Mallard Trevor: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMallard Trevor: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 28 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18452. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South): I am going to make a relatively short speech and say that I am ashamed of this House today. I have been around for a while. I have been here over many years when members have had a lot of issues. When there have been deaths in families when there have been serious illnesses and when there have been births of children and grandchildren this House has always been positive. It has always showed compassion. What has occurred is that there has been some flexibility.On a number of occasions I have been called in from the Hutt to vote in order to let one of my colleagues go but I also know that there have been occasions in the past when parties have had their vote go down by one in order to allow for someone on the other side to attend to a family member a family birth or something similar. In fact the Muldoon Government from 1981 to 1984 survived only because of the integrity of the Labour Party at that time in voting one down. Jonathan Young is looking at me. He knows that his father stood up for a compassionate and a positive Parliament. To say that while the great-grandchild of the Labour icon JeffHond is being born the child’s grandparent’s vote in this House is being denied by the National Party because that child’s grandparent Te Ururoa Flavell wants to go to the birth of his granddaughter is very very low.What sort of workplace are we? What sort of compassion do we have for the people for the members who work here when those members say: “Choose between your job and your grandchild.” Choose between doing your duty here and your grandchild. This place has flexibility if it wants it. Our rules have the flexibility to be able to say: “Te Ururoa go to where you should be and be with your grandchild because your vote will count here.” What do we have from the National Party? Nothing positive no compassion no caring and no wish to make this a positive place at all.Members opposite are catcalling but I say to them that death birth and serious illness are the areas where we have as a community in the past worked together and been positive. We can differ heavily on policy. You know there are members opposite whom I agree with a lot of the time but much of the time I disagree with them. But in the end compassion and being positive is something that this House should stand for. This is a place where we should show that we care about each other’s families andwhere we do the things that are important. It is not the fault of the grandchild the great-grandchild of JeffHond. I just think it is appalling.I support this bill the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill. I actually support the changes that National made to paid parental leave but they did not go far enough. I think some of the changes that it made that are not in our bill are actually good changes. I agree with them. They were on our list of things to do when I was Minister of Labour. They were part of the next round. But this bill gives something that is more immediate. It is important and should be supported. The fact that it will go down and will not pass in this House because Louise Upston is so hard that she wants to try to stop a grandfather going to the birth of his grandchild is something that I think is shameful. National be positive and let the vote count.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I call Denise Roche—5 minutes.