Mitchell Clayton: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 25 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11278. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I rise to take a call and speak to Sue Moroney’s Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill. It gives me great pleasure on behalf of New Zealand First to strongly support this.I am going to have some time to talk about that and tell some stories. But I have to acknowledge first and foremost the enjoyment that I had—with much due respect in fact to Mark Mitchell whom I do hold in some sort of regard who did get completely and utterly punked by Denise Roche when he was caught mansplaining which I thought was very very funny and I think very very apt also.It was only 2 weeks ago that we had Mother’s Day here in this country and around parts of the Commonwealth where we took time out to spend time with our mothers our matriarchs our wives or our partners and actually acknowledge the great job and the great role—a very important role—that they have in all of our lives. I too took that day out with my wife—unfortunately my mother lives in Australia so I was not there but it was fair to say that contact was made and we certainly wished that we could have been together. We value our mothers. They are extremely important.I cannot sit here and listen to this Government rhetoric that puts down the fact that we cannot afford to increase paid parental leave. It is not just about mothers—I will get to that in a moment—but it is largely to do with paid parental leave and that engagement that mothers have in early childhood learning. I cannot sit by and listen to this Government’s rhetoric that we cannot afford it because we cannot afford not to do this.As I get further into my speech I will give you facts and figures and talk about the OECD and what an impact—in a positive manner—that that is having in extending paid parental leave and paying adequately those parents to support them so that they can raise their children. I find myself like probably everybody in this House in a very privileged position to be in a position to be able to raise my family. My wife who looks after our kids full-time does not have to go to work and that is a choice that we made.It used to be many years ago that one income was enough to raise a family by itself. Invariably it was the father who would go off to work as it was in the early years of my childhood until my mother and father split up. And then my mother—without paid parental leave—was forced to go out to work. That was not a choice. She would have much rather stayed home to look after and raise her kids to make them the best that they could be. I could have actually probably been a little bit better had she stayed home—some of you might have a comment to make on that or not—but who knows? I could have risen right to the top. Do not look so surprised there Alastair. Anyhow I say that in jest but the reality is you know very severe because we are not doing enough for our mothers at home.I call it not just good luck but I almost call it divine intervention—and some certainly would—that Sue Moroney has had this bill drawn out of the ballot twice in 4 years and we sit here now in the second reading of this very similar but slightly different bill which actually involves work contact hours to get that through. Of course earlier this year we had the legislation arising from the Employment Standards Legislation Bill that went through the House which had full cross-party support. New Zealand First also supported the amendment put forward by Sue Moroney to increase those paid parental weeks to 22 and then on to 26 weeks and it was obviously lost in the House. Of course we know the story: last year in February 2015 the third reading failed to go through for the very same thing. So it is more than luck; this is meant to be. I do not necessarily believe in divine intervention but I do believe that things happen for a reason. This bill is meant to go through. This bill needs to go through.Let me just draw your attention to how the rest of the world values our mothers and values our families and values the importance of those family nuclei. In Austria they give 60 weeks in paid parental leave; Canada: 52 weeks; Czech Republic: 110 weeks; Denmark: 50 weeks; Estonia gives 166 weeks; Finland gives 161 weeks; Germany: 58 weeks; Hungary: 160 weeks. It goes on. What do you think the average number of weeks of paid parental leave is in the OECD? It is 54.1 weeks. That is the average. We are talking about—no no let us get this right—the total paid leave available to mothers. The total leave available—it is not just paid maternity leave; you have to look at the total.There are only seven countries in the OECD that are below what we in this country consider fair and reasonable for paid parental leave which we have only in the last 6 weeks put up to 18 weeks. Seven countries but get this—let me just list those countries. Those countries are Israel which gives 14 weeks; Mexico which gives 12 weeks; the Netherlands which gives 16 weeks; Spain which gives 16 weeks; Switzerland and Turkey which give 14 weeks; and then we have the United States which gives no time at all. Interestingly when you look even further despite Israel giving only 14 weeks of paid parental leave it pays paid parental leave at 100 percent of the earnings of that person of the median income.We pay out only 47 percent of our median income—$409 on average—to our mothers whom we value to whom we send flowers and chocolates to whom we take time out to give kisses and acknowledge their sacrifice. They sacrifice their bodies they become selfless to our needs for our entire lives and those members can sit there and say that we cannot afford it. Well I challenge you and I think it was a comment that was raised by Iain Lees-Galloway: show us the money—show us the money. I will show you where the money is. Let us talk about the $27 million flag referendum that nobody wanted. What about the $16 million for the Saudi businessmen to build an abattoir in the Middle East that nobody asked for? What about the $126 million that this Government found to go and invest into China’s infrastructure and not even invest in ourselves? What about the estimated $7.5 billion in corporate taxes that is not collected by this Government? Goodness me people there is a lot of money and we have only just scratched the surface of how we can make this affordable.This is a cost-benefit ratio of which you have to look at the upside. We have got a degradation of our communities. We have got high unemployment. We have got a social disconnect—a dysfunctional society in many respects and it was even acknowledged by Paul Foster-Bell in a current study that was put out. It is irrefutable. It was impartial; the facts are the facts. I just want to take a moment to read some of that out. The scientific report identifies health and behaviour risks for kids in care: “A boom in daycare is seeing children spend up to 10000 hours in care by the time they start school. A major childcare report shows increased risks of childhood respiratory illness obesity aggression and hyperactivity. The new generation of babies placed in childcare face behavioural and health risks says a major new scientific review.” It goes on to say: “Brainwave Trust researcher Keryn O’Neill said they don’t want to make parents feel guilty but can’t fudge the facts for fear of making people feel bad. … ‘One of those is that while there can be benefits for children from three years old there can be risks for children under three. Those risks increase the younger the child is.’ ”We have to implore this legislation to be passed. We have to support Sue Moroney’s member’s bill. We need to make sure that we value our families and our society because at the end of the day it really comes down to where we are headed and we are heading for the weeds if we do not spend more time inwardly looking at what is going to make a huge impact for the positive future of our communities. Our families grow into growing our economy and making it a safer environment for us to live in and certainly a happier one. I hope the National Party has a change of heart and we get some support for this bill in the House today.