Moroney Sue: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 28 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18454. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): It is a great pleasure to rise and speak to the second reading of this bill the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill. The first reading of the bill was on 25 July 2012 almost 2 years ago—almost 2 years ago. People listening to this debate might wonder why there is a little bit of heat in this debate. Well there are very good reasons why there is a little bit of heat in this debate. The reason why it has taken so long to get to the second reading of a bill that supports families that extends paid parental leave to 26 weeks is that the Government—that National Party—has done every single thing in its power to stop this measure from taking place. That is the truth of the matter. That is the ugly truth of the matter actually.What has happened tonight what has played out tonight has been absolutely pure politics from the National Party and it has been like this since day one. Since the time this bill was drawn it has been politics as usual from the National Party while the Labour Party has been attempting to put people first. We have been attempting to put people at the heart of what happens in this Parliament and what has the National Partydone? It has filibustered. It has opposed. It has played dirty tricks all the way down the line. The National Party might think that that is quite an entertaining thing to do with the Labour Party but it is a disgraceful thing to do to the families of New Zealand. It is a disgraceful way to treat the families of New Zealand. It is a disgraceful way for the National Party to show its contempt and its undervaluing of parenting.Make no mistake about it. That is exactly what the National Party has demonstrated tonight. It is exactly what that party has displayed and it has displayed it now for 2 solid years. Actually the National Party has displayed it since 2002 around paid parental leave because National voted against it then and it has consistently voted against it since. No one is going to be fooled about its little election-year ploy to give 2 weeks’ extended paid parental leave but not until next year and a further 2 weeks but not until the year after. National has simply done the least it thinks it can get away with—the least it thinks it can get away with.I say to the families who saw this tonight and the families who will learn it from the front pages of the newspapers tomorrow that the reason why the National Party will have this bill being voted down tonight is that it refused to allow compassionate leave for Te UruroaFlavell’s vote to be counted for this bill. Te Ururoa Flavell has gone to support his daughter in the birth of his first moko—the birth of his first grandchild.Hon Anne Tolley: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is my understanding that the Standing Orders actually forbid members from referring to the absence of a member from the House.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Technically that is right. The member should not use the name in that regard.SUE MORONEY: Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. So let us be clear. Again National members tried to shut this debate down because they are ashamed and they should be ashamed of what they have done. But there is a member of Parliament who is voting for this bill tonight but whose vote cannot be recorded because he is attending the birth of his first grandchild. What a disgrace! We are here debating paid parental leave extending paid parental leave supporting families and the National Party members have decided that they will play politics—that they will put politics first even though they know that this bill has the majority support in this Parliament to pass. Even though it knows that the National Party has prevented that from taking place. Why? Because National does not value parenting. National members certainly do not understand the importance of 26 weeks’ paid parental leave. They do not understand what Plunket has called for what Barnardos has called for and what Every Child Counts has called for. They have not listened to those organisations because if they had listened to those organisations they would know that their pitiful 18 weeks is looking like the election-year gimmick that in fact it is.What Plunket has said is that it believes 26 weeks’ paid parental leave is the way to go. I will tell you why. It is the reason why I actually proposed 26 weeks in this bill. This is the reason. The World Health Organization says that exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months—26 weeks—is the way for a child to get the best start in life. It says that if mums are able to do that if mums can do that then that child’s health is going to be better for the rest of its life—for the rest of its life. That is great for that child and their family but it is also great for the rest of us. We get a really healthy productive individual to live alongside in society and we do not have to keep building more hospitals and we do not have to pay for the bad health outcomes that would otherwise take place. I do not know what the National Party does not get about this.But can I say that this bill is about people. It is about families and supporting them in the best way possible. It is absolutely clear now—absolutely clear—to everyone in New Zealand that it is Labour and a Labour-led Government that will truly support familiesin an appropriate way and that the National Party members will try to be the pretenders who look like they care but they really cannot do it and they exhibited it again tonight. When it comes down to it they exhibit that they do not care and they proudly show that to the nation. Well I think the nation already knows it but now it doubly knows it.I want to pay my respects to the 3809 submitters who put their views forward on this bill. Those 3809 submitters almost without exception supported extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks. They did not buy—they did not buy—the shonky argument from the Government that it was too expensive. They did not buy that because actually what New Zealanders know in their hearts is that giving children the best start in life is not too expensive. It saves money. They know that. The National Party with its tiny 1-year accounting brain cannot see more than a year in front of its own nose. It cannot see into the future. It cannot cost the benefits that the Government Administration Committee came up with because National members cannot think more than a Budget year in front of their noses. That is not going to give the country the sort of future it needs. That sort of accounting approach where they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing is not going to get this country to the place where it needs to be. This Government thinks that children are a cost. It can see paid parental leave and extending paid parental leave as only a cost. It cannot see it as an investment. On this side of the House we are very clear that we do see it as an investment.I want to thank the parties that have supported this bill because they have recognised right from the outset that this is an investment in New Zealand’s future. They have not regarded it as a cost. They have regarded it as an investment. I will start with my own party the Labour Party. Who else would come up with a bill like this? The support that I got from my colleagues when I took—Louise Upston: We passed one last week.SUE MORONEY: Oh yeah! Louise Upston—the Government has yeah. The Government was pushed into it. The Government was pushed into it begrudgingly and it has proved it again tonight so let us not be having that nonsense at this stage in the debate Mrs Upston.The Labour Party came fully in behind the bill. The Greens obviously are right in there behind it and I want to thank Jan Logie in particular for her role on the select committee. New Zealand First was there right from the start. The Māori Party was there right from the start even though the National Party will attempt to rob it of a vote tonight to make sure that parents and children cannot be supported in this way. Mana has been on board from the start and also United Future. I think I have got everyone. That equals a majority in this Parliament. That majority needs to be honoured.Carol Beaumont: Brendan Horan.SUE MORONEY: And Brendan Horan who started out voting with New Zealand First and now is casting his vote as an Independent member.So we have got the majority support. We have got the majority support and I think the National Party needs to honour that. I think the National Party should honour that there is majority support. National members should not be thegrinches who try to steal lollies from babies take lollipops out of their mouths because that is exactly how they are behaving tonight. It is the way they have behaved from the very first moment. They have threatened financial vetoes they have stripped Te Ururoa Flavell of his vote they have filibustered and they have misled me in terms of extending my bill and saying that they were going to do extensions through my bill. They have played every trick in the book. This bill is about supporting families and Labour is proud to do that.A party vote was called for on the question that the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill be now read a second time.