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Home / New Zealand

Budget 2014: Extended leave step in right direction: mother

Lincoln Tan
By Lincoln Tan
Multimedia Journalist·NZ Herald·
15 May, 2014 05:00 PM2 mins to read

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Catherine Nola and Son Anton Falstie-Jensen...free doctor visits are the vote winner.
Catherine Nola and Son Anton Falstie-Jensen...free doctor visits are the vote winner.

Catherine Nola and Son Anton Falstie-Jensen...free doctor visits are the vote winner.

Auckland mother Catherine Nola feels extending paid parental leave to 18 weeks is a step in the right direction, but says 26 weeks would have been better.

Ms Nola, 37, mother of a 3-year-old boy and expecting her second, said she could not imagine leaving her baby at four months.

"I don't think there is an ideal time for a mother to leave - the longer I can stay home with my baby the better - but I'll take what's available. Hopefully it's an incremental step towards longer support for parents."

Ms Nola was employed as a contractor when she became pregnant, and when her son was born she was able to stay with him until he was 7 months old.

Then, she had been on the benefit and had received a parental tax credit but said it "disappeared very quickly".

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"Yes, the extra money was helpful but not particularly impactful, because what we got was less than half what our rent was," she said. "So I was really pleased to see that raised."

Ms Nola's partner is an arts freelancer who does mainly contract work, and does not have a regular income.

She had not discussed with him how the changes would affect their lives. But she said the more compelling vote-winning change for her was the extension of free doctors visits and prescriptions for children to age 13.

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"I take full advantage of that with my son, and I don't hesitate to take him to the doctor if I am even remotely concerned," she said.

"It's a real comfort to know I can continue to do that until he is much older."

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Building firms fume over axing of duties on imported materials

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15 May 05:00 PM
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Free visits hailed as major win for families

15 May 05:00 PM
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