Prasad Rajen: Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePrasad Rajen: Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17991. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour): I am pleased to take a call on Part 2 of the Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill. I really start from the position where the Hon Trevor Mallard was because these provisions actually take out the most vulnerable. What Jacinda Ardern’s amendment does is put them back in because thosereceiving a benefit are the most vulnerable the most in poverty and it really says that that group should be included. By the process that Trevor Mallard has just identified they have been excluded.This is a good amendment and I think if the Government was sincere about addressing the most vulnerable it would agree to this particular amendment because those on benefits at this time require this assistance. I have not heard an argument from the Minister of Labour. Maybe he would like to take a call to explain to us why those receiving a benefit are excluded. If that provision was put in I think that would satisfy this side of the Chamber.Then I want to speak also to the other amendment that Jacinda Ardern has proposed and this is to increase the parental tax credit to $3120 from $2200 because that actually does begin to put it within striking distance of the Best Start programme. This actually does relate to the Best Start programme that Labour proposed. It is quite interesting. When Labour proposed Best Start and tried to address this there were howls from the Government benches that this was the baby bonus this was a bribe and they pilloried it. They did not have anything positive to say about it. I believe that this was when the Government started to think: “Oops we have made a mistake.”When Sue Moroney’s bill was before the Government Administration Committee a very large number of submitters came forward to say that these are the kinds of things we need to think about. When the Government saw support for these kinds of provisions—which Sue Moroney’s bill was talking about—that is when it started to think about paid parental leave and the changes it is making here.Prior to that the Government had no idea. The Minister of Labour earlier when he took the only call he has taken so far said that this was a very carefully thought out series of policies. That is unbelievable—absolutely unbelievable. This Government has been absolutely driven to consider paid parental leave and the tax credits that we are talking about in Part 2 of this particular bill. The Government did not think about it before and it had no idea.The Government realises that there is a demand from the public and it is Sue Moroney’s bill that has forced the Government to look at this. What the Government is doing now is not doing the job well enough. The first part increases paid parental leave by only 2 weeks next year and by 2 weeks the year after. It is a pittance—60000 children this year and 60000 children next year will miss out.So where is the sincerity of this Minister and this Government in trying to address this problem properly? They are not sincere about this. This is simply something the Government has been forced to do something it has put in the Budget and it is now trying under urgency to pass this bill. The bill has got lots of faults.This side of the Chamber supports families. This side of the Chamber supports mothers particularly at the time when children arrive. This is why the 26 weeks’ paid parental leave was so important. It gets us towards a minimum standard. The reports are legendary. The Families Commission report recommending about 13 months was a very well-thought-out piece of work. It brought every piece of knowledge that was available around the world in this particular area and all the assistance available thought it through and put in place a 7-year programme. New Zealand could have transitioned very very systematically and programmatically to have a decent paid parental leave system to give our children the best start possible.But what this particular bill has done and what Part 2 is doing here is just only playing at the edges of it. This questions the sincerity of this Government. This questions the extent to which it really is interested in paid parental leave. I think of all of the quotes that were read out by earlier speakers around what National Cabinet Ministers and National members said about paid parental leave. I think an honourablemember said that it was a travesty. I think this is where their real heart is. For them this is a—