Lees-Galloway IainPARENTAL LEAVE AND EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): I move That the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill be now read a first time.This Labour-led Government is committed to doing its part to give children the best possible start in life and this bill committing New Zealand to provide 26 weeks of paid parental leave (PPL) by 2020 will help to reduce some of the stress placed on families when a new child arrives. Extending paid parental leave is just one component of our overall families package which includes increasing Working for Families payments and extending it to 30000 more families introducing the Best Start payment for all families and additional accommodation and winter energy payments.Through the introduction of the Best Start scheme and our increase in Working for Families payments the Government will target money and support for babies and toddlers at low and middle income families. We believe that every Kiwi child deserves the best start in life regardless of their background.In the first year of a child's life—particularly the first six months—it is important for a newborn's development to get full-time personal care. It is also important for parents and caregivers to get support to manage budgetary and other pressures. Full-time care and monetary support can greatly assist with allowing the time and space for parents and other caregivers to develop close bonds with children and with reducing parental and family stress. The measures also assist with enabling mothers to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months which is the World Health Organization's recommendation. All of these things combined support children's health and development and improve short-term and long-term child and societal outcomes.I acknowledge that the previous Government did take steps to expand the reach of our parental leave scheme including by broadening the types of working arrangements that could qualify for parental leave. The last Government also made increases in the duration of parental leave payments. However despite having a majority of the House in support of Labour member Sue Moroney's bill to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks it was vetoed by the former Prime Minister who was the then Minister of Finance. It couldn't be done." he said. Well we say it can and it will because we will be a Government defined by its heart putting people at the centre of everything that we do.There is currently a fundamental shortcoming in our parental leave scheme. New Zealand's current paid parental leave entitlement of 18 weeks is one of the lowest in the OECD with the average number of weeks of paid leave for mothers among OECD countries being 48 weeks. Eighteen weeks is well short of the six months which according to the Australian Productivity Commission and the OECD is the minimum time necessary for child and maternal health and welfare benefits. We know from earlier quantitative surveys on the parental leave scheme and from the many public submissions in support of the two members' bills sponsored by Sue Moroney that many mothers in New Zealand are compelled to return to work sooner than they wish to after the birth of a child for financial reasons. In fact the data told us that a third of mothers taking paid parental leave were working five months after they started their parental leave.The majority of recipients of paid parental leave take the leave at the end of other paid leave such as annual leave in order to maintain income for as long as possible. The Government is introducing this bill to enhance the paid parental leave provisions to ensure families with a newborn—and other primary carers responsible for young children—are supported to give that child the best possible start in life.An earlier evaluation of parental leave which looked into the experience of employers found that two-thirds of employers agreed that PPL allows them to plan and manage workloads with greater confidence and 70 percent said that PPL helped them to retain experienced staff. Enhancing paid parental leave for families should not have an adverse impact for business and employers. Employers are already required to provide job-protected leave to eligible employees for a minimum period of six months if the employee has been working for them for at least six months but no less than 12. For employees who have worked for them for 12 months or more the period of extended leave is one year. The change we are progressing today does not require employers to provide any additional leave. What it may do is provide more certainty for employers given the likelihood that more parents will take the full 26 weeks if the leave is paid. This may give greater confidence to employers about the length of time they need to backfill the role.If I may turn my attention to the mechanics of the bill that is currently before the House. The bill is a straightforward one. It provides for an increase in the duration of paid parental leave from the current 18 weeks to 26 weeks. This is achieved in two stages: first an increase to 22 weeks from 1 July 2018 with a further increase to 26 weeks from 1 July 2020. As with previous extensions to our PPL scheme these new time frames will apply where the actual or expected date of delivery of the baby is on or after the date of the change. In this case babies born on or after 1 July 2018 will be eligible for the additional four weeks of paid parental leave and babies born on or after 1 July 2020 will be eligible for the full 26 weeks. In the case of whāngai Home for Life carers and formal adoption the relevant date is that on which they assume the permanent care of the child. This will benefit the full range of primary carers currently eligible for parental leave payments providing increased support for working parents with newborns and families taking on the permanent care of children under the age of six. It will enable those carers who are not currently in a position to take additional unpaid leave to reach the six-month period considered a minimum for optimal child development and where many benefits of full-time personalised care are realised. It is our view that this investment in the well-being of parents and their newborns and young children is critical to achieving better social and economic outcomes for all New Zealanders.I want to acknowledge the efforts of many people but in particular those of Sue Moroney in championing this issue in this House. This is a matter that this House has supported twice over in the past and it gives me great pleasure to bring it in as a Government bill with the opportunity for us to finally progress this issue and achieve the 26 weeks' paid parental leave that New Zealanders have been crying out for for so many years.This bill responds to the needs of working parents and caregivers and newborn children by providing better assistance to provide more financial certainty. I commend this bill to the House."