Pillay Lynne: Appointments — Abortion Supervisory Committee 
Pillay Lynne: Appointments — Abortion Supervisory Committee 
[Volume:639;Page:9919] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour—Waitakere) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to stand in support of the recommendation to the Governor-General to appoint Professor Linda Jane Holloway Dr Rosemary Fenwicke and Patricia Allan. I believe that they will bring real attributes to the Abortion Supervisory Committee. These are challenging positions that require people of integrity and resilience and with a broad range of skills and I believe that is what these women present. 
Very briefly I point out that Professor Linda Holloway amongst her many other attributes was one of the advisers to Dame Silvia Cartwright during the inquiry into the treatment of cervical cancer at National Women’s Hospital. Dr Rosie Fenwicke worked for the Family Planning Association and has a broad range of skills. I think that with her background in family planning she will bring much skill to the council. Patricia Allan has over 20 years’ experience in either church or council-funded social services or ministry roles. I believe that that diverse range of skills will be an asset to the Abortion Supervisory Committee. 
I also recognise and acknowledge the previous speakers in terms of the journey around choice for women and their acknowledgment of the need for that. I particularly recognise and pay tribute to those women in our history who campaigned long and hard for our women’s right to choose. Those women were true pioneers and I think it is really important to acknowledge in this House their contribution to the safety of women. I also acknowledge our society which by a vast majority is a progressive society that has seen the need for change in the past and has supported it. 
The issue of abortion is about choice. It is not about being pro-abortion; it is about being pro-choice. I want to acknowledge any woman any relationship and any family who has had to make that difficult and heart-rending decision. It is not a decision that is easy it is not a decision that is made lightly and it is probably not a decision that is ever forgotten. But by restricting access to safe abortion we would see in our society in our communities exactly the opposite of that. We would see unsafe abortion and if we look at our not too distant past that is exactly what we see: backstreet abortions and women’s lives put at risk and lost through unsafe practices. 
In fact other choices are important too. Women today need to be economically secure and to be secure in their careers when they make their decisions about having children—when families make those decisions. They need to know that their children will get the best opportunities in life and that is important to them when making those decisions. This Government has been committed to supporting families to do just that. Through paid parental leave women can now know that they will have the security of 14 weeks at home with their baby with an income to ensure that they bond with their baby and in most instances establish breastfeeding. That is really important. The introduction of paid parental leave in New Zealand under the Labour-led Government went a long way towards ensuring not only that children get the best start in life but also that women have real choices about bringing children into the world and raising them in the best way possible. 
 I also want to acknowledge Working for Families. Again Working for Families has given choices and security to families with children. So often families were in a position where they wanted to have children but they really could not afford to. Maybe hard decisions were made because of the inability to support another child in a family and to have one of the people in the relationship not working. Working for Families has brought much more security and opportunity in terms of supporting families in that situation by providing income through tax credits to them. I am really proud of this Government and very very proud of the Working for Families policy. It is a family-friendly policy as is 4 weeks’ leave and encouraging flexible working hours. All of those things go towards ensuring that our children have the best possible opportunities and the best possible security in the home and that families are able to feel more secure in providing for them. 
I also see as important the Government’s commitment to ensuring that education is out there in the community in the schools or in the churches—wherever it is necessary—in order to ensure that pregnancies are not unwanted if I can use that term or not seen as a mistake or an error but rather are planned. Certainly through the education of our young people—and of our not-so-young people—about the choices whether they be the contraception or the safe sex or the no sex messages all of those messages are going out to our young people through the programmes such as our peer sexuality programme that have been introduced into schools by the Labour-led Government. Those are all really good progressive programmes that one would hope would help people to avoid having to make really difficult decisions because they have not had the knowledge to avoid being in a position where a pregnancy would be perhaps detrimental or where continuing with a pregnancy could be very detrimental to their mental health and their security. 
So I am very proud to take a call on this issue. I acknowledge other speakers and once again I endorse the support for Professor Linda Holloway for Dr Rosemary Fenwicke and for Patricia Allan as members of the Abortion Supervisory Committee.