Sabin Mike: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSabin Mike: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 23 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19377. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MIKE SABIN (National—Northland):I think the member Jacinda Ardern is quite correct—things do change absolutely. That is the nature of the beast. Positions certainly do change. Polls change leaders of political parties change the global financial conditions change and the landscape in Canterbury changes and that is pretty much how it goes. Things do change positions do change and that is exactly the position that New Zealand has found itself in in recent years.What this Government has done much to the criticism of people like Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Party and their friends over there the Greens and New Zealand First is support those who are most vulnerable—support those who need it. On the one hand those members have continued to vote against everything this Government has done to grow the economy while on the other hand they have criticised us for letting people in their view fall through the cracks. I say that members cannot have it both ways. So the member Jacinda Ardern is quite correct. Things do change.For what it is worth putting a figure of a matter of weeks—the difference between National’s position of extending moderately paid parental leave and Labour’s position in this bill or the difference between having 14 weeks 16 weeks and 18 weeks and having 26 weeks—is not what we should be talking about because the reality is that children need their parents in their formative years. That is the case regardless of how many weeks of paid parental leave exist. Sometimes that means that parents must be prepared to make a sacrifice. The member Sue Moroney as a parent has I am sure done that. Every parent in this Chamber knows that sometimes sacrifices must be made. Sometimes that means surviving on one income not for 16 weeks 18 weeks or 26 weeks but often for 5 years or for longer because that is what children demand of good parents. That is what good parenting is about. It is ensuring that those formative years are spent with the child.So we can debate whether 16 weeks is where it should be or whether 26 weeks is where it should be. I think there is actually a bigger debate to be had here about the fact that New Zealand parents cannot expect that they can just go about their professional working lives and not invest their time in their children and then expect that they will get the same results than if they had been willing to make the sacrifice and spend that time at home with their children. Ultimately that is an important time for development in a child’s life and yes it is true that in spending that time with the children many parents will do it hard for a while. But in this modern era when we look at say this Government’s approach to supporting families even a $500 million package is substantial. When we look at what we would consider to be the more financially challenged or vulnerable families for a family with two children that is earning somewhere in the order of $50000 it is essentially tax-neutral. It will receive from the Government as much support as it will pay in tax.In fact actually what the member Jonathan Young has said is quite right—actually more so. That seems to me to be quite unprecedented. Certainly when I was bringing up young children I do not remember that to be the case. It is certainly the case that MMP creates an environment where we see Labour Governments come up with lolly-scramble ideas and once families become reliant or dependent on a degree of support it is very hard to actually withdraw that support. That is not to say that to some extent there was not some support needed in the first place but what it is fair to say is that once people are given an opportunity to have something that they do not necessarily need they will certainly want to hang on to that.I am not so sure that MMP has been a particularly good electoral system for our families because in many ways what it has done is create a default position of: “What is in it for me? What will the Government give me so that I can be a better parent?”. Well nothing. The Government cannot give anything to someone to be a better parent because being a better parent is not about defaulting to the Government. Being a better parent is about making decisions that are in the best interests of that child.