Sio William: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 08 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9468. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): I want firstly to congratulate my colleague Sue Moroney on championing this issue because her championing of this issue with the wider support of the New Zealand community has enabled this debate to be here right here and now. It has forced this Government to recognise that there is a need and therefore it was important the work that Sue Moroney did.Yes we applaud the Government and I think many New Zealanders will think “Eighteen weeks OK. We accept that.” but the reality is we do need to look long term and recognise that this is not something to be playing politics with. This is something that is important for our country going forward.I want to refer my comments to clause 4 in Part 1 with regard to the purpose. The amendment that is in this part of the legislation basically just deletes a couple of words and replaces them. I want to say—and I was not part of the discussion—that I think we have missed an opportunity. I do not know whether the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety would agree but I just felt that there should have been a complete purpose clause written in this piece of legislation as to why it is important for this Government and future Governments to entrench paid parental leave.You see most young people today will not know that this is a basic human right. It is an internationally recognised human right. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes reference to the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of workers and families. Subclause (2) of that article says: “Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children whether born in or out of wedlock shall enjoy the same social protection.” So I think there should have been a specific purpose emphasising the reason why this Government has deemed it necessary to have paid parental leave. I think that is something that we probably need to work on because I think many many young people do not yet realise that this is a basic human right for the protection of children and the protection of women as well. I think it is timely that it has been raised on International Women’s Day.I want to refer the Committee to the regulatory impact statement at page 6 where it makes reference to the benefits of why it is important to have paid parental leave. It will “reduce long term fiscal costs (for example costs that may arise from poorer health and social outcomes)”. I will give you an example: 2 weeks ago Caden Wong Singh turned 1 year old. His mother was forced to go back to work—they literally cannot have just one person working to sustain and support their family with rent etc. Caden is my grandson. A couple of weeks ago I saw Caden and he had some sores around his cheek that concerned me. When I asked his mother what had happened it occurred at the day-care centre where Caden was left by the mother who goes to work.I make that point as an example—most mums would want to be able to stay home and take care of their children. It is to the benefit of our country if we have mothers staying home to support the raising of young children for as long as they can. Everybody benefits from it. This is not about how much it is going to cost the country; this is about the benefits that arise if we are able to protect women and protect children long term.Another benefit according to the regulatory impact statement is that it enhances the retention of skills and institutional knowledge if women are protected and know that they can take time off have the time to have their child have the time to recover from giving birth to a child and know with confidence that they can return to the workforce. That does not only benefit women; it benefits the workplace by retaining the skills and institutional knowledge that that business requires. Another benefit that is recognised is reducing recruitment—