Fox Marama: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 10 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9621. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party):E Te Mana Whakawā nei te mihi atu ki a koe e Te Whare i tēnei rangi harerūia harerūia.[I acknowledge you Mr Deputy Speaker and the House today; hallelujah and glory.]It started last night and it carries on today. I am proud to stand and take a call on this legislation and I want to acknowledge Iain Lees-Galloway. He is right—and he was quite generous in his speech to the House—to recognise the combined efforts. In Māori we have a saying that says: Mā pango mā whero ka oti ai te mahi. Pango whero in this casekahurangi kākāriki pango anō kei reira atu i te kōwhai kua ea tēnei pire.[Through black and red the job will be done. Through black and red and in this caseblue and green and black again is there beside yellow and this bill has been fulfilled.]This is a collaborative effort and in fact we have to recognise that this is more than just a whole-of-Government response to the rights and the security of workers in this country; in fact it is a whole-of-population response. Our country our people our workers have come out and said “We need to have security for ourselves and our families.”At this point I just want to acknowledge the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety. The Minister has worked with our officials—and our officials in our office have gone back and forward and back and forward through many phone calls and discussions—and the Minister himself has been flexible. He has recognised that there is a duty of care for workers in this country and he has made the changes necessary to protect workers through guaranteed hours and through adequate compensation for work. So I want to recognise him for doing that and also the pressure that was brought to bear by the collective efforts of the people in this House and our nation.Those collective efforts ensure that workers are paid adequately in the workplace—well given guaranteed hours actually; they all need a pay rise—but we want to recognise paid parental leave and the efforts of Sue Moroney to bring this into the legislation. But we also had been advocating for whāngai parents who had not until now been recognised. They now have the ability at the most pivotal time of a child’s life to stay home. There is a quote that I use often which I firmly believe in that the most important work we will ever do is within the four walls of our own home and that no worldly success can compensate for failure in the home.This legislation has seen the extension of paid parental leave from 16 weeks to 18 weeks. We would like to see it go further to 26 weeks but it now has extended to ensure that the tikanga of whāngai is being recognised. Here the National Government has again accepted that a principle of tikanga—a kaupapa Māori principle—can be accounted for inside the law so I want to acknowledge the National Government for that.Before I finish—and I am not going to take too much more time—I want to acknowledge the efforts of the Council of Trade Unions which has continually come and discussed things in a productive way with us not bringing any pressure to bear. We have checked things off with it as we have gone along as well and so I want to acknowledge the council for the way in which it has conducted conversations with us about the parts that it was concerned about in this legislation.It is with great happiness actually that I stand to take a call to support this legislation recognising the efforts of the Minister recognising the efforts of the Opposition parties—specifically Mr Lees-Galloway—and also of all of the members of this House and our nation. Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā.