Yang Jian: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYang Jian: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 23 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19460. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr JIAN YANG (National):Ni hao xiexie. I rise to take a call on the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill. As a father of two I understand the importance of any support for families. Happy stable families are particularly important to the functioning of our society and to the quality of life. Supporting families is a fundamental service that any Government should provide. However on the other hand it is equally important that we manage our finances responsibly and make sure that the Government does not overspend. In this context this bill is not balanced and it goes too far.The National Government is committed to providing better services to New Zealand families including giving children the best possible start in life. That is exactly why our Budget 2014 invests almost $500 million more in the well-being of New Zealand’s children and families. Budget 2014 provides a comprehensive package of practical measures focused on young families and those vulnerable children who most need our care and protection—for example free general practitioner visits and free prescriptions for children under 13; 4 weeks’ extra paid parental leave and extended to caregivers other than parents; and an increase in the parental tax credit by $70 a week to $220 a week and extended by 2 weeks to 10 weeks. The total fiscal cost of both the extension of paid parental leave and the changes to the parental tax credit is more than $183 million over 4 years.Additionally we will be spending a further $30 million to increase paid parental leave eligibility following a consultation process. Just this week this Government has announced that parental leave payments will increase from 1 July 2014 to reflect the 3.3 percent increase in the average weekly wage over the past year. The maximum payment for eligible employees and self-employed persons will increase from $488.17 a week to $504.10 gross a week. The minimum parental leave payments for self-employed people will also increase from $137.50 a week to $142.50 gross a week. The Government has always said that it was prepared to extend paid parental leave but in a way that is affordable. When we could afford more we would do more. That is exactly what we did in Budget 2014. But Labour’s 26 weeks’ paid parental leave goes too far and it costs too much.National is focused on reasonably managing the Government’s finances. It is important we get back to surplus and get that under control. Countries with longer paid parental leave entitlements than New Zealand’s include Portugal Italy Greece and Spain. We know what happened to those countries during the global financial crisis. There is a real danger of running up huge deficits through unaffordable Government spending. This bill is also poorly targeted. Bear in mind that only around 40 percent of families with newborns get paid parental leave. Labour’s policy is not targeted on need. Twenty-six weeks’ paid parental leave does not help a lot of the most vulnerable children in New Zealand who would benefit from much more targeted support and services.Progress reported.Report adopted.