Kanongata'a-Suisuiki AnahilaANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to make a short contribution on this bill the Holidays (Bereavement Leave for Miscarriage) Amendment Bill (No 2). I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the leadership of the sponsor of the bill Ginny Andersen. I want to acknowledge her courage and her passion in shepherding this bill in the House. I also like many speakers before me want to take this opportunity to acknowledge Kathryn Van Beek for her courage and conviction in talking over 7000 people into signing a petition and taking that to a local member of Parliament the Hon Clare Curran. Now we're here in the House where we mark in our history as a country providing a provision for compassion to families at their most difficult time.I also want to acknowledge the chair of the select committee Marja Lubeck and the committee of the Education and Workforce Committee for their due diligence in terms of listening to submissions and listening to advice on this bill. The reason why I talk about listening to submitters is because submissions talked about 20000 women who experience the loss of a child but actually it is 20000 households a year—20000 households. In this legislation it actually describes the insightful understanding of the select committee and everybody concerned—it is about the mother who's lost a child her partner also and also if there is a surrogacy involved they too are also in this piece of legislation. And if the former partner is no longer a partner but they're biologically connected to the lost child then they too are acknowledged in this bill.That's why it's really important that we acknowledge this as a country almost to the point where we're describing what love is in times of loss. I'm Tongan and in my culture there's a lot of things we don't talk about but a loss of a child is something that we do talk about that we come together at a time of a loss to provide support for the household and for everyone involved. So we do talk about miscarriage and we do provide that support because we understand that it is a loss.Also important: I was an employer in my past life and I want to acknowledge the unions that came through: the E tū union the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions the Public Service Association (PSA)—a former PSA member myself. As an employer a staff member came to me and said I have to go home because two days ago I had a miscarriage but my doctor said that I'm OK to come to work." and I was just dumbfounded. I said "What are you doing at work? Why are you here at work?" and she said she had no sick leave left. This piece of legislation actually supports employers to continue to provide care and I want to acknowledge those employers who have been good employers. Employees had to rely on their good faith as a good employer to do that but actually in the example that I have provided it removes all of that. It removes and it clarifies the need to support a person—and we don't just see the person; we see the family and the need for support for everyone who is experiencing a loss.That's why I speak about that as a maturity in our country that we—and maybe it's because in terms of the maturity of our country we do have the voices of women in the House we do have diversity in the House that we now are able to listen with our hearts and the House is capable of having that maturity that this bill in its shepherding through by the leadership of Ginny Andersen has everybody in support. I wish and I hope for the future of New Zealand that we continue to have respectful conversation about things that matter as an everyday New Zealander in an everyday household. If one in every four women experiences it that's all of us who are experiencing that loss as a country. On that note I commend this bill to the House. Mālō."