Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I wanted to congratulate firstly the member who has been stewarding this bill through the House. Ginny Andersen has done a good job picking up on the work that was done in a previous Parliament by the Hon Clare Curran. I also just wanted to thank the member who has just resumed her seat Angie Warren-Clark who has very clearly and carefully and warmly set out the parameters of what this piece of legislation does and why it is that it needs to be done.As parliamentarians we often come into this debating chamber and we divide and split along party lines. We divide and split along lines that are driven by mere politics. But occasionally—and not often enough in my view—we come together as parliamentarians in a unified dignified respectful way to do the right thing. This is an example of such an occasion where this piece of legislation seeks to remedy some definitional issues in relation to bereavement leave the Holidays Act and issues that a previous Parliament in less enlightened times omitted probably simply because it was too difficult for them to even think about and that's a blot actually on some of our predecessors to a degree. But times change views change circumstances change and fortunately for us futures can change as well. Normally as the National Party's workplace relations spokesperson in a situation where employers were being asked to provide further paid leave for a situation for an employee often we would be saying Well that's an unnecessary impost upon employers." The reality is that in this matter to do with the definition of miscarriage and the changes that Angie Warren-Clark talked about—the real reality is that this will have very little financial impact on most employers because the vast majority of employers are already I think doing the right thing and have been for a very long period of time. That said there are some—and it's a very small minority in my view—who haven't been doing the right thing and this piece of legislation puts that to right and it does so in a way that I think is appropriate and dignified.It does remove an ambiguity in the current law and it's an ambiguity that's existed for far too long in my view. Bringing a clear definition for instance simply to the word "child" in terms of eligibility for bereavement leave I think is an important thing and the fact that this House has not done that previously is a sorry state of affairs to be honest. I would hope that in future parliamentarians in this place will have the boldness to actually address issues of this sort in a far more mature compassionate way than maybe has been done in the past. So I too want to join with others across the House in supporting this piece of legislation thanking the Education and Workforce Committee for the work that they have done in this Parliament and also the work that has been done previously. I haven't spoken on this piece of legislation in the past but I did have an opportunity to sit in on some of the proceedings of the select committee. And I've got to say that again just as this debate has proven in the third reading Parliament can and does occasionally work at its very best. So too can select committees actually do really good work to achieve an outcome that will be beneficial and important for women and also men in the future. We put right today a situation that for too long has been wrong. I with pleasure support and endorse this bill and commend it to the House."