Finance Minister Bill English is rejecting new official figures which contradict his assessment that extending paid parental leave would cost an extra $530 million over about three years.
Mr English said earlier this year that the Government would veto a private member's bill put forward by Labour MP Sue Moroney - with the aim of extending paid leave from 14 to 26 weeks - as it would be unaffordable.
But on Wednesday officials from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment told a select committee considering the bill that the cost would be about $166 million over three years.
Ms Moroney, who had secured the numbers to get the bill passed, is now calling on the Government to withdraw its financial veto until it can get its figures straight.
She says the committee needs to find out the real cost, including the savings made from fewer subsidies for childcare, when a parent stays at home.
But Mr English says he doesn't agree with the new figures. "I would be very careful about bandying around the figures without having a very hard look at them," he says.
"All the advice I've had is that when it's fully implemented it costs around $150 million a year and we would have to be borrowing that money - and we're not planning to do that."
Mr English says his figures came from a Treasury estimate which he says was about the same as a Labour Party estimate.
In any case, he says, even if the new estimate is correct, the bill would still be vetoed.
Mr English also says extending paid parental leave is not the Government's highest priority.
