Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Firstly let me start with a hearty congratulations to New Zealand families. Every time I have risen and talked about paid parental leave I've been in support of it. Obviously when we were in control of the Treasury benches we talked about competing priorities. We needed to be fiscally prudent hence our extensions of paid parental leave—yes they were extensions—were done in tranched manner and were fiscally prudent.So I do think it is unfair of the Government now to point at us and say that we have not been in support of families. We certainly have not only in the realm of paid parental leave and extending that in a fiscally prudent manner but in other measures with things such as free doctors visits for under-13-year-olds and our extended tax packages that would help the most vulnerable. So it is a little bit rich to hear the other side criticising the last Government when we talk about our measures in support of families.But it is a good day in my opinion because paid parental leave has been put on the agenda again not only by the current Government but by us during the campaign. It is a bill that we support. It is consistent with our policy that we campaigned on and as has been traversed in this House the benefits of paid parental leave are wonderful. I mean let's face it: in a modern society where we can support mothers and fathers—and we wish that fathers were more supported of course through the Hon Amy Adams' Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 3; we wish that that had been picked up. But paid parental leave is in support of mothers—and fathers to a degree—to help them when a new baby comes along to bond; to engage in breastfeeding if you can; and obviously to relieve a bit of the financial stress of having a new baby.And of course one of my pet things is allowing some time to engage in community activities to gain from the camaraderie of your peers who have also had babies and are going through the same milestones but also with respect to extending keeping-in-touch hours to make sure that women and fathers who take paid parental leave can stay in touch with their place of work; continue to train; hand over cases if that is the issue; hand over pieces of work; and just generally stay connected with their workplace rather than feeling isolated. In that vein I do have to thank the Hon Iain Lees-Galloway and the Government for working with me to get my SOP 2 across the line with regard to extending keeping-in-touch hours. I'm very pleased to see that get across the line.Again I do say though that it would have been nice to see the Hon Amy Adams' SOP get across the line as well with regard to making paid parental leave a little bit more—Hon Iain Lees-Galloway: Well not everyone's as good an MP as you are Sarah.SARAH DOWIE: Ha ha! Thank you Mr Lees-Galloway. We didn't see that SOP get across the line but nevertheless it is wonderful to see that we will be supporting this bill and that we will see this amendment bill get across the line to extend paid parental leave in two tranches the first 22 weeks in July 2018 and then 26 weeks on 1 July 2020.Again I say I think it would have been nice to go back to select committee and really explore the balance between paid parental leave and keeping-in-touch hours to really flush that out. We've already heard from the Hon Amy Adams that there is research out there that suggests that the longer a mother is away from work on paid parental leave the less connected she becomes with the workplace and the less likely she is to return. I think that we would have benefited from the select committee process to really explore that and of course to really get down to the nuts and bolts of making paid parental leave more flexible for both partners to take paid parental leave together to further alleviate stress when there are issues relating to the pregnancy or the birth or the baby to make things easier for family. But nevertheless this is a great day for New Zealand families. I am in full support of this bill going through given that it does extend paid parental leave.Let me acknowledge everyone that I've worked with on both sides of the House with regards to the processes and the extension bills of paid parental leave that there have been prior to this. There are numerous people around the House and also I acknowledge the honourable Sue Moroney up there in the gallery. We worked together on the Government Administration Committee on her bill.Look it's a wonderful cause and as I say the new Government is now in a position that they will have to balance competing priorities through the different portfolios. But they have chosen this and like I say it is something that the National Party campaigned on and we therefore support. So congratulations to New Zealand families.