7. Paid Parental Leave—FlexibilityHon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) to the Minister for Workplace Relations and SafetyPaid Parental Leave—Flexibility7. Hon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety: Does he stand by all his statements on paid parental leave?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): I sure do and in particular I stand by my statement that it's exciting for parents and babies that they're finally going to get 26 weeks' paid parental leave.Hon Amy Adams: How can he stand by his statement from last night that he hadn't yet seen my bill given that his office was notified at 2.30 p.m. yesterday how to access the bill and that it is the same in substance as my Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) which he's had for two weeks?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: Because when I made that statement I was responding to the member's press release which came out before she tabled the bill.Hon Amy Adams: Check your email.Mr SPEAKER: Order! I'll invite the member to ask her question but this member was watching his email on that subject yesterday.Hon Amy Adams: Isn't his stated proposal to restrict the amount of time parents could share their paid parental leave to just the first four weeks just a continuation of his Government knows best nanny State attempts to control parents' right to choose what best suits their circumstances?Mr SPEAKER: I'm going to let the member get away with it this time but I gave Paula Bennett some advice about shortening questions to take out unnecessary—I'm not even going to say facts—comments.Hon Simon Bridges: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I obviously totally accept that ruling but I think the issue is—I mean if you take the Rt Hon Winston Peters earlier his answers were long digressions that weren't remotely addressing the question and you let them go. So again I think we need to see equality between question and answer.Mr SPEAKER: And again I thank the member for his advice.Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: The member is inaccurate. No decision has been made about exactly what form of sharing will be proposed. All options are still on the table.Hon Amy Adams: Can the Minister confirm that by vetoing my member's bill going to first reading the Government has just guaranteed that parents will not have the flexibility to share their parental leave by the time the planned extension to paid parental leave comes into force on 1 July next year?Hon Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Government did not veto a member's bill; the House vetoed it.Mr SPEAKER: I just felt like I've been stopping people too often for making mistakes. The Parliament did—but as long as the member can adjust his answer to that correction.Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: If the member was so concerned about parents having to wait for more flexibility with paid parental leave why didn't she raise this matter in her nine years in Government?Marja Lubeck: Why did the Government decide to adopt the member for Invercargill's Supplementary Order Paper to the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill?Mr SPEAKER: Before the member answers we will be adding another question back on to the Opposition for the interjection that happened during that question. Even interjections that are meant to be supportive are not allowed.Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: The Government decided to adopt Sarah Dowie's amendment because it was a good idea that supported the purpose of the bill and that member worked constructively with the Government to ensure that her SOP was properly drafted. I would suggest to Amy Adams that she could take a leaf out of Sarah Dowie's book.Hon Amy Adams: Which of the following three statements the Minister has so far given is the real reason for today having this Parliament block parents' right to choose: that the primary caregiver must have the full period to bond with their baby as he said two weeks ago; that it's a good idea but too hard to implement as he said yesterday; or because he now wishes that he had come up with the idea and will do his own bill once he gets around to it?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: I've never made a statement that I wished it was my own idea.