Turei Metiria: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 05 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:682. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green):I understand the narrowness of the debate on clause 5 but I did not get an opportunity to address the amendment that Sue Moroney had put forward Supplementary Order Paper 15 in her attempt to find a way to get this bill through with a more narrow approach to the extension of paid parental leave. I just want to refer particularly to the issue of children with disabilities the cost for parents and the additional supports that parents with children with disabilities often need particularly at that very early stage but also throughout their life. I would also be very interested actually if the Hon Ruth Dyson had experiences to share as well because if I remember rightly the Hon Ruth Dyson ushered the Government through the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She may have a unique perspective to bring to this debate as well.The Children’s Commissioner’s report by the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty directly addressed the issues faced by families with children with disabilities and children with parents with disabilities when it comes to issues of poverty. I just want to highlight a few of the things that were said there. It noted that there was not yet enough information about the effects of poverty on children with disabilities in New Zealand and that the Government was intending to gather more information about that. If the Government is still doing that that would be wise because those families are particularly vulnerable and they are families who have been identified by Sue Moroney as being particularly vulnerable for the purposes of this bill.The expert advisory group had a paper dedicated especially to this topic. The group referred to some research that it could access from the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK. The research there showed that there is a two-way relationship between disability and poverty in childhood. Disabled children are among the most likely to experience poverty and poor children are more likely to become disabled than those who are better off. It went on to say that there needs to be a transformation in the quality and accessibility of services for disabled children and young people and their families. The research from the UK talked very clearly about the particular difficulties in terms of poverty that families with children with disabilities face part of which can be well addressed through extending paid parental leave to these families.The report from the Children’s Commissioner went on to describe child disability in the context of poverty as meaning that children and families must cope not only with the disability but with the added challenges of poverty-related health disparities social disadvantage and extra direct costs of time money and resources associated with a child’s disability. I understand that Sue Moroney’s attempt to narrow the scope of this bill was because she had identified the particular need that young families or new families with a child with a disability face and that the ability then to have access to 26 weeks’ paid parental leave would help to address exactly those costs that this UK research and the Children’s Commissioner’s report have identified: the direct costs of time money and resources that are needed to address the whole family as well as the child who has the disability.The report went on to say that the Institute for Public Policy Research published findings from a study in the UK to inform policy makers on what the priorities should be to maximise the opportunities for people with disabilities through to 2020. So this is an extended piece of research. The report states that children with disabilities are more likely than non-disabled children to live in poverty and that children with a disabled parent are also more likely to experience poverty. The report concluded that in order to meet the UK Government’s poverty reduction targets tackling the poverty of children with disabilities must be a top Government priority. This report very clearly describes the particular challenges that families with a child with disabilities face in terms of the social disadvantage the economic disadvantage and the stress and pressure that manoeuvring through a range of services creates for that family. Any family with a child with a disability will understand what it means when you are trying to negotiate through a whole range of services.The report went on to say that in order to protect the interests of those children with disabilities—