Tremain Chris: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTremain Chris: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 25 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18938. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier):It is a privilege to stand and take a call in the Committee stage of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill. I just want to reflect on an international study that was released earlier this year and championed by Harvard University which is called the Social Progress Index. Many New Zealanders would think that as a country we would come up near the top of that sort of survey but were surprised when in fact we came out as No. 1 in the world—No. 1 in terms of social progress on the entire globe. That survey canvassed some 60 to 65 measures if I recall and the fact of the matter was that New Zealand did not come No. 1 in each of those measures so I am the first to admit that there are a range of things that as a nation we can do better. I think all of us would want to think that we can stay in the No. 1 position in terms of social progress as a nation internationally because that bodes well. As my colleague said there were 132 countries in that survey and we came out at No. 1.The point I make in regard to the fact that we were not No. 1 in each of the initiatives that were measured is that we can make more progress. To that point I make this other point which is that I truly believe that every member of this House comes in here with the goal of improving the lot of all New Zealanders. Tracey Martin Jacinda Ardern Alfred Ngaro Mark Mitchell—all of us actually come in here with that goal. That is a fact. We all want to leave this place having left New Zealand in a better place than when we came here. The point I make is that we make different choices about how we achieve that progress and that is just politics. It is about a scarce resource which is taxation the revenue that comes into the Government from taxpayers and it is about how we choose to spend those resources. The fact of the matter is we are not all going to agree on the exact composition of that expenditure.The fact of the matter is we have made choices over on this side of the Chamber to extend paid parental leave—because we think that is a good thing—from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. We have not agreed to extend it to 26 weeks at this point in time but we have made other choices that my colleagues have discussed tonight. Free general practitioner visits—which we announced in the Budget—for children under 13 years of age lifting that from 6 years come at a cost. That is not free. It is one of the choices we made as a Government about improving the lot of New Zealanders. Another choice we made was to increase the parental tax credit. Jacinda Ardern said it is not that much. It is not a huge increase—I accept that—but it still comes at a cost which means you have to make choices about other things that you are not going to extend in terms of a set level of taxation. We particularly made a decision to increase by $155 million the amount that is going into early childhood education. If there is one thing we can do in this country for all children for our nation to lift their ability to climb the ladder it is to invest and to continue to invest in education. I am talking about the ladder of opportunity. With early childhood education—Tracey Martin: The one that you’re pulling up behind you.Hon CHRIS TREMAIN: We have delivered on that Ms Martin and it is going to actually continue to ensure that we stay up at No. 1 in that social progress indicator. In that regard we have made huge progress for Pacific Islanders for Māori and for all New Zealanders.Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor: Here we go. Dissing Māori and Pacific. Taking them for granted.Hon CHRIS TREMAIN: In fact we are going to achieve that 98 percent target within the next few years. Ms Asenati Lole-Taylor that is something you should be championing. For your people the fact that we have lifted the number of young Pacific Islanders who are in early children education is an outstanding achievement and something we should all cherish. So my point is that we have choices.