Hamilton-based MP Sue Moroney has the perfect punishment for her two teenage boys – if they don’t behave, she will pick them up outside the school gates in her eye-catching Labour Party car. “They’re like any other children. They beg me not to pick them up outside the school gate. My car is an extra difficulty because I’ve got my face and my name plastered all over it.
“By far and away the most effective disciplinary tool is to say, ‘If you don’t stop doing that I will pick you up outside the school gate in my car,’ and immediately the behaviour improves,” Sue (48) says. Quinn (14) and Logan (13) were just five and six when their mother became an MP and can’t remember a time when she wasn’t working in Wellington.
“It seems bizarre now, but when they were three and four [my husband] Shane and I sat them down and had a very adult conversation about how Mum’s thinking about becoming a member of parliament. I learned it was a much bigger deal for us than it was for them.
If Sue\’s sons don\’t behave, she will pick them up outside the school gates in her eye-catching Labour Party car.
“We said it would mean that Mum’s not going to be home as much. I could see they were getting quite worried when we were talking to them about it. “Quinn asked, ‘If you’re not going to be looking after us, who is going to be?’” When they told him that it was going to be Dad, his reaction was, “so what?”
Her sons were there when Sue read her maiden speech at parliament, and again when she introduced her private member’s Bill to extend paid parental leave from 14 to 26 weeks by 2014. Currently those on parental leave receive $475 (before tax) per week.
“It was important to me because it was essentially about families and it felt right for me to have my family there. I ended my speech by saying the motivation for this Bill is about a mother’s love for her children and they were there to hear that.”
There was no paid maternity leave when Quinn and Logan were born and Sue says it would have made life easier if there had been. “We were on average wages and we had savings. But the thing that I remember was how stressful it was. That level of stress is really tough on families and if we can, through parliament, alleviate that stress then I think the whole of New Zealand will benefit.”
She points to government research which shows maternal bonding in the early months is crucial to a child’s development later on. “That saves money on remedial education, health and youth justice,” she says.
Sue with husband Shane and sons Logan (left) and Quinn.
Sue took six months of maternity leave for Quinn and three months for Logan. Both her babies were weaned before she returned to work, but Sue believes that extending parental leave will help to improve breastfeeding rates as well. “I’m by no means a breastfeeding Nazi but I want to give women that opportunity,” she adds.
Sue’s Bill passed by one vote at its first reading, but Finance Minister Bill English has indicated the government will veto the legislation. He says it will cost too much to introduce – and Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson agrees.
Sue argues that allowing working parents more time at home will save money in areas such as subsidies for babies in full-time daycare. Another reason, she says, is to bring us in line with other countries – New Zealand is nearly last in the OECD for paid parental leave. The only country below us is the US, which has no paid maternity leave.
“It’s a time of financial stress for families and it’s a time when they most need support. That’s the time when we as a society can assist and should assist.”
