Goodhew Jo: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Goodhew Jo: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:631;Page:2855] 
JO GOODHEW (National—Aoraki) 
: 
 I take this opportunity to set the Minister in the chair the Hon Ruth Dyson straight on a few things. The Minister seems not to have noticed that National members actually support this legislation and we should be very clear as to why we are supporting it. Right from the word go yes we opposed paid parental leave because we knew that a better way to deal with giving hard-working young families who are raising children a break was to give them a tax cut—not to give them a welfare benefit. The Minister raises her eyes. That very point is behind all of this. Our philosophy is not to put hard-working parents on to welfare benefits but the reason we support this—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Lindsay Tisch 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I am sorry to interrupt my colleague. The Minister is interjecting at the same time as my colleague is speaking and the Minister has an unfair advantage because of where she is sitting. We would welcome the opportunity for the Minister to take a call and speak after my colleague has spoken. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: The Minister will not interrupt. 
JO GOODHEW 
: Thank you Madam Chair. As I was saying the issue is really about philosophy and about the fact that we believe there are better ways than this legislation to give hard-working families a fair go. 
But—and let us not forget that National members support this bill—we are supporting this legislation because it was grossly unfair to leave self-employed parents out initially. Members on the Government benches may be interested to know that many of the young parents in my electorate were left out and maybe that is why provincial New Zealand hit back at the Labour Government. We are talking about 66412 women—we have had a lot of numbers here this afternoon—of fertile age who are self-employed. That is how many people this legislation potentially affects. We know they will not all become pregnant and have babies in the one year but we also know that those people knew they were being let down badly by a Government that portrays itself as a Government with a concern for families. What a load of codswallop that is! What a load of old rubbish! Only some families were being left out. Small businesses which are 95 percent of our businesses are the sorts of businesses where young families—mums and dads—are trying to get ahead and they too need the recognition that extending this paid parental leave to the self-employed will give them. 
We have heard about the number of submissions that came before the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee when this bill was being discussed and I wish to touch on Rural Women New Zealand’s submission. Rural Women had consulted rural self-employed women both those working in partnership and those working in their own right in rural businesses or enterprises and it was of the opinion that a lump-sum payment as per the Australian system would work well. Rural Women knows that inherent in any legislation such as this bill is an awful lot of bureaucracy. We have heard other members of the National caucus talk here today about the level of bureaucracy that is involved in this legislation when a simple tax cut would have done. 
We have also heard that Business New Zealand made an interesting submission. That group certainly could see there were anomalies that needed to be addressed and for that reason it encouraged the inclusion of self-employed persons within the bill. The College of Midwives wanted to have its say as well. That group was very much in favour of “righting the inequity” as it put it that currently exists between the employed and the self-employed in the midwifery workforce. We heard from those groups which represent women. Women currently in larger numbers look to the Labour Government for a lead and for guidance. 
So it is good that I have had the opportunity to rise today and suggest to the Minister that she is looking in the wrong direction. We in the National Party support this legislation because of that inequity. We want to see self-employed persons get a fair deal. But the Minister should just remember that perhaps the bias of the Labour Government against business actually causes Government members to be as reluctant as they are to give National members credit for supporting this legislation.