Radhakrishnan PriyancaPRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to take a call on the Holidays (Bereavement Leave for Miscarriage) Amendment Bill (No 2) with great pride partly because it's in the name of my friend and colleague Ginny Andersen one of the class of 2017" from Labour. I just want to as many others have done in the House today commend her on the work that she's done to shepherd this bill through the different stages to where it's at today. I also just on the outset want to acknowledge and thank Kathryn van Beek and the other women who have pushed for this legislative change over many years and really once again just thank them for the work and the courage that it's taken for them to speak of their experiences as well because at the heart of this bill lies the issue of grief which is an extremely painful process.When we lose someone we love we experience all sorts of things from insecurity to fear; to anger sometimes; to shock and disbelief; and even physical symptoms especially so when it's the loss of a baby through miscarriage or stillbirth. And so that is the last point in time that someone should be expected to go through uncertainty or ambiguity about the leave that they can expect from their employer at that point in time. Acknowledging as others have that there are some employers who of course would grant that leave willingly but we know from submitters to this bill that for many people that hasn't been the case and that's where this bill changes things. So this bill takes the ambiguity out of current legislation and it clarifies the fact that employees who have lost a child through miscarriage or stillbirth are entitled to bereavement leave. That is an important distinction. In some cases people say "Why can't they just take sick leave?" Firstly sick leave entitlements are not infinite but also more importantly they're not for bereavement. This is a specific reason that people need to take leave. Also my colleague Jan Tinetti pointed out in her speech her contribution earlier today that the fact that women can take bereavement leave in itself is an important distinction because that's part of the healing process and that's what this bill speaks to and allows for as well. Other speakers have gone into the various changes that the Education and Workforce Committee has suggested has recommended to finesse this bill. And I too just want to point to the fact that what the select committee has done in their consideration of this bill is to actually clarify it further. And I thank members who sat around who were part of that select committee and put their heart and soul from what I've heard into doing this. So the knowledge of pregnancy—I know from others that there are women who haven't actually realised that they're pregnant but do lose that pregnancy. The effect to them is the same in terms of the grief that they feel of the loss of that child and so one of the select committee recommendations was to amend clause 4(2) making it clear that the mother doesn't need to have known that she was pregnant in order to be able to avail herself of this particular kind of leave bereavement leave. There's also not a requirement for proof of pregnancy for an employee to take bereavement leave as well. There was a recommendation around the definition of "miscarriage" also the relationship requirement and I was happy to see that this bill also believes that parents planning to adopt a child or parents having a baby through surrogacy should also be entitled to bereavement leave on the unplanned end of that relevant pregnancy. It also includes the former spouse or partner of the pregnant person if they were the biological parent of that child.I just in the time remaining quickly point to the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions' submission around the fact that Family Planning reports that there's also a lot of stigma and discrimination around miscarriage and stillbirth and that you know allowing women to take this bereavement leave might actually eliminate some of that stigma and silence that women face. And I say this particularly as the chair of the NZPPD the New Zealand Parliamentarians' Group on Population and Development where we work on issues around sexual health sexual reproductive rights and health as well. And I'm hugely supportive of this bill and I commend it to the House."