Actually I am also quite interested that the National Party has put male after male after male up to speak on this bill but in fact when it comes to my bill on paid parental leave National will not let the men anywhere near it strangely enough. National will only let the women in the party talk.What I really want to say is that this bill is a really good bill because it puts the issue right in front of the public. They can now see which Government it is that would actually prioritise families. They can see it absolutely because they know that aLabour-led Government will have 26 weeks of paid parental leave and will have it in place a long way before the Government even gets to its 18 weeks—even before it gets to its 18 weeks. The public also know that it is the Labour Party that will ensure that all children reap the benefit of policy making under a Labour-led Government.One of the big gaps in this bill—surprise surprise—from National is that it is the most vulnerable children who will miss out on any form of support from this bill. The parental tax credit that National has chosen to put more money into and to extend for a short period of time longer does not get to the people who most need it. It does not get to the families who most need it. Students people on ACC and people who are beneficiaries do not get to use the parental tax credit. Is it any wonder that child poverty is growing under that Government? Is it any wonder with those sorts of attitudes? What the Government is using this bill to do is to bring in all of its judgments—David Bennett: Prove it.SUE MORONEY: I will prove it Mr Bennett if you would just actually listen to my speech. I did hear Mr Bennett before doing a tiny 2-minute speech. He could not even talk about children and families for longer than 2 minutes. I heard him speaking and asking: “Where is Sue Moroney?”. Well Sue Moroney was doing lots and lots of media interviews because the media understands where this bill comes from. It understands what the driving force has been even if David Bennett does not want to admit it.It is a great shame that the National Government again has taken its Cabinet club approach to this bill has made all the sorts of judgments that it does and has said that there are only some families that are worthy of this support—only some. Mike Sabin called them hard-working families. He said that this bill is just there to support the hard-working ones. The hard-working babies—really? These are babies. How do they get to be hard-working babies when they are not even 18 weeks old? They are not even 18 weeks old. But Mike Sabin says that this bill is for only the hard-working babies. That is not the view of the Labour Party. We believe that all children deserve the support of New Zealanders. All children do—particularly the children who are in vulnerable situations. That is why Labour’s Best Start package is considerably better than what this Government is prepared to do.Why is that? I think it is clear. Everyone in New Zealand knows that this Government has been dragged kicking and screaming—kicking and screaming—towards supporting extended paid parental leave. It has tried every trick in the book. From 2002 the Government has consistently voted against any form of paid parental leave. It threatened a financial veto—the extreme tool of a financial veto—against extending paid parental leave. The Government has filibustered my bill to try to stop paid parental leave from being extended to 26 weeks. It has used every trick in the book to try to stop this from happening.In the end the Government knew that it was on the wrong side of the New Zealand public. National knew that it was losing votes through these popular policies but still could not bring itself to do it properly. The Government still could not bring itself to do it properly because it fundamentally does not believe in paid parental leave. The Government will never put children at the heart of its policy making because it fundamentally does not get it. Only the hard-working ones—the hard-working babies—are going to get this according to Mike Sabin. Well that says just about all you need to know about the National Government. It has been dragged kicking and screaming towards this. I am proud of my part in bringing this about and I applaud the Government for doing the smallest amount it thinks it can get away with in an election year.