Shanks Katrina: Employment Relations (Breaks and Infant Feeding) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Shanks Katrina: Employment Relations (Breaks and Infant Feeding) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:646;Page:15530] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to speak to the Employment Relations (Breaks and Infant Feeding) Amendment Bill today. It is interesting that we have two mothers of five children in this House. Being the competitive person I am I thought I was up there but I myself have breastfed only three children. We have the winners at one end—those with five children—and I am not quite as experienced with three children. But maybe I make up for it in that I am the second-most-recent person in Parliament to have breastfed I believe—in the not too distant past. I looked at this legislation with a lot of interest because it is quite relevant to where I have been and where I could be again come to think about it—not that I am! [ 
Interruption 
] No fear I say to the whip. 
The first thing that came to mind when I looked at this legislation was to ask what current evidence there is that the existing provision is not working in the workplace. What evidence is there that employers are not allowing women to breastfeed in the workplace? As an MP I have not had one woman come to me to say that she had an issue with it. As a woman with many friends still breastfeeding and working I can say that none of them have an issue with breastfeeding or expressing milk in the workplace. On looking into this bill a bit more I think the select committee has a lot of work to do in proving that we need it. 
Not only that; it also has a lot of work to do on the detail of the legislation. As a mother who has breastfed three children I can tell members right now that a period of 10 minutes does not cut the mustard at all and neither does the proposed number of breaks. A mother’s milk does not come in in a break; it can come in at any time depending on how much the mother has had to drink how tired she is how stressed she is and when she last fed her baby. Babies change routines all the time so just because a mother breastfeeds at 9 one morning does not mean she will breastfeed at 9 the next morning. A mother is not on a strict timetable. Her employer cannot tell her that her breastfeeding break is at 10.30 because she may not have enough milk then or she may have way too much milk at 9 o’clock. 
If women will have to wait until 10.30 to breastfeed many of them will ask whether their employers are going to supply them with cabbage leaves. We were talking about this before and wondering whether employers would be asked to provide ordinary cabbage leaves or frozen cabbage leaves for women who have to wait for their break. 
Heather Roy 
: You need frozen. 
KATRINA SHANKS 
: The mother of five children agrees that the cabbage leaves should be frozen. Employers would need to provide frozen cabbage leaves in case a mother’s milk supply comes in too early or too late. How do we actually legislate for something as personal to a woman as breastfeeding and get it to work and have conformity across the workplace? I think the select committee has a lot of work to do on how it will actually— 
Darien Fenton 
: Chester is supporting it. 
KATRINA SHANKS 
: I am sorry but I am actually talking to the bill here and I have a really important issue. This provision is all about babies and mothers and milk; that is what it is about. I tell members that if we do not get it right before mothers get back to the workplace if we do not ensure that women are breastfeeding properly when they leave hospital and go home there will not be an issue. If women are being pushed out of hospital within 6 hours of the birth as the Capital and Coast District Health Board does how are they going to learn to breastfeed? They will be going back to work not having breastfed their children. They need support at the beginning in hospital and when they get home but they are not getting it. 
We need lactation consultants. We need midwives who can give mothers the full visits that under section 88 they deserve but are not getting now. In some district health boards midwives are handing over mothers to Well Child 2 weeks after the birth. If they are doing that how can the mothers get support from the midwives to ensure that they are breastfeeding properly? In fact if we do not get it right at the very beginning when women are coming out of hospital with new babies this legislation is irrelevant; they will not be breastfeeding their babies in the workplace because they will not be breastfeeding their babies. 
We need to fix the matter up front and this current Government has absolutely no answers for that. There is a crisis in midwifery there is a crisis in maternity services right now and women need support at the front end but this Government has not been able to deliver it to them. If members ask any women out there what is most likely to keep them in hospital the answer will be the ability to breastfeed. That is what keeps them there; they want to learn to breastfeed. But they are not getting the support they need. This legislation may be totally irrelevant because we already know that 6 weeks after the birth there is a huge drop-off in the number of women who are breastfeeding. Women who are at home for the first 3 months are not breastfeeding when they go back into the workforce. 
We have major issues to address. I am taking just a short call today and will end on the note that I think the select committee has a huge amount of work to do particularly on how practical this legislation is. When legislation like this is being rushed through especially in election year I think we have to consider how valid it is.