Lubeck MarjaMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to take a call on this bill and also like many before me I'd like to congratulate Ginny Andersen for her member's bill. The cross-party support for this bill obviously reflects the importance of this particular issue.Currently the provisions of the Holidays Act as they are written quite often lead to disputes between employers and employees when it comes to having to take bereavement leave. And that of course in the circumstances that that occurs is absolutely unacceptable and unreasonable but it happens more frequently than not. Having worked at grassroots levels at a union I can state for the record that I have frequently represented women who have had to defend themselves for needing to take leave for their miscarriage. Now there are examples of employers even going through social media to say Well you said you had a miscarriage that day but at night we saw you at a party." or "At night we saw you going out for dinner." What that doesn't recognise is that quite often the women actually put on a brave face and don't admit to their employer or to their friends and family that they are hurting from this particular event. No a miscarriage or a stillbirth is a traumatic time and arguing to have to take leave during that time is adding to that particular grieving stage. So this bill is a really good opportunity for people to also talk about the issue. I acknowledge Kathryn van Beek as well for her advocacy on this topic and of course my colleague Clare Curran for all her work that she has done on this bill.It has been mentioned by our previous speakers that our select committee heard or received 37 submissions on this bill—all supporting either the bill completely or the bill with amendments. As it is evident from the submissions that we received it is also important that people feel more comfortable talking about pregnancy laws. There was a submission from New Zealand Family Planning which stated: "it is important that we work to eliminate stigma shame and silence surrounding miscarriage." and it isn't something many people talk openly about. The PSA Women's Network committee said "Miscarriage is not really talked about so openly … [it's like] an incomplete job or project. Family and friends would say 'Oh just try again you will have no problem' or 'sorry to hear that don't worry it will happen' … It is almost as if couples especially the women are silently viewed as a failure". In fact I will add myself to the record as well and I had a miscarriage at 13 weeks. In a way even though I didn't feel ashamed of it I did feel in some way that it was an unfinished project—it was something that I had failed at. So I can very much understand how these women that have submitted to us may have perceived their miscarriage.So many submitters shared their personal stories with us and I think they were very brave and forthcoming. It is due to their openly shared stories that we have been able to get this bill across the House potentially with cross-party support. It is also really important that we acknowledge that it is also important when you look at the growth of people in precarious work situations in Aotearoa New Zealand higher proportions of Māori and Pacific women are in this casual and seasonal work and it means that those groups of women will experience greater disadvantage; in particular these groups of women will need greater protections in employment law and that is exactly what this bill will do.So this bill will greatly reduce stress around a time that is already very difficult for women and it will prevent arguments between employers and employees and it is a burden off women not having to worry about either their job security or having to take unpaid leave off work and I commend it to the House. Thank you."