Wall Louisa: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 05 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:673. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa):Kia ora Mr Chair. Thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this very important Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Sue Moroney on the tenacity she has shown to actually put children and parents at the heart of a piece of legislation.This bill is all about making sure that every child in New Zealand has the opportunity to grow up in the first 6 months of their life with their parents. We know how important it is for children to have that attachment to a primary caregiver. All the research tells us this—the research from Brainwave Trust the research from Families Commission the research from Sir Peter Gluckman. Why is it relevant? It is relevant because if we do not get good attachment it actually has ongoing long-term consequences for the health and well-being and the development of children. We know for example that paid parental leave reduces infant mortality. We know for example that children have fewer behavioural problems social problems or emotional problems later in life. So the value of paid parental leave is actually about setting the framework the context for our children so that they can grow up healthy strong good New Zealanders and fulfil their potential.What I want to contribute to the debate tonight is a Treasury report dated 20 September 2012. It is really interesting because this Treasury report was given to the Minister of Finance and it was very clear that the evidence around paid parental leave exists. In fact that is what drove the National Government to respond to Sue Moroney’s member’s bill and put its own paid parental leave increases in place. On 1 April 2015 paid parental leave will increase by 2 weeks to 16 weeks. On 1 April 2016 it will increase by another 2 weeks to 18 weeks. So the National Government knows that paid parental leave is good for our families. There is no argument about that. I guess what we are arguing about is the length of time.What is interesting in that Treasury report is that it did not commit to a length of time but the National Government did commit to a length of time—but from where? If it is an evidence-based Government where did the 18 weeks come from? We on this side of the Chamber say that it should be 26 weeks and in fact the Green Party wants it to be—Jan Logie: 13 months.LOUISA WALL: —13 months. What do other countries do? Well we know that in Britain it is 39 weeks and in Sweden it is 16 months. So everybody agrees that paid parental leave is a good thing to do but then we quibble about how long it should be.So I want to commend Sue Moroney the member in charge of this bill for being pragmatic and putting forward Supplementary Order Paper 15 which maintains the integrity of her bill. For us it is about 26 weeks—that is our bottom line—but because of the fiscal constraints and because the National Government do not want to give all parents 26 weeks what we have decided to do is prioritise and target some families that we think are most in need. Those families are ones that have two or more children the families of children who are born prematurely and the families of children born with a disability. We all know that within that context those families are most in need. They are most under stress. They are most under pressure. I want to emphasise our commitment to parents who have a child with a disability.For me this bill provides an opportunity for us to do a little bit of targeting. So let us target those families most in need. If you are a parent and you have a child who is born with a disability I would have thought—I have not been blessed; I have not had any children. I have got brothers who have got children and I know what a child means to a family. But I imagine that if a child is born into a family and that child has a disability it is an incredibly overwhelming stressful uncertain time for those parents. They need support. I guess they need to know that they have got support from each other from their families from the medical system from the social system and also from the Government which is why we are targeting families whose children are born with a disability. We recognise actually that having paid parental leave for 26 weeks in some way may take a bit of that stress away. It may enable them to prepare—