Brown Peter: Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:13357] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 Let me make New Zealand First’s position clear from the start. We will be supporting this bill because we think the Labour Government did not get the initial legislation quite correct and a number of people were left out. We welcome— 
Simon Power 
: What about the self-employed? 
PETER BROWN 
: I am coming to the self-employed I can assure the member. We welcome the opportunity to correct any anomalies and to consider everybody’s case. We believe that it is unfair to leave the self-employed out as Katherine Rich referred to. I think she spoke of people under contract and she listed a few. We think it is unfair they should be left out and we hope this bill gives the opportunity for consideration of those cases. I say to Mrs Rich that I was a little disappointed in her contribution because as far as I am aware when her children were born she did not lose a cent of her income here. 
Katherine Rich 
: I didn’t claim paid parental leave. 
PETER BROWN 
: No but the taxpayer paid. I just make the point that the taxpayer paid even if she did not claim paid parental leave. 
Simon Power 
: That’s very personal. 
PETER BROWN 
: It is personal but we must have some compassion in these things and some consideration for people. But that is not to say that New Zealand First does not have some worries about this bill. I want to quote a little bit from the second paragraph of the explanatory note: “These amendments to the Act further a number of objectives supporting the birth or adoption of a child.” That is all very good. “This includes ensuring that the scheme is accessible to a wider number of employees encouraging female workplace attachment supporting families with leave …” etc. etc. It all sounds very good but the three words that worry New Zealand First are “female workplace attachment”. Will this bill for example provide paid parental leave to a female prison officer who has a baby as a result of a dalliance with a criminal? [ 
Interruption 
] The member over there laughs. I tell Mr Peck that that is a serious question. I hope he will take a call and tell me— 
Sue Bradford 
: Why not? 
PETER BROWN 
: Sue Bradford asks “Why not?”. Why should a female prison officer who gets fired from her job and has a baby not get paid parental leave? [ 
Interruption 
] From the sounds of the outbursts I am getting here from the Greens and from some other members they think that is only fair. I ask members over there on the Government benches how they can justify that payment yet leave out the self-employed. How can they justify a payment to someone who has lost her job yet leave out the self-employed? My call will not be very long but I do point out to this House that the number of incidents of female prison officers getting involved with prisoners is in the ascendant. The Minister of Corrections answered a question from my colleague Ron Mark and said there were three incidents. Subsequently he corrected that and said there were five. Then he said there were 17. Then he said there were 21. Ron Mark tells me that in one prison alone there were 19 occurrences. If they carry on like that we are likely to get an epidemic of female prison officers having liaisons with criminals and as a result some will give birth to babies. 
Sue Bradford 
: No. 
PETER BROWN 
: Does Ms Bradford not accept that? And the taxpayer will give them paid parental leave. This is a legitimate question— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: But it also leads to disorder. 
PETER BROWN 
: —and I am pushing it home so that those people will give me an answer. But worse still the other day we heard the Hon Phil Goff do a U-turn about 12-year-olds having sex together. Does that mean that if they have a paper run and one of them gives birth to a baby they will get paid parental leave from the taxpayer? Under this bill which I have read inside out if two 12-year-olds or a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old have a baby and are doing a paper run—my children used to do paper runs when they were young—they will get paid parental leave. Sue Bradford is saying “No”. She is drawing the line there. These are honest questions that I am looking forward to the Government answering. New Zealand First wants this bill to go to the select committee too because everybody is in a state of laughter here. This is actually a serious question. My honourable colleague here realises it. If two schoolchildren have sex and one gives birth to a baby would they get paid parental leave for not being able to do their paper run or their work at Foodtown at night? There are a number of issues that have to be addressed here. 
If we pay parental leave to some people we should consider paying it to all. I am talking seriously now about the self-employed—contracted people. They give birth to New Zealanders and have just as much hardship as some people in the workforce. Some people in the workforce who will be paid under this bill are relatively very wealthy. So the measure should be extended to the self-employed; consideration should be given to them. 
This amendment has come to pass a relatively short time after the principal Act was enacted and we do not want another amendment and another amendment to get it right. The Government gets so many things wrong the first time round that it should practice what New Zealand First says: do it once and do it right. This is the Government’s second attempt— 
Darren Hughes 
: Ha ha! 
PETER BROWN 
: Those members are laughing. We say do it once or do it for a second time but get it right and address the key issues—particularly for the self-employed. I will sit and listen to the people who take a call and I hope they will respond to the prison officers’ situation and that of young people doing a paper run because I want answers to those questions. I am so keen to get those answers that if this bill gets to a select committee I will get myself on the select committee to ask the questions. I look forward to Mark Peck taking a call and addressing those issues. I know that Sue Bradford will give me the answers as she sees them from the Greens’ point of view. We will support this bill going to the select committee and we look forward to posing a few difficult questions.