Moroney Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Moroney Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 26 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:4022. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
10. 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: Does he stand by all of his statements on the proposed extension to paid parental leave? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Yes particularly the statement that the Government supports parents and families. We have spent $154 million on providing the current paid parental leave which has increased by $67 per week since 2008. Alongside that the Government spends $1.4 billion on early childhood education subsidies and $2.6 billion on Working for Families payments. We have made sure that despite Budgets being tight and despite a recession we have at least maintained all these payments to families. 
Sue Moroney 
: Does he stand by his statement in April that the bill to extend paid parental leave would require an extra $500 million in borrowing over the next 3 to 4 years? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Yes. 
Sue Moroney 
: Did he receive advice from the Department of Labour on 11 April the day he announced his intention to use a financial veto that showed that the maximum cost of the bill was $285.6 million over 3 years—almost half the figure he misled the public with? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: If you add the number for the 4th year they are pretty similar. 
Sue Moroney 
: No they’re not. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: They are. The simple point is the member’s proposition will double the cost of paid parental leave. I look forward to the day when the Government has those sorts of choices. We do not have those choices now. We are working hard to maintain the current expenditure of $154 million on paid parental leave $1.4 billion on early childhood subsidies which have increased by 40 percent in the last 4 years and $2.6 billion on Working for Families payments. We are supporting families very extensively. 
Sue Moroney 
: I seek leave to table a document from the Department of Labour released under the Official Information Act to me which shows that the maximum cost of the paid parental leave bill over 3 years would be $285.6 million. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Sue Moroney 
: Did he tell journalists at a press conference he held that he will not extend paid parental leave even after the Government books get back into surplus when he announced his intention to use a financial veto on 11 April? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: It is not a matter of whether I will extend paid parental leave. What I did announce was that in my statutory role as Minister of Finance I would be vetoing this particular bill because of the high cost of it at this time. Of course Governments have got choices in the future and those choices will all be fairly difficult. Paid parental leave will be only one of a long list of aspirations New Zealanders will have once the Government gets its books back into surplus. 
Sue Moroney 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question was very direct. I asked him whether he had told journalists a particular statement. He did not respond to the question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: What I will do—because I cannot recollect exactly the question asked—is I will allow the member to repeat her question but it had better ask just that. 
Sue Moroney 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. It does indeed. Did he tell journalists at a press conference he held that he will not extend paid parental leave even after the Government books get back into surplus when he announced his intention to use a financial veto on 11 April? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Well I cannot recall exactly the words that were used but I can tell the member that it is not a matter of my extending paid parental leave. I announced that as Minister of Finance in my statutory capacity—as used many times by previous Ministers of Finance—I would veto that particular piece of legislation. I look forward to the time where the Government has the kind of choice that the member is proposing but right now with a significant deficit we do not have that choice. I am sure my remarks to the press conference reflected the reality that when we do get to surplus there are many aspirations New Zealanders will have of which this is only one. At the time it may not be the most important.