Moroney Sue: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6747. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): Can I begin by thanking all the parties that have indicated that they are supporting this bill going through to the select committee. This debate has been all about priorities. It is all about exposing where the parties sit and whether they actually put their money where their mouths are in prioritising families and children. It is very clear to see that in the first instance the Labour Party is prepared absolutely to do that and the Green Party New Zealand First and the Māori Party. I hope to also be thanking Peter Dunne at the end of this debate as well because I am hoping that his vote will be the one that carries this bill through to the select committee.I want to put this bill into a little bit of a wider context. This is part of a much broader policy platform that the Labour Party is bringing forward that will actually put children at the heart of our policy development process. It is part of what we call our Best Start policy that involves yes extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks but also ensuring all those families that Mr Seymour made reference to—the 60000 babies that are born each year—get access to better financial support. That was contained in our Best Start policy and this is one leg of that. So it is part of a broader policy agenda from the Labour Party to ensure that we actually do get that brighter future that the current Government used to once talk about but we do not hear them talk about much anymore. This type of investment will truly do that.I do want to bat away the criticisms that the opposite side has made about the cost because the truth is that it is what my grandmother would have called throwing good money after bad. What the current Government seems content to do is to keep spending taxpayer money on the bad outcomes of not getting it right in those early months rather than spending a little bit on investing early and reaping the benefits as a society. That is a substantial difference between this side of the House and the current National Government members who really cannot see beyond the end of their noses when it comes to investing in a brighter future for this country.We all benefit when we get this right because it is not just about those families and those children and how they benefit; it is about the sort of society that we want to have and that we wish to have. As taxpayers when we get this right we all get to save money. That is what the select committee found when it last had a look at this bill and I am sure that we will find that again.This time round this bill is even more affordable than it was the last time I brought it before Parliament. Then I was asking for 12 weeks more; now the proposal is to simply add 8 weeks more. Yes #8moreweeks—that is what we are after with this bill. It has become more affordable at a time when we have moved into a period of economic growth albeit small economic growth—that is where we are.I do want to let this House know that in terms of the international comparisons yes in Ireland a similar-sized country to us—one could say actually that it is in a worse financial situation than we are—it actually already has 6 months’ paid parental leave and guess what it is doing next? It has already said that it is going to extend it by a further 6 months over the course of the next decade. That is what the Irish are doing and that is the sort of thing that this country should be doing if it is absolutely prepared to invest in children and put them at the heart of this country as they should be.I want to commend organisations like Plunket Barnados Every Child Counts and the many other organisations that are part of the 26 for Babies coalition because they know that this is the right thing to do. The Government when it opposes this bill is opposing those organisations and what they believe in. I commend this bill. Thank you.