PPL suggestions way off the mark

National’s attempt to distance itself from Business New Zealand’s draconian assumptions towards women in the workforce failed in Parliament today, as one of its own MPs was found displaying the same attitude, says Labour MP Sue Moroney.

Gerry Brownlee, answering on behalf of the Prime Minister, fudged and fumbled his lines, and hung his colleague, Tim MacIndoe, out to dry.

“Tim MacIndoe told the Waikato Times in April this year that ‘any rise in cost incurred by an extension to paid parental leave would have business owners looking to cut spending - and one way of doing that would be to employ men rather than women’.

“When asked whether he stood by his colleagues comment, Gerry Brownlee said, ‘I am not responsible for Tim MacIndoe’s comments on these matters’.

“Regardless of the defence, or lack thereof, the fact that a National MP would even speculate on discriminatory practice such as this is damning,” Sue Moroney said.

“It is also telling that in an effort to detract from National’s own opinion of women’s chances in the workplace Mr Brownlee thought it best to throw the new figure of 163 million for extending paid parental leave across the House.

“That’s different to what Bill English said yesterday, and points again to the importance of a rigorous select committee process to separate actual costs from political conjecture.

“Suggesting that this Bill would be bad for women is just nonsense. I look forward to better informed debate on this issue,” Sue Moroney says.