Lees-Galloway Iain: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLees-Galloway Iain: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 25 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11270. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North):Well that was atypically long rambling and incoherent contribution from the member Paul Foster-Bell and it sounded very much to me like someone on the defensive—someone who knows that his party is on the wrong side of this debate. Just like so many other issues at the moment the National Party is firmly on the wrong side of this debate. It is trying to tell us that Sue Moroney’s bill to extend paid parental leave by just 8 more weeks—that is all we are talking about 8 more weeks—is neither necessary nor affordable. So let us explore that.The first question is: is it necessary? Well the only way in which you could argue that it is unnecessary is if you believe that the 18 weeks that we have at the moment is sufficient paid parental leave. If you look around the world and look at the other countries that we like to compare ourselves with—Italy 26 weeks; Germany 156 weeks; the UK 39 weeks; Belgium 32 weeks; Ireland 26 weeks; Portugal 30.1 weeks; and Japan 58 weeks. In fact the OECD average is 26 weeks. So all we are asking with this bill—all we are asking—is to make New Zealand average. I know that the Government is usually pretty happy with that. It does not like being out in front.It does not like being the leaders.It likes to be the mediocre average fast-follower. All that this bill would do is make New Zealand average rather than sub-par below average and behind the pack which is where we always end up under this National Government. So is the bill necessary? Well if you believe that the other countries have got it right and that we perhaps need to catch up then yes it is absolutely necessary: 18 weeks is not enough. So that destroys that argument from the National Party.The next question is: is it affordable? This is why National has always opposed paid parental leave. I know it had a road to Damascus moment a couple of years ago when it realised that it was so far on the wrong side of public opinion and Labour and Sue Moroney had done such a good job of articulating the merit of extending paid parental leave to 26 weeks that it finally decided that it would get on board with paid parental leave—15 years after everybody else in New Zealand did. The National Government finally got on board but every time—when Labour first introduced it when Labour extended it for the first time when we were in Government when Labour extended it for the second time when we were in Government—the National Party opposed it because it said it was unaffordable.Brett Hudson: That’s true.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: “It’s true.” says Brett Hudson. It is true that the full cost of this after full implementation is $107 million a year. That sounds like quite a lot of money but just the other day the Prime Minister said “$3 billion worth of tax cuts”. That is affordable apparently but not $107 million worth of paid parental leave. The Prime Minister comes out and says that at a time when people are living in their cars. At a time when health is so stretched that people cannot even get on the waiting list at a time when people are paying more for their children’s education than they ever have before the Prime Minister says that paid parental leave is not affordable but $3 billion worth of tax cuts is affordable.We know this Government does not like its mates having to pay tax. It stood up for the tax dodgers. It did not stand up for working people who would benefit from paid parental leave the people who pay their taxes through PAYE who do not have foreign trusts who do not have the opportunity to avoid their taxes. That is not who this Government stands up for. It stands up for its rich mates and it wants to give its rich mates more tax cuts. I do not know whether they even pay any tax but the Government wants to give them more tax cuts rather than funding something that actually gives working families a hand up that actually gives kids the best possible start in life and the best opportunities to get ahead.What a miserable Government. What a miserable Government which is prepared to spend outlandish and ridiculous amounts of money on tax cuts at a time when they are utterly unaffordable but cannot find what is in the Government’s terms the tiny amount of money to extend paid parental leave only to the point where New Zealand would be average. Does that not tell us so much about where the National Government’s priorities lie?Dr David Clark: Disdain for middle New Zealand.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: They lie not with middle New Zealand not with children not with working people but with the very very few at the top who will be the beneficiaries of those tax cuts if John Key gets his way and is able to roll Bill English who of course told us that tax cuts were off the agenda.Labour has always been consistent on the issue of paid parental leave. As I said we introduced it. We extended it once. We extended it twice. We always knew the time was going to come when the extensions in time were going to be required and the extensions in terms of who was going to be eligible for it were going to be needed. But of course we started carefully because we faced so much opposition from the National Government and its supporters. So we started carefully we bedded it in and we extended it and now is the time to extend it to 26 weeks.It is thoroughly affordable. It is well within our ability. We simply have to make it a priority but children and families warm dry homes security jobs—those are not the things that are priorities to that Government over there.Of the submissions that the Government Administration Committee heard 99.94 percent were in favour of increasing paid parental leave to 26 weeks. Submitters cited the importance of longer leave for enabling good bonding and attachment between parents and baby. I hear so many times particularly from groups in society who tend to support that party opposite not ours about their concern about the breakdown of the family and the breakdown of society. Actually one of the most important things we can do to support families is to give working parents the opportunity to actually bond with their children.Paul Foster-Bell is nodding despite the fact that he is going to vote against this legislation. Paul Foster-Bell also actually pointed out the return on investment that we get if we invest in children from conception or even pre-conception through to 3 years of age. This policy has an incredibly good return on investment. It was part of the recommendations that the cross-party Health Committee report recommended. Dr Paul—we miss him; we miss Dr Paul—led that inquiry the National Party’s MPs agreed with us and this recommendation was in that report. Yet National still consistently opposes an extension for paid parental leave.Some submitters also said it will support families by providing income stability. Is that not something that families need more and more of today? As our working environment becomes more and more unstable and as people face insecurity of work insecurity of income and insecurity of accommodation we need to do everything we can to make sure that babies are born into secure environments. Being able to give parents an opportunity to take time off work but to know that there is still enough money to come in pay the bills pay the mortgage pay the rent and put food on the table—that is what babies need. And when those babies grow up in that secure environment they go on to thrive. They go on to do well. They go on to be successful. Is that not what every single one of us is in this House for—to ensure that Kiwis grow up to be successful?So come on National members. Drop the ideology. Drop the silly arguments. You are on the wrong side with this one. You are on the wrong side of public opinion you are on the wrong side of the evidence and you will be on the wrong side of historyagain. Change your minds. Vote for this legislation. Do not use the veto. Get alongside working New Zealand families.