SpeechDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm taking this call to say that this side is supporting this bill. I want to acknowledge Ginny Andersen for her work on this bill. During the select committee process I want to give special acknowledgement to Ginny Andersen for her very collaborative manner that she had to work with all members on the select committee on this legislation. So I really want to acknowledge her for that. She wanted to make sure that everybody was happy with the changes that were being made in the select committee process and she's not a regular member of that select committee the Education and Workforce Committee but she was always there when we discussed this bill. So I want to thank Ginny Andersen for her commitment on the select committee as well. Can I also acknowledge Jan Tinetti. I want to express my sympathies to Jan Tinetti and I'm really sorry to hear your experience and I fully understand the pain remains for ever. This legislation is really important because as we have heard from other members before this is something that people don't openly talk about and maybe through this legislation it will make it easier for people to actually come forward and state the actual reason of going out and seeking that leave.So in this bill we understand the main purpose is according to the member in charge of this bill about clarifying a discrepancy in the Act which is that bereavement leave is there if somebody's child passes away but there is no bereavement leave for a miscarriage. That is to be clarified or it can be seen as an extension of bereavement leave. Whichever way we see it we support this bill and we support the cause and the reason why we have this bill before us.During the select committee process we received 37 submissions. We had the opportunity to hear from 10 submitters and I want to thank them. I'm really grateful to them for their courage for their submissions and the way submitters actually shared their experiences as well. So I want to acknowledge that too.In the select committee we made some changes and the changes were mainly to make sure that this leave is available to all people that are affected. We didn't want to unknowingly exclude anybody who would go through this experience of miscarriage and not be able to access this bereavement leave of three days. So in all other cases yes it's three days in the Employment Relations Act and we wanted to see that it is three days for this one as well. There are changes that I would like to highlight. The first one was a mother's knowledge of pregnancy. So here we wanted to make sure the word confirmed" was not implying that medically it is proven that the mother is pregnant before she experiences a miscarriage. I personally don't know any friends but I have heard from my friends about their friends those who have experienced miscarriage—this is without knowing that they were pregnant. So we wanted to make sure people those who experience miscarriage without knowing that they were pregnant and realise when they had that miscarriage that actually they were pregnant are covered through this legislation. Then the other issue is how you deal with the employer about this issue. So the employer—we know that yeah the good faith principle applies here again according to the Employment Relations Act where for other kinds of leave employers can ask for proof. But we didn't want to see that that should become a hindrance for this person who is already suffering already grieving that the person is also required to produce proof because in a situation when a person experiences miscarriage without knowing the person was pregnant it would be really difficult for them to produce proof before they go on leave. So the main purpose of this bill is to give this individual and other people that we have extended this leave to through this legislation in the select committee the opportunity to grieve and also deal with the whole process. So that's why we have changed some words. These words which were changed during the select committee it might look like it's just one word removed or one word changed but that has changed the whole meaning of the change where it has happened. Like as I said "confirmed pregnancy" we were not sure about word "confirmed" so we decided not to have that word "confirmed" and again proof of pregnancy that is related to that. Then next we also changed the definition of miscarriage because we didn't want to exclude anybody. Originally as the bill was proposed the definition was taken from the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Act and according to that we would have excluded people who were pregnant up to eight weeks. So we didn't want to exclude anybody. We wanted to make sure that anybody who experiences a miscarriage whether it's a gestation of two weeks or whether it's 36 38 or 40 weeks—40 weeks is actually the birth time I would say—any time before the normal birth happens if it is a miscarriage or stillbirth that person is actually entitled to this leave. So up to 20 weeks according to this now is considered to be a miscarriage and after 20 weeks a stillbirth.Then the other thing was: who should be entitled for this leave? Because we know that when bereavement leave is accessed it can be accessed for a number of relatives and sometimes as the extended family you can access bereavement leave. Here we wanted to make sure we are extending this leave to people that would be grieving. So parents that possibly were going to adopt if that was the situation or if there was a surrogacy arrangement and also if some couples or an individual was going to become a primary carer all those people are covered. So those kinds of changes were made in the select committee. And then finally a very important change was made in the select committee about this word "unplanned" because we wanted to make sure that the end to pregnancy is unplanned. But in some circumstances as it was discussed in the select committee an individual could be having some other treatment for another illness but then the secondary consequence of that is that the person undergoes miscarriage. In that situation that medical treatment was planned but the person didn't want to see their pregnancy end. So we wanted to make sure those people are included as well in this leave. But it is quite clear that abortion is not included. So it is actually the secondary consequence of any other treatment if that leads to a miscarriage; that is definitely included in this bill. So I would say that this bill is actually something that is quite thoughtful. We know that the number of women that we have—as for the numbers as we have discussed before that normally people don't come out and talk about it. So there could be more numbers than we know about but we would really like people to feel comfortable about it and come forward and seek this leave where it is needed in that good faith relationship with their employer. We want these people to be supported because their health and wellbeing is really important for us. Obviously that is important for their employer as well. So we are quite supportive of this legislation. Thank you."