Moroney Sue: Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill (No 2) Taxation (Parental Tax Credit) Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill (No 2) Taxation (Parental Tax Credit) Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:18006. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): It is a pleasure to rise to speak to the third readings of these two bills—the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill and the Taxation (Parental Tax Credit) Bill—which were originally the Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill but have now been split. It is of deep concern that if National members were truly proud of this package they would be taking their calls on this legislation but they appear to have stopped. They appear to have given up doing even that. Maybe they are ashamed. Maybe they are ashamed of how little this package actually does deliver. I am not sure why they have stopped giving their speeches on this legislation. None the less the Labour Party has got plenty to say about financial support for newborn children. As I said at the outset when we stood not that long ago actually and spoke on the first reading of the original bill which we had put in front of us maybe 5 minutes earlier if imitation is the most sincere form of flattery then I feel only a little flattered by the measures that are being debated here today in these third readings.The Government has missed a huge opportunity. It has missed an opportunity to ensure a good level of financial support for all newborn children—for all newborn children. And it has particularly missed an opportunity to have read and understood all of the brilliant research and evidence that have been put before the Government Administration Committee in its debating and consideration of my bill to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill. Because if the Government had taken the time to read that information it would have recognised that actually getting to 6 months’ paid parental leave is incredibly important for a number of reasons such as child development.Child development experts tell us that because of the way in which a newborn baby’s brain develops getting that attachment and bonding going well in particularly the first 6 months but also the first 12 months of a baby’s life really sets the pattern for how well they will cope with the rest of their lives. It sets the pattern for how well they will be able to adapt to change and how they will be able to work with the challenges in their lives and for matters like whether they will end up in the youth justice system at all issues like whether they are going to need remedial education and problems like whether they are going to need a lot of taxpayer support in our health system. All the evidence said that if we get that first 6 months right—well 12 months but importantly the first 6 months—we can make a big dent in child development and health issues but also ease the financial stress on families at a time when their income goes down and their expenses go up.I just remind people about that again because I think that people sometimes just gloss over that. They think that people have babies and live happily ever after. Well actually what happens for people who are in need of paid parental leave is that their income goes down at the very time when their expenses go up. All the expenses associated with having a newborn child cannot be glossed over. They are very real. And having access to paid parental leave and decent access to paid parental leave is important in taking the financial stress off families so that they can actually focus on the thing we would all want them to focus on which is nurturing this new young life—nurturing this newyoung life—so that all of us can have the best well-rounded fellow citizen to live alongside.I think the thing that really warmed my heart when there was an overwhelmingly positive response to my bill to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks was that I felt proud of my country actually. There are moments when I sometimes do not but on this occasion I really did because people got it.John Hayes: What about the grandmothers?SUE MORONEY: People really got it—even the grandmothers Mr Hayes. Even the grandmothers got it. I know that you think that maybe they might not have a vested interest in this but most people—not everyone but most people—said “OK. I’m past my childbearing years or I don’t plan to have children” or whatever it is “but I can understand the merit in ensuring that all of our children are raised in a stable and decent environment because we all get to live in a society alongside them.” And would we not all want the best well-rounded citizens who have had that nurturing and support from those early months to live alongside? Even employers came along to the select committee and said: “Yeah we get it. We get it as well because we want our employees when they return after paid parental leave to have their family well settled so that they can focus and be the most productive at work. We like our employees. We want them to be happy and we want their families to be supported.”People also understood that extending paid parental leave was a big boost to employers because it meant that they got to retain their valuable staff whom they had invested in whom they had spent time training and whom they want to come back into the workforce so that they can continue reaping the benefits of that skills development. So even employers understood it. Some of them must have been really disheartened to see National continually vote against that measure to extend paid parental leave. They must have been absolutely devastated when they heard National say not only that the Government would use its democratic right to vote against it but that it would stop democracy in its tracks by threatening a financial veto against the bill should it have majority support in Parliament which it does.In reflecting on the debate in the last however many hours—12 hours or 24 hours or so—some aspects of it have not been terribly pleasant but the thing that again warms my heart is that I think looking at the way that party has voted on various amendments that were put forward there will still likely be majority support for my bill for 26 weeks’ paid parental leave when it gets debated some time in the next few weeks in this House. I welcome that because I think there is still a really important debate to be had on behalf of the New Zealand public on behalf of the 3809 people who submitted on the bill—overwhelmingly in favour of it—and that we owe them the right to have the bill they support thoroughly debated in this House. I think it will pass. I think it will pass and I encourage all of those parties that have supported it to date to continue to do so because I think what that places on record is the parties that are prepared to prioritise families that are prepared to prioritise children and that do understand that this is not a cost to our society but an investment. It is an investment in the future of our society.That is what I think ignited the public imagination. When the Labour Party came out even in fiscally challenged times to say that actually families need support—families need support—and the rest of us will benefit from it the public responded and went: “There’s a party who’s talking about the real interests of the future of this country. There’s a party who really understands and is listening to and knows the pressures that are placed on families.” And the country responded and that makes me feel so proud of the sort of country that I really do love being a citizen of the sort of country where people do not necessarily think of their own self-interest but they understand the importance of society and community.This legislation is a step in the right direction and I want to acknowledge how much of a big step it is for National because it has never ever before supported extending paid parental leave despite some of the rewriting of history that has gone on in the debate. I want to acknowledge that but I also want to say to the National Party: “Don’t sell our families short. Don’t sell our families short.” The National Party and all the parties in this Parliament have another opportunity to actually do the right thing by families. Do the right thing which the research and evidence tell us will make the big difference in children’s lives and support my bill when it comes up for debate to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks—extend it to the families whom the Government says it will make newly eligible for paid parental leave which Labour also supports.I do want to say in closing that it is Labour’s view that we want to see that piece of legislation tabled in this House and debated before Parliament rises for the election because we want to see the detail of it. We think that is the right way to proceed. I commend this legislation to the House.