Concern at Paid Parental Leave Scheme

Monday 23rd Apr 2001 Penny Webster Media Release -- Other

ACT Women’s Affairs Spokesman MP Penny Webster said today that small businesses would lose out from a paid parental leave scheme, no matter how it was funded.

“Labour advocates tax-payers funding leave, while Alliance wants to employers to foot the bill.

“Either way, employers will end up paying – either in increased taxes, or in actual cash.

“If we force employers to pay for parental leave, then small businesses who cannot afford it will simply stop hiring young women. Nobody will end up winning.

“Paid parental leave should be a matter for individual employers and employees. It should not be forced upon people.

“Having a child is a choice which should not be subsidised by the rest of New Zealand,” ACT MP Penny Webster said.

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>