Moroney SuePARENTAL LEAVE AND EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION (6 MONTHS' PAID LEAVE) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingSUE MORONEY (Labour): I move That the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (6 Months' Paid Leave) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. On any other occasion in this Parliament speaking those words would mean that the bill gets passed into law and families would be able to look forward to 26 weeks' paid parental leave. But not under this miserable National Government—that is not what is going to happen. For the first time in this Parliament's history a bill is about to have a third reading debate and there will be no vote put at the end of it. Why is that? It is because that National Government does not prioritise children and their families enough to care and it has taken this extreme measure that has never happened in our Parliament before. I think it is a shameful day for democracy and for the future of this country under this National Government that this is taking place. It is an extreme measure that those members are taking and what is it that they are taking an extreme measure against—the ability for parents to spend time with their children. Family time is what this Government is vetoing. It is vetoing family time and the ability for every child to get the best start in life. That makes it a shameful day for this National Government. But I want New Zealanders to know this: that democracy has not failed them that the Labour Party has not failed them that the majority of this Parliament has not failed them; it is the National Party that has failed them. Democracy and MMP have actually worked in this instance because we know that the majority of the public do support this measure. They understand the benefits of it and that has been reflected in their Parliament. So MMP has not failed the public or New Zealand children. Democracy has not failed New Zealand children. The National Party has failed New Zealand children. Those members are soon going to get up and try to convince those families that their needs are not a priority. They are going to stand up and say that this bill is unaffordable. It is demonstrably untrue and it is demonstrably untrue because—how is this for irony—the same day that this bill was last debated in Parliament at its Committee stage that same Government announced $20 billion worth of spending in defence. It plucked that figure out of thin air—no costings done on that; no scrutiny done on that figure whatsoever. Suddenly the Government can magic $20 billion up for war toys but it cannot afford a much smaller amount of money for children and their families. I want to remind this Parliament and the public that this bill has faced the scrutiny of a select committee process and its full costing regime not once but twice and yet the Government members refuse to acknowledge what is plainly in front of them what all the research and evidence tell them what the public wants to see and what the majority of this Parliament wants to see as well. We also know it is demonstrably untrue because John Key keeps saying he wants $3 billion worth of tax cuts—that is where his priority lies: John Key wants his $3 billion worth of tax cuts. I do not know how many times more that is than the cost of this bill—I think we worked out that 0.3 percent of those tax cuts would actually fund this bill and this measure for New Zealand families. Way back in 2012 I started my first reading speech with these words: He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata he tangata he tangata." "What is most important of all? It is people it is people it is people." As with most of those wise proverbs—all of them actually—these words stand the test of time. They are as true now as they were in 2012 and still that Government is not listening. Instead it has been focusing on playing politics with children's lives. It has spent the last 4 years playing politics with children's lives and that is shameful. It is not the only shameful record that this Government has when it comes to children because it is just one of a range of measures where it has acted against the interests of families and children. One of the first things this Government did when it came into office was to cut funding to early childhood education—Todd Barclay: Not true.SUE MORONEY: —so that children did not get the best-qualified teachers in front of them in early childhood education—and those members know it is true. We now have 305000 children living in poverty under that Government because of its failed policies—well I would say actually its deliberate policies that do not respect and prioritise children. So there are 95000 more children living in poverty living in cars and living in garages up and down this nation than there were before this Government took over Treasury—took over the books. Recently it has also cut Parents as First Teachers Funding. That is undervaluing parenting yet again from that Government. It has labelled children as failures at school with its national standards regime. Under the Government's watch the notifications of child abuse have increased and it has allowed bargaining pleas to reduce child murder to manslaughter. Last night those members were at it again. They were stripping family time away from families on Easter Sunday because they were bargaining away—trading away—Easter Sunday as an important day for families to spend together. The list of this Government's shameful record when it comes to children goes on and on. What is it that is so controversial about this bill? It actually responds to the research and evidence that tell us that if parents and babies get bonding and attachment right between them in those early months the outcome of that child's life is going to be substantially improved. For the rest of us that means that we get to save a lot of money on the potential bad outcomes that that child would have otherwise. For the rest of us it means we get to live alongside really well-balanced children and is that not what we would all want? We want to have well-balanced well-nurtured people in our community whom we are living beside. Also the research and evidence tell us that if we get this right and if we can support exclusive breastfeeding to 26 weeks then we know that hospital admissions will drop and that we will save money in that field as well. The cost of this bill—and let us clarify this because the Minister of Finance has been caught out telling porkies about the cost on a number of occasions; not just once but on a number of occasions—is $100 million net a year at full implementation. But wait there is more. The officials have costed $28 million in savings—some of the savings that I outlined before. These are immediate savings—and that is before we even get to the long-term savings which are the ones that all the experts say are the ones that really matter. At the select committee there were 6821 submissions—that is a large number of submissions—and 99.94 percent of them were in favour. I want to thank the huge number of New Zealanders who came in and supported this. I want to particularly thank the 26 for Babies coalition. Organisations like Plunket Barnardos and a range of trade unions came together to express their views on this and they have kept this issue alive for 4 years. I want to thank the thousands of New Zealanders who sent postcards attended meetings signed a petition made submissions and those who have made personal contact with me and told me their stories. But none of this debate would have been able to happen if it was not for the political parties that supported this and I want to acknowledge my Labour colleagues who gave me the great honour of being the guardian of this Labour Party policy—this very important Labour Party policy—and I hope that I have carried out my guardianship appropriately. I also want to thank the Green Party New Zealand First the Māori Party and United Future which all held tough and held strong in favour of children around this issue. I know there was a lot of political pressure put on those parties to change their votes. We saw it all play out in the Chamber from time to time but they never wavered and every single one of those votes has counted on this journey so I thank you all. We must remember that for all of that support there has been some progress made. We on this side of the House have forced the Government to increase paid parental leave to 18 weeks and importantly we have forced it to ensure that parents of babies who are born prematurely get even more leave than that. Finally I want to thank the many staff who have worked on this over the course of the last 4 years. I want to thank my family who are present in the Chamber today particularly my two boys—this is how long this bill has been going for. My children were young boys when this started; they are now wonderful young men of whom I am so proud and my husband Shane as well. There is a way forward on this still. The Government is never going to stop this debate from happening. The way forward is for a Labour-led Government to be elected to put this right next year. People have asked me how I feel about what is about to happen; I am more determined than ever to make that come about. Thank you."