Beaumont Carol: Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill (No 2) Taxation (Parental Tax Credit) Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBeaumont Carol: Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill (No 2) Taxation (Parental Tax Credit) Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:18013. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour): Well it is great to see the depth of David Bennett’s passion for the issue of families. That speech was all of 1 minute. I intend to take my full call on this matter. It is an important question—the question of how we support our newborn children.I want to start by acknowledging that we have this legislation arising from the Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill before the House and that there is a small improvement being made in the areas of both paid parental leave—2 weeks next year; 2 weeks the year after—and parental tax credits for some by lifting the amount and length of time. We should always acknowledge where there is some progress being made. There is the progress of course in those two areas and as I said in the Committee stage the progress in fact in the National Party’s thinking because it has obviously finally got it that paid parental leave is actually important and that we need to do more in this space. But we need to do a great deal better I would say.As for the last member who has just resumed his seat—to say that Labour has not taken this question seriously is just absolutely incorrect and the member well knows it. Labour introduced paid parental leave in 2002. Labour extended paid parental leave in 2004. Labour further extended paid parental leave in 2007. And my colleague Sue Moroney fully supported by this caucus and others members in this House—the Greens New Zealand First the Māori Party and others—has been seeking to extend paid parental leave to a much more meaningful level 26 weeks.I am going to come back to why 26 weeks is a really important next step but let us get the facts on the record here. Labour is very strongly supportive of measures like paid parental leave that support our families and give our children the best start in life. It is obviously a truism to say that supporting families and children is vital for our future. Sadly at the moment too many of our children are not getting supported adequately too many of our children are living in poverty and that is wrong on so many levels. There are 285000 children in poverty living in poor housing suffering from Third World diseases not getting the best start struggling at school as a consequence going hungry and going without basic needs.This is not what we should have in a rich country a comparatively rich country like New Zealand. It is shameful. It is shameful that that is still the case and this Budget does not do enough to support families. Labour’s Best Start package is far more comprehensive and along with our economic development policies provides real hope for a better standard of living for all New Zealanders.I want to talk more about this issue of supporting families when they have babies because paid parental leave is a very significant part of that support. Again just to remind people what this legislation does it extends paid parental leave by 2 weeks next year and by 2 weeks the year after. Unlike what a number of members opposite are saying whom it goes to is not changing. Dr Hutchison and others have got up and said this is more targeted legislation. Well actually the paid parental leave provisions do not change in this legislation. What the Government has flagged up is an extension to who receives them in the future—not in this legislation. But I have to congratulate the Government on that. If we can extend paid parental leave to seasonal workers and casual workers—these are groups often of very low-paid workers—that would be a very positive step forward. But as I understand it that will not be until 2016. The Minister of Labour last night tried to imply that it was part of this legislation. For the sake of the record let us be clear: it is not. But it is a good announcement and we welcome it.The legislation does—in National Party terms possibly—target the parental tax credit. What that means is that it is effectively excluding the poorest New Zealandersthe poorest New Zealand families. Beneficiary families and families of students will not receive the parental tax credit. I think it is something like 14000 families who are excluded from that so when people are listening and they hear about this being targeted that is what this means—that the people who need it the most do not get it.Let us talk about why we need to do more and how we actually thankfully as a Parliament have an opportunity still to do more. We need to move to get to something like 26 weeks’ paid parental leave. Why is that? Well it is because that will mean that babies do get the opportunity to have hopefully the mother—or it could be the father but generally at that young age it will be the mother—at home with the baby for a longer period of time giving the family support to make that decision. We all know that the bonding that happens with a newborn baby in those first months is vitally important to that child’s future. It is vitally important. What could be more important to all of us than making sure we get that right? So we want babies to be looked after by their families and we want to build that bonding in relationships. When the mother is at home with the baby it enables breastfeeding to be well established before she may well go back into the workforce.But paid parental leave also has benefits for women. Now more than ever women are juggling paid working responsibilities and family responsibilities. For many families that is a vital contribution to family income. That is what they need to do. It means that women can retain their connection to their work have that leave and go back into the job they had. As my colleague Sue Moroney noted paid parental leave of 6 months or 26 weeks is something that employers can see is better because it is easier to be able to work out alternative arrangements for that longer period of time. This provides the opportunity for women to have that balance to maintain contact with their paid work and move more effectively in and out of the paid workforce.As I have already said paid parental leave is important for families for both of those reasons because it is good for babies and because it is good for their mothers. Also it helps the family income when for many families things are very tight. It is fair to say that the only reason that the Government has got this as part of the Budget is that there has been a campaign that has really struck a chord. Families are saying that yes they need this. They need this support when they have a baby.It was very cynically announced in this Budget and it was a relatively small announcement close to an election. Judith Collins would not be commenting I guess as she did when Labour announced it that this is an election bribe as she indicated she thought it was when Labour announced it.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: She’s having a wee lie down.CAROL BEAUMONT: Oh! It is a very cynical move but it is in response to what is needed out there and it is well understood. It is well understood in other countries and I want to make sure that we understand that we are outliers in this regard. We are outliers among the developed countries in the world. We have the second-lowest level of paid parental leave in the OECD. This legislation is not going to substantially change that. I do not even imagine it will change our position. I think we probably will stay there. We need to move to something larger; 26 weeks is the next step.As I said the good news is for all those listening do not stop campaigning because there is still a chance on this. Sue Moroney’s bill if the National Government would stop filibustering will get back into this Parliament and it does have the numbers to be supported. That is for 26 weeks’ paid parental leave. The work on that bill has been done very well in the Government Administration Committee—the policy work and the financial work. And it is affordable.There has been significant work done by the select committee to look at the costs to look at the savings that offset those costs and to work out that actually it is not a hugecost for the benefit that is given by moving to 26 weeks. So keep the pressure on. Make sure that the Hon Peter Dunne does the right thing as he has committed to doing. Last night of course he voted against a Supplementary Order Paper that would have moved to 26 weeks. Well he will still have a chance to do what he said he would do and vote for the bill if we can get it back on to the floor of this Parliament.So it is important and it is not too expensive. It is about what you prioritise. Investing in our children and families is the most important thing we can do as politicians.