Nicola Willis: Finance Minister responds to criticism over paid parental leave policy
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning, Mike. Good morning.
I absolutely didn't do that.
Why did Nicola Willis say paid parental leave wasn’t in the coalition agreement?
I was asked why National hadn't done it in our first term, which is a fair question. I gave an honest answer, which was that it wasn't prioritised in our coalition agreement and that Brooke has had a very busy work programme. She's achieved a lot in her role, whether it's repealing fair pay agreements, health and safety reform, expanding 90-day trials. changing personal grievances the holidays act contractors she's had a lot to do and so what we need to do is prioritize this commitment and our next coalition agreement and that's what we announced we will do yesterday this will be a priority for national next term and we're seeking the party votes that will give us the support to get it done
That list of Brooke stuff you just gave, you didn't give yesterday and you know it and it came out completely differently. So someone's got to you overnight and giving you a big long list of all the Brooke-isms that you needed to give us this morning. So do you regret going after her?
Not true, Mike. I was asked a question. I watched it.
I watched the whole thing live. You didn't give me that list. You didn't say at any point she's had been flat out. And also, as they said later in the day, at no point did you go and go, hey, Brooke, what about this paternity leave? Let's get onto it.
It simply wasn't in our coalition agreements, Mike, and what we said yesterday is we will prioritise it for our coalition agreements going into a second term so that we can ensure this change is prioritised. We have kept it on the agenda in a private member's bill from Dana Kirkpatrick in our caucus, so we've had that uh change still in our policy platform the key thing here is that we want to deliver this for parents and what this is about is two things one extending paid parental leave so that every family has more weeks of leave and second given greater flexibility to allow parents to take that paid leave at the same time or in overlapping installments. That's flexibility that's not afforded to them by the current regime that we think should be there.
And as Brooke pointed out yesterday, as a government, we've also made changes to holiday payrolls so that women aren't penalised for periods on parental leave. And National will also make changes to ensure people continue to get KiwiSaver contributions while they're on parental leave. So overall, this is a policy about supporting women
How does Willis justify not prioritising parental leave in the first term?
Kiwi parents during a time that's very important for them and their family but also very important to the country.
What about the cost on business?
Well there's not an additional cost on business because the government meets the cost of paid parental leave payments and businesses already need to provide parents up to 12 months of leave so this is no change for businesses this is about giving more financial breathing space to parents.
Appreciate your time, Nicola Willis, the National Party Finance spokesperson.
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