Logie Jan: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 25 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11282. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green): It is with great pleasure that I rise to take a call on this the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill put forward by Labour member Sue Moroney. I am not sure that I have spoken more often on any other topic in this House in my 4 years here. I think this is the third piece of legislation and the second member’s bill from Sue Moroney that I have had the great pleasure of supporting on this topic.The Green Party supports the public view that extending paid parental leave is to the benefit of us as a country. For me one of the main reasons that I support this bill—and there are so many as has been outlined by the previous National speaker Sarah Dowie—is that I think it helps us update our employment settings and our workplace legislation. It is 2016 and still so much of our employment legislation treats our society and our people in the workplace as if we are still in the 1950s—as if there is one breadwinner who is there earning and providing for their family who is nicely nurtured in a nice warm dry house. That is just not the reality of this world. In families both parents are so often having to work—and so many parents both want to work—but they also have children. We actually need our employment settings to recognise that.It was really interesting to me that we heard in the last term that on the bill to extend paid parental leave to 6 months there were 3795 submissions 99.6 percent in support of it. This time around with a very very similar bill there were 6755 submissions most of which were in support of this bill. So the public support—having heard all of the Government’s arguments about affordability about the other measures that it is putting in place—for having 6 months parental leave has increased. People have heard the arguments they have made their decision about priorities and I think this Government should listen. The people of New Zealand are saying that it is time for us to update our employment legislation—that it is time for us to support our families particularly in those first 6 months. I do not think you can argue with that.The submitters as has already been stated by my colleague Denise Roche were from a very wide range of groups: from Family First to the Council of Trade Unions to a lot of employers and employers’ representatives. We have heard from the Government side that it has to consider business and what business needs because business is really what provides the money that drives this society—it is nothing to do with the people doing the work or the family supporting that work. But even then the Government got it wrong because businesses were telling us that for them 6 months is easier to manage than 18 weeks because 6 months is a length of time that enables them to get somebody else in to fill the position. Below that level they are often juggling and just infilling which puts pressure on the remaining workers to be covering those jobs and it is not good for their workplaces or their staff.This bill is good for babies. There is no question about that; all of the evidence tells us that. It is good for women’s employment and keeping them in jobs and ensuring their ability to progress and for closing the gender pay gap. It is also good for employers in managing their workplaces and supporting all of the workers in those workplaces. To be opposing this on the grounds that it is unaffordable when booming economies like the Czech Republic and Estonia seem to be able to afford up to 3 years of paid parental leave—and we have only been able to increase paid parental leave from 12 weeks in 2002 to 18 weeks now despite very very significant increases in our GDP—just does not ring true. If our economy is going to grow we need to share it and support our families.