Collins Judith: Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16477] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 I would like to take up the issue that has been so well put by the previous speaker as it is a point that needs to be looked at. What about nurses? What about the nurses for instance who work in the Auckland region and may be employed on a part-time basis by the Auckland District Health Board and on a part-time basis by the Counties Manukau District Health Board? Those people will not be included. There is an absolute lack of nurses in this country and here we are giving preferential treatment just to teachers. That has to be wrong. No reason has yet been given in this debate as to why teachers are singled out for special treatment while other employees—other professionals trades people people who happen to be cleaners and people who work in all sorts of other jobs—are not included. They are not included because this Government does not really care about them. It is using this legislation just for votes. [ 
Interruption 
] Dr Mapp makes the very good point that maybe those people did not pay enough through to a particular party: the Labour Party. 
In addition to that there is the ridiculous situation whereby someone who has been working part-time for an average of 10 hours a week for 6 months will be able to get the benefit of this legislation. That person’s employer however—who may well be a sole employer a sole trader who is trying to build up a business—may take on another woman as a staff member and that staff member after a very short period of time will be able to get the benefit of this particular legislation while the self-employed woman who is trying to get her business going does not get the benefit if she decides to have a baby. Not only does the employer get to pay the taxes for that benefit but she gets no let-up because she will have to find someone else to fill that staff member’s place for 6 or 12 months or whatever period it is and she will not know how long she has to employ that person for. 
This sort of legislation has a place but it must be fair. When legislation is not fair as we have said time and time again then it is discriminatory and it needs to be revised. Unfortunately the Government is just not interested in listening to this debate. Government members tell us they cannot find a way to look at when people are self-employed and what they are earning. Yet the same Minister Ruth Dyson is able to tell us as the ACC Minister when people are self-employed and she is able to tell us how much they are earning because it suits the Government to do so—and that is because those self-employed people are paying accident compensation levies. That is what this legislation is about. It is about money; it is all about buying votes. Unfortunately this bill is a discriminatory measure that will have very little to do with the day-to-day lives of ordinary New Zealand women. Ordinary New Zealand women do not have the luxury of earning $200000 in a particular year and not paying tax on it because they are Labour Cabinet Ministers. Those women are the people who are paying for this legislation and they will be told that it will help them. 
The self-employed people of New Zealand know that they are being done over by this bill yet the Government has the opportunity with our support to change it and to include self-employed people. Will Government members vote for that? No they will not. The trouble is that we are not talking about great big companies here; we are talking about small businesses. The majority of businesses in this country are small and they are getting smaller. Those are the people who will pay the price not only in taxes but in terms of having to find more staff to fill the gaps and they cannot offer those staff any security.