Dyson Ruth: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Dyson Ruth: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:630;Page:2614] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 I move  
That the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. This bill implements the Labour-led Government’s policy to extend the paid parental leave scheme to self-employed individuals who are not currently covered by the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act. In doing so the bill furthers a number of our Government’s objectives to support working parents on the birth or adoption of a child. These include ensuring that the paid parental leave scheme is accessible to a wider number of individuals enhancing equity by allowing employed people to access paid parental leave irrespective of whether they are employees or self-employed enabling a self-employed parent to take leave with a period of income replacement and supporting the health and well-being of new mothers and babies. 
Self-employed mothers will be eligible if they have worked an average of 10 hours a week or more during either a 6 or 12-month period immediately before the expected date of delivery or adoption of a child. Self-employed mothers will have the same right as employees to transfer payments to their eligible partners who may be either self-employed or employees. Self-employed people will be entitled to paid parental leave if they are engaged in more than one type of work consecutively and/or if they have a break of 30 days or less between engagements. Like employees they will be required to stop working while receiving payments but they will be able to maintain a level of oversight of their business during the leave period. 
Parental leave payments for the self-employed will equal their average weekly income up to the maximum rate for employees—currently $357.30 per week before tax. Those who make a loss or who earn less than the minimum wage for at least 10 hours a week will be entitled to payments for 10 hours a week at the minimum wage rate. 
The bill also provides that employees will become eligible for a subsequent period of parental leave and parental leave payments if the expected date of delivery or adoption is at least 6 months after their return to work from a previous period of parental leave rather than the 12 months as at present. This provides fairness between first-time parents and parents of subsequent children. This will extend eligibility to paid parental leave to a small number of employees who are currently ineligible. The bill provides that self-employed women will be eligible for parental leave payments for second and subsequent children 6 months following previous parental leave payments. 
The bill also includes a new provision that explicitly provides that employees or self-employed persons may apply to the Employment Relations Authority for a review of a decision made by the Department of Labour about their eligibility for a parental leave payment. It also enables the department to approve applications for payment where there are technical problems with the application. Currently these applications must go to the Employment Relations Authority before they can be approved. That amendment will save applicants from having to go through that process. However the department may not approve applications if the problem is in dispute between the employer and the employee. 
The bill returns to the House with a small number of technical amendments. It clarifies that when a self-employed woman goes on parental leave before her expected date of delivery the calculation of average weekly earnings will reflect only those weeks during which she was working. So her lack of earnings while on parental leave will not affect the final rate of parental leave payment. That amendment is consistent with the calculation methods applied to employees who take parental leave before the due delivery date of their child. It will provide guidance to the Department of Labour when exercising its discretion to approve irregular applications for parental leave payment. It clarifies that a parental leave payment will end for the primary applicant if the entitlement is transferred to his or her spouse or partner. It also clarifies that failing to provide information requested by the department under the principal Act is an offence. It will extend the time period within which offence proceedings relating to misleading the department may be commenced to within 6 months from the first time the alleged offence became known or should reasonably have become known to the department. 
I also advise the House that I will be introducing a Supplementary Order Paper in the Committee stage to resolve an issue of inconsistency that was identified in the later stages of scrutiny of the bill in the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. That will allow persons who meet qualifying criteria both as an employee and as a self-employed person to apply for entitlements in respect of parental leave from their employment and to apply for parental leave payments based on earnings from their work both as a qualifying employee and as a qualifying self-employed person. This amount will be capped at the same maximum amount as would be available to a person who was solely an employee or a self-employed person. This amendment will provide consistency with the current situation for employees with multiple employments who are entitled to paid parental leave in all jobs for which they meet the eligibility criteria and can apply for paid parental leave up to the maximum amount payable. 
Other technical amendments on the Supplementary Order Paper are made to ensure clarity in the administration of the Act. These include the definition of net income being amended to make it clear that trustee distributions are included as net income and time off work while on accident compensation or parental leave or in any other approved circumstances being included as time working as a self-employed person. These hours are included when determining whether a self-employed person is eligible for parental leave payments. Again that is consistent with the effect of the legislation for employees who are off work in those same circumstances. 
Most submitters supported the bill as it is. It does not discriminate between employed or self-employed workers it encourages more choice for workers in their role as parents it encourages self-employed women to return to the workforce after having a child and it recognises that many self-employed people are not high-income earners and may be in as much need of access to income replacement during parental leave as employed people are. 
Some submitters supported the concept of paid parental leave for self-employed persons and made suggestions for improving the provisions relating to the self-employed while others sought the broadening of the scope of the paid parental leave scheme as a whole to lengthen the duration of paid leave increase the level of payment and include other parents not currently covered by the scheme such as casual and seasonal workers and parents who assume the care of children via customary adoption or whangai. An evaluation of the entire scheme is currently under way looking at the experiences of women partners and employers and also at those who are ineligible for the scheme currently. That will assist our Government to consider further some of the broader issues raised by the submitters. 
The changes contained in the bill will be monitored after their implementation in order to contribute to the findings of the evaluation of the wider scheme currently under way. In the meantime I welcome the select committee’s report on the bill and thank all members for their work. I also extend my thanks to all those who took the time to make submissions. I commend the progress of the bill to the House.