Bishop Chris: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Employment Standards Legislation Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 03 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9412. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS BISHOP (National): At the start of my short call this afternoon I just want to pay tribute to Martin Crowe and note his loss. I think it is a real loss for New Zealand cricket and New Zealand society really. He was a childhood hero of mine and I know that there will be many New Zealanders around the country feeling this loss very keenly. I just want to pay tribute to his enormous role in the 1992 Cricket World Cup but also his ongoing role particularly in the development of Cricket Max which was the precursor to Twenty20. He was an innovator and a visionary and not the least of which a fantastic batsman.I just want to mention briefly what I think is the biggest advance in this bill and that is the changes that it makes around pre-term babies. We have already heard a reference to this by David Seymour in his contribution to the debate and it is really an example I think of MMP at its best in some ways—of Parliament through the process of negotiation and mediation acting on something that is important. And everyone agrees I think that it should be dealt with.So what this bill does is provide extra assistance for parents who have pre-term babies. It entitles them to a longer period of parental leave than the standard 18 weeks if the baby is born prior to 37 weeks of gestation which is of course considered full term. It provides for extra weekly payments and I think as David Seymour made reference to in his remarks that that is what a socially just society does. It is what a society does when it enjoys the prosperity that allows it to provide assistance like that to children who through no fault of their own and to families who through no fault of their own—the birth lottery—are going to be placed into difficult circumstances. That is what a society that has the prosperity to spend money on that does and that is what this Parliament is doing and I think that that is very important.The other thing that I want to mention which I think is a real advance for New Zealanders is the bill introducing the keeping-in-touch provisions. These allow employees to work up to 40 hours a week during the period of receiving parental leave payments. The bill has some safeguards around that. It provides for employees and employers to consent to that work. What I think that will do is allow people to transition back into the workforce and that is going to be a real advance for working mums out there and for families.We know that we have a high female labour force participation rate but we also know that we need to maintain that. We need to make sure that people who want to work can work but also as this bill does—and it strengthens that assistance—provide assistance for mothers and fathers to take time off to look after their children. That is a real advance I think—those keeping-in-touch hours provisions. This is a good bill.I have not addressed any of my remarks to the negotiations or the ongoing discussion around zero-hour contracts. My personal view is that it is a bit of a shame that the public debate has become fixated on that too. I think the public debate has become a little bit confused about what we mean by a zero-hour contract and the differences between that and casual contracts. But I think that we are getting to a position in Parliament where we are legislating in quite a consensual way—or I hope that we will eventually legislate in quite a consensual way—to eliminate the punitive elements of contracts to which various speakers over the last hour or so have made reference. I think that will be a step forward for employment legislation in Parliament. I acknowledge the hard work of Iain Lees-Galloway on this issue. He has been a very strong and forthright proponent of his point of view on this and he has done a good job in that regard.This is a step forward for employment legislation in New Zealand. I believe it contains a lot of useful provisions and I commend the bill to the House.The question was put that the amendments recommended by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee by majority be agreed to.