Roche Denise: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Roche Denise: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 25 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3950. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DENISE ROCHE (Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. Tena koutou ki te Whare. The Greens will be supporting this Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill. Our policy is for 13 months’ paid parental leave and this bill to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks is a good start in progressing that. If we are going to look at where we are going we should look at where we have been. The provision of 1 year’s unpaid parental leave was introduced in 1987 and it was a major breakthrough for families. Although it was not paid it meant that if they could afford to a parent could take a year off to be with their child and be assured of having the same job there when they came back. That is the crux of the matter: being able to afford to take time off to have your children and have enough time to bond with them. The State sector at that time tended to lead on good employment practices and it still does and I hope that it continues to do so. It had some provisions for paid leave during that time. 
It was not until 2002 that the Labour-Alliance Government with the then Minister of Women’s Affairs the Hon Laila Harré introduced the first provisions for 12 weeks’ paid parental leave. By 2006 that had extended to 14 weeks of paid leave. Since 2002 an estimated 190000 people mostly mothers have accessed those 12 or 14 weeks of paid leave. Looking at the trend over the last few years more people every year are using it. Its introduction has gone some way towards easing the financial shock that happens when a newborn enters the family and the income of the parents plummets. I remember my own experience when my son was born in 1994. His father and I shared 12 months of unpaid leave and as well as adjusting to the new circumstances of having a helpless infant that we were responsible for we also had to manage halving our income. We extended the mortgage to cover that time off. 
Today we are hearing the same arguments against 20 weeks’ paid parental leave that we heard back in the 1990s—that we cannot afford it. That was the same argument that we heard in the 1970s about equal pay. We got those measures introduced and guess what? The economy did not grind to a halt. The country did not go broke and the sky did not fall in. We have become so used to thinking in the short term that we no longer think of the long-term benefits. These long-term benefits will outweigh the costs. 
There is no doubt that 26 weeks’ leave is good for babies. The World Health Organization recommends 6 months’ breastfeeding as a way of improving and ensuring physical and emotional health for the child. Kids who have a parent at home in their first year or so actually have better cognition and fewer behavioural problems as they grow up. That child-parent attachment is critical to the child’s longer-term prospects. That child-parent attachment leads to less abuse and less neglect of children. That is the cost that we all bear as a society. We must create healthy strong families as soon as a child is born. 
Twenty-six weeks’ paid parental leave eases a family’s immediate financial stress. Research has also shown that generous paid parental leave results in more women returning to the same job they left which pays off for employers who have invested in those workers. It also means working mothers are able to maintain their ability to provide for their families. 
We really are slipping behind international best practice with our paid parental leave provisions. Last year Australia introduced 18 weeks’ paid leave giving working parents the opportunity to choose between that or opt for a “baby bonus” of $5000. As our population ages it is crucial that we are able to attract workers and a skilled labour force. To compete we need to be able to provide the same if not better provisions than are enjoyed elsewhere. We must get over our short-term thinking. If we invest in paid parental leave we will get good returns. It is good for the economy it is good for babies it is good for families and it is good for our labour market. Tena koutou katoa.