Logie Jan: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1088. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green):I rise to speak to Supplementary Order Paper 15 which is specifically around the provisions in the case of multiple births in the case of children being born before 37 weeks’ gestation or in the case where a child is born with an impairment that would entitle a person to a Government-funded disability support service. This is the context of the Supplementary Order Paper. It is a reduction of the bill—on which sadly we have already lost the vote in this Committee. It is to reduce it down. Rather than having the 26 weeks apply to all children—because tragically that was not deemed by this Committee to be deliverable by this country despite the overwhelming number of submissions in favour of it—the member Sue Moroney has brought to the Committee this Supplementary Order Paper that has a much reduced level of provision to meet the absolutely most important need that we have in our community which is in the instances of premature births multiple births and where there is a case of disability.I would like to spend a little bit of time just actually focusing in on those families and what their needs are. We did hear through the submission process of people who had multiple births. They talked about their babies waking up at different times during the night so that when they tried to go back to work with the provision of paid parental leave being at the 12-week point they were going back to work without having had any sleep whatsoever basically. Their babies were not waking at the same time every night so they were feeding basically the entire night. So there is a very real demonstrated need that we were informed about for the provision of paid parental leave in the cases of multiple births.I think that anyone in this Committee if they have not had twins or triplets should imagine themselves in the shoes of that family trying to actually be new parents of multiple children at once. I think that most of us here would have some empathy and want to give them the time of at least 6 months to get to grips with that job for the benefit of their family and for the benefit of their babies. We know that actually the health benefits of that to those babies are just unchallengeable; that they are lifetime benefits.I will just talk a little bit more about premature births too because approximately 10 percent of all babies born in this country are premature. That is over 5000 babies a year who are born premature. The consequences of that—we heard from somebody who presented to the select committee who I think brought all of us to tears. Before the time of parental leave she had had a premature birth. Her baby had been in an intensive care unit and she was having to leave her baby to go to work. I am not a parent but the thought of that to me is just completely gut-wrenching—giving birth to a child this most special time in your life and your baby is in an intensive care unit. What level of stress and anxiety you must have and fear that you would lose that baby and then you have to go to work. It is a horrific thought as are the consequences of it as well.What makes Supplementary Order Paper 15 so important is that when the baby comes out hopefully willingly and well and healthy then in effect the process starts. Whereas most women would have access to parental leave from a full-term point these women would have to take paid parental leave from a much earlier point which actually means that the time around breastfeeding is much reduced. That time for bonding in the flesh is much reduced if you are constrained to 14 or 16 weeks so 26 weeks is absolutely critical.If we think that that is applying in about 10 percent of cases in New Zealand then it is really hard to see—and I would like to hear a Government member argue against why you would not want to provide that bare minimum of 26 weeks to families in the case of a premature birth. And I would also say in the case of disability that that clearly is also a point of very real need.