Moroney Sue: Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17952. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): It is a pleasure to rise and speak to the second reading of the Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill. But is the National Party ever scraping the barrel when it puts David Bennett up to speak on this bill? He does not even seem to know that it was the Labour Party that brought in paid parental leave in 2002. He is standing up there and saying that the Labour Party has never delivered to parents. At the time Judith Collins said that having paid parental leave was vote buying. Well David Bennett ought to go back and look at history and then he may be a bit better informed. I think he is probably feeling quite sad that he has had to rely on an Opposition member of Parliament from Hamilton to have someinfluence over his Government given that he cannot have any influence over it himself. But never mind he got to speak.David Bennett: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Since when has Sue Moroney been a member from Hamilton?Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I did not hear the context.SUE MORONEY: Well I rest my case I have to say with that point of order. There is another thing I would have to say about the speakers National has put up to speak on its own bill and I think it is quite sad. If I was a woman of the National Government I would feel quite affronted that the one time they get to vote for extending paid parental leave they have their men speaking. When National was voting against my bill to extend it to 26 weeks National put all of its women up to take the heat over voting against it opposing it. I think that is a very cynical use of the women in National and I feel very sad for them on that.The people whom I do want to congratulate are the 26 for Babies coalition; organisations like Plunket the New Zealand Educational Institute and Barnados a whole range of unions that are standing up for working people and a whole lot of organisations that have relentlessly campaigned on this issue. They are the victors today. They are the people who have won this victory for families and there is no doubt about that. I also want to congratulate the 3800 people who made submissions supporting my bill on paid parental leave because I think they have made a big difference here. I think they have put the pressure on the Government to take this measure.I also want to thank the thousands of people who sent this e-postcard to the Prime Minister because I think they have made a real difference for families on Budget day. John Key has probably just about had his email inbox crash with the number of these e-postcards that have been sent to him. I am sure every single person who went on and pushed this e-postcard through to John Key has made a big difference. They have made a big difference to families and they have certainly had a lot more impact than anyone on those benches opposite has made on this issue so I congratulate them. I congratulate them on that.This is a bill that the Labour Party will support because it is better than doing nothing. It is better than doing nothing but look there is not much more than nothing that the Government could have done without doing nothing to be quite honest.Mike Sabin: That makes good sense!SUE MORONEY: Well it does because the Government had pressure on it and it still has pressure on it because my bill is still coming up before this Parliament.Chris Auchinvole: It’s all about Sue Moroney.SUE MORONEY: It is still coming up before this Parliament. Mr Auchinvole I look forward to you speaking on that bill because you did promise after all that any extensions to paid parental leave would come through that bill. So I look forward to that. But what we have got to do is actually get a consensus about getting to 26 weeks because this mucking around the edges with 18 weeks—and not even 18 weeks now but 18 weeks over the course of the next 2 years for goodness’ sake! I have a bill before this House that actually gets us to 18 weeks on 1 July this year—1 July this year—which is in fact what the Government should be supporting.If the Government had really listened to the 3800 people 99.6 percent of whom supported my bill for 26 weeks then it would in fact not be in urgency. Let us face it: the measures in the Government’s bill do not come into force until 2015. They do not even start until 2015 so what is the need for urgency? What is the urgent matter that we are here under urgency debating? It is about getting a bill in front of my member’s bill. That is what it is about; that is why we are in urgency.Let us focus. Let us stop talking about the politics because I know it is all about the politics for the National Party but for the Labour Party it is about people. What—Hon Member: Yeah right! Tell us another one.SUE MORONEY: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am finding it harder and harder to actually—it is always the case when we are debating children somehow.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I actually think that is a fair call. There has been a spirited period of members interjecting and I just think we need a little bit more decorum now please.SUE MORONEY: Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. I am not sure what it is about paid parental leave that gets the National Party members yelling and screaming but it always does.Mike Sabin: No just when you talk about yourself.SUE MORONEY: Well I will talk about Mr Sabin who thought that the only people who deserved to get extended paid parental leave were babies who were hard-working! I cannot really understand that because at 6 months I am not sure how you can work out which is a hard-working baby and which is not. But I digress.When submitters came before the Government Administration Committee they said that 26 weeks was important. Plunket referred to that today. It has put out a press statement saying “Yeah well 18 weeks is OK but really what New Zealand families and babies need is 26 weeks.” Plunket has said that because all the research and evidence tells us that if we can get exclusive breastfeeding to 26 weeks to 6 months that will make a huge difference to the outcomes for those children. It will mean not only that they have a great opportunity to get some really good secure bonding and attachment with their parent but also that they are set up for a very healthy future.That is great news not only for that baby and that family but also for the rest of New Zealand because we all get to save precious taxpayer money on not funding more and more health services. That child gets a healthier life and we get to save money. That is a win-win. That is the win-win that comes from properly developed policy—26 weeks paid parental leave—not policy on the hoof not the politics of just trying to get away with as little as possible like this Government has done.Everyone in New Zealand knows that this Government has been dragged kicking and screaming towards extending paid parental leave. It has done everything in its power to try to stop this from taking place. It has consistently voted against paid parental leave. It has threatened to use its financial veto. It has filibustered my bill. It even asked me—and I in good faith responded—to extend the report back date of the bill. It has used every trick in the book.As recently as the end of March this year National members were voting at the select committee against extending paid parental leave. So no one is fooled about this; no one is fooled. The real shame about this is the fact that New Zealand families need a Government that will absolutely commit to this and fully understand the importance of investing properly in families. They need a Government that actually knows that investing in those early years reaps us benefits not just for those families as I said but for whole country benefits—if we do it properly.This half-hearted attempt will not deliver those benefits and that is what we need. It is becoming more and more obvious that what we need is a Labour-led Government that will take the support of families seriously and will not take half measures a Government that absolutely fully understands how important it is to invest early get it right from the beginning and save ourselves a lot of heartache a lot of problems and yes a lot of taxpayer money in the future.