Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Thank you Madam Deputy Chair. It is a pleasure to rise in support of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Bill talking about in particular Part 1 which extends paid parental leave from 18 to 22 weeks. It is a pleasure to rise because of course this was a policy that National campaigned on and there seems to be of course agreement across the committee about the extension of paid parental leave and the benefits of it. So there's no point talking about those benefits directly but what I do want to talk about is of course my Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) which the Government has decided to adopt. In talking about its application in Part 1—extending the keeping-in-touch days from 40 hours to 52—I do want to address some of the statements raised by the Government members in that keeping-in-touch days were fully explored at select committee.Now it is true that it was the National Government who brought in keeping-in-touch days through its bill in 2016 and keeping-in-touch days were explored under that reference. But in my mind I think they need to be fully explored and this is where the process at select committee is very valuable. I do think that we would have benefited from more discussion about keeping-in-touch days looking at the balance of incrementally increasing keeping-in-touch days with the increase in paid parental leave—looking at the benefits of it and making sure that that balance is in touch with what we're doing with achieving all of the goals that paid parental leave is setting out to achieve in our society.So look keeping-in-touch days are really important. My SOP extends the keeping-in-touch hours available from 40 to 52—as I said in the first tranche under Part 1—and that is in a proportional manner as paid parental leave is moving forward and is being extended. Keeping-in-touch days as I've said in my first and second reading speeches are really important tools in the tool kit to make paid parental leave fit for purpose. We need to make sure that when we're increasing paid parental leave and dealing with this bill paid parental leave is workable for a number of different situations that families find themselves in. Later in a contribution I'll talk about the Hon Amy Adams' Supplementary Order Paper which I think is an extremely good idea and adds to the flexibility of paid parental leave.But extending the keeping-in-touch days is also important because it combats that isolation factor that some women can experience while on paid parental leave. Yes of course it's wonderful to have a baby and you would never be without them once you have them but it's often not always a box of fluffies. There are things that go wrong and sometimes having that time to go back to work with the agreement of your employer to keep in touch—as the terminology says—to undertake a little bit of project work to upskill or to stay in touch with your employment is really good. It makes the primary caregiver feel worthwhile; it keeps them in touch with their career; it makes things flow more easily with regards to them coming back to work; and of course there's the camaraderie factor of going back to work. Plus of course paid parental leave gives that financial security to people to go out into the community and get involved in community initiatives that also contribute to their well-being and keep them connected.So this SOP with regards to Part 1 obviously extends the keeping-in-touch days to 52 hours which I think is extremely worthwhile. It's going to give people more time to use those hours throughout their paid parental leave stay in touch with their employment keep their skills evolving and I think that this will be really well received out in the community in New Zealand.