Peachey Allan: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Peachey Allan: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:631;Page:2852] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 I am pleased to rise and join my colleagues on the National side of the House in supporting this bill. I preface my remarks by noting that mothers are very important to the well-being and moral tone of our communities and I take this opportunity to remind members of the House—and those New Zealanders who are listening to this debate—that Sunday is Mother’s Day. It is an opportunity for us to appreciate and show our respect for mothers and on some occasions to take a moment for quiet reflection on what our mothers have meant to us. 
I compliment the Minister. I believe this bill in extending paid parental leave to the self-employed marks a welcome departure from the Labour - New Zealand First - United Future coalition Government’s usual attitude to business and to small business in particular. I remind the Minister in the chair the Hon Ruth Dyson in the light of her comments when she took the call that actions always speak louder than words. 
I will focus my remarks on those clauses of the bill that address the position of the self-employed. I support anything that will be of assistance to such people. I ask members never to forget that the self-employed are the people with the initiative the innovation the creativity the ability to organise and the willingness to take risks and to give another New Zealander an opportunity to work. They are the people who create work in our communities. They are also the people whom this Government consistently penalises with its confiscatory tax rates. The Government penalises those people—the self-employed—for the very things that make them successful. 
I also welcome the inclusion of farming families in the bill. Farmers are a very special part of the New Zealand economy. They still provide the backbone of many of our rural communities. It is important that their role is acknowledged along with that of all the other self-employed people in New Zealand. 
It is also proper—and the bill acknowledges this—that a self-employed person on parental leave should be able to maintain a level of oversight of his or her business during the period of leave. Such businesses which are the backbone of business in New Zealand communities are very very dependent on the organisation the leadership and the interest that the people who own them take in them. Those businesses cannot afford to suffer from the neglect that may otherwise occur. I ask members not to forget that many other members of our communities depend on the work of the self-employed—as I have said—and on their leadership their initiative and their creativity. And most important of all many other New Zealanders depend on such people for their own employment. 
According to the bill a self-employed person can apply for paid parental leave for more than one business. It is good to see—and I support—two businesses being treated as one for the purposes of paid employment leave entitlements. Again that is a reflection of the nature of small business in New Zealand. It is not unusual for a self-employed person to be running more than one business and to be employing people in both those businesses. It is important that they are able to keep both businesses—or more if they have others—operating for the benefit of everybody. 
Obviously one of the positive effects that will come from this bill will be the retention of the entrepreneurs owners and people who provide the leadership in their businesses even while they are on paid leave. Again I repeat the point—because it is important and worth repeating—that other people benefit from that opportunity. Any measure that keeps self-employed people in their businesses—and this is one such measure—contributes to the overall growth of the national economy contributes to the good of our communities and above all else contributes to the stability of our families. And it acknowledges the special role that mothers play in our communities.