Prime Minister Bill English used a rare veto in Parliament to block a Labour extension of the leave to 26 weeks when the majority of Parliament voted in favour.
Minister for Women Paula Bennett, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman and Workplace Relations Minister Michael Woodhouse made a three-pronged policy announcement yesterday.
Paid parental leave would move to 22 weeks as part of a Parents and Newborns Package designed to support families to grow and stay healthy, while putting more money into their pockets, the MPs said in a statement.
The package would come into effect on July 1, 2018 and was expected to cost $88million a year from 2019 once the 22 weeks’ leave was implemented.
Apart from moving to 22 weeks’ leave, flexibility would be introduced by allowing both parents to take some of the 22 weeks off at the same time so they could be at home with their baby together.
Women would be supported to take care of their own health by offering them one free dental course during pregnancy and up to their baby’s first birthday.
More families would be given a chance to have a baby by providing a third free IVF cycle, and speeding up access to fertility treatment for eligible couples.
Otago-Southland Employers Association chief executive Virginia Nicholls said the announcement was "very positive news".
• The Green Party announced that, in government, it would create New Zealand’s largest marine mammal sanctuary, to protect a blue whale feeding ground off the South Taranaki coast from destructive activities, including seabed iron sands mining.
Green leader James Shaw made the announcement together with Ngati Ruanui on a beach near Patea, Taranaki, where people formed a human chain to show their opposition to a recently granted seabed mining permit off the coast.
• New Zealand First wants to restrict foreign ownership of New Zealand forests, a New Zealand exit from the Emissions Trading Scheme and replacing it with a United Kingdom-style Climate Change Act.
Leader Winston Peters said the UK policy was in accord with Norway’s policy — both populations would clean up their own act. Savings would come from no longer having to buy $1.4billion worth of emission units every year. That $14billion, over the next 10 years, would be redirected into applied research and development and adapting to climate change.
That would include tree planting on state and private land.
