Roche DeniseDENISE ROCHE (Green): I would like to put it on the record that the Greens are heartily—heartily—disappointed that the Minister of Finance is not turning up to speak on this bill and giving his reasons—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I thought I made it clear earlier but I will make it very clear now: you cannot refer to the absence of a member. I understand the point that you are making but do not refer to the absence of a member. All right?DENISE ROCHE: OK. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I will rephrase that. I am disappointed that the Minister is not speaking on this bill and giving his reasons for the veto. It is with deep regret that I rise to speak for the first time for the Greens on the third and final reading of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (6 Months' Paid Leave) Amendment Bill and it is with deep regret that I will not be able to exercise my right to vote in the House. I want to note for the record that the Government's decision to veto this bill is a huge insult to the thousands of people who submitted on it and the thousands and thousands of people who signed petitions calling on the Government not to veto this bill. It is an insult to all of those people who prepared and gave clear compelling submissions on this bill—and actually on the others before it. The veto that this Government is issuing that the Minister of Finance is issuing is a slap in the face. It is a slap in the face for democracy and all New Zealanders need to be worried about that.The decision apparently was made—and should be made—for sound financial reasons but frankly this Government and the Ministers are not financial managers. They have mismanaged this entire country and our economy so badly that there can be no definitive proof that the introduction of 26 weeks' paid parental leave an increase of only 8 weeks more than what it is now is financially unsustainable. We have heard constant fudging of the numbers from the Government Ministers on this issue. Although we have seen them fudging the numbers around it saying that it is going to cost millions more than what it is estimated to cost we have also seen the spending of $26 million on a vanity project that was a referendum for the flag.We are seeing a huge increase in inequality and the data yesterday from the survey on household wealth from Statistics New Zealand actually showed that 3 percent of the wealth is owned by the lowest 40 percent of households. What that means is that at the top there are 10 percent of the households that have over 50 percent of the wealth in the country. Where you have got those disparities you cannot be pointing to sound economic management from this Government. The Green Party has always said that we would support and we would envisage 13 months' paid parental leave as the standard that we should be aspiring to for families in this country—13 months' paid parental leave. We have supported this bill by Sue Moroney because 26 weeks is a huge step towards that and an 8-week jump from where we are now.We would say that this Government has not done the proper cost-benefit analysis. We have heard from speakers on this side of the House talk about the savings further down the track if you invest now in the future of our children and one way to invest is by extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks. One of the things that we heard from the ministry officials was that although it would cost about $100 million for the full implementation of 26 weeks' paid parental leave on the same day there would be a $30 million saving. Further down the track there are the savings the education outcomes the health outcomes and the family bonding and health that come with having a substantial amount of time in the beginning weeks of a child's life in the beginning weeks of a family unit finding its way. So this Government has traded a very short-term view. It would rather spend $3 billion promising tax cuts than invest in our kids and we really do need to.We need to have an economy that works for everyone not just the 10 percent. We need it to work for our kids. We need to be thinking in a much longer term. From the Greens' point of view we would not just extend that investment to the kids of people who are working but also extend the Working for Families tax credit to those families that are most poor—those who are not in the paid workforce—because our kids are vulnerable. We have heard during the debate and we have heard from other speakers on this side of the House as well about how our kids are suffering—how there are 150000 of them who do not have the basic necessities to get to school. We have heard how there are 40000 visits to hospitals every year from kids in our country because their living conditions are so poor—damp cold housing—and we are not seeing a Government on track to fixing that. And why not? I suggest it is because kids do not vote.This Government is out of touch. It is really out of touch with what families want and what employers want which is better provisions. We heard from employers that it would be easier for them to have 26 weeks' paid parental leave because it is an easier amount of time to actually get in a temp replacement. We have heard from them but this Government is not listening to them either. So this Government is out of touch and out of step with employers with families and with the economy as well because paid parental leave has always been good for the economy and this Government has never recognised that. What you get is a more productive workforce and reduced costs in training because women particularly who are taking parental leave are able to come back to work and be productive workers.This paid parental leave is also good for babies and it is good for families and this Government is ignoring that. We have to change the short-sighted short-term thinking. It is not good for the country. This Government is mismanaging the economy. It is totally mismanaging the economy and we need to change it. We will do that at the next election.