Roche DeniseDENISE ROCHE (Green): It is a privilege to rise to take the second call for the Greens on this bill the Care and Support Worker (Pay Equity) Settlement Bill. I just want to start by again acknowledging the history of where we have got to today—the decades of work that have gone into getting pay equity into any kind of settlement in the House. I also want to acknowledge the fact that it has actually taken 5 years since the first court case was lodged by Kristine Bartlett with Peter Cranney the wonderful union lawyer that he is as her counsel. I just want to acknowledge the fact that he is in the Whare tonight.It was 5 years ago that that happened and then by the time the settlement is actually completed and the final payments go through this $2 billion settlement will be paid out over another 5 years. So this is a 10-year process and I just have to say congratulations to E tū union to Kristine Bartlett and to all the women workers who have been involved in this and not just those unions but also the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and the Public Service Association. Your persistence is incredible and it is paying off.I want also to acknowledge the Health Committee which in a very short time frame has heard the 28 submissions that came through as part of this bill during the select committee process. I want to thank the chair for the committee's focus on it. I too want to join with my colleagues and thank the officials who have worked so hard on this—probably really long hours—to get the information back to the select committee so that it could examine this bill in detail. Thank you very much to them.I just want to acknowledge the fact too that the pay lift is essentially for 20000 workers currently of those 55000 workers who will be affected by this—20000 of them are on the minimum wage of $15.75. Those first increases—and this is why the rush to get this through is so important—will lift those wages substantially.Over the last few weeks I have had the privilege of being able to attend delegates' forums being run by E tū union and I have met quite a lot of caregivers and home support worker delegates. I have to say they are ecstatic. The difference that this is going to make to these people's lives from having to struggle to get by and struggle to support their families to actually being able to live a life with dignity is a huge achievement that we should not forget even while we may criticise some parts of the bill. The lack of justice around the fact that it has been these women who have struggled on those minimum wages while maintaining the dignity and lives of the people whom they have cared for is just incomprehensible.I also just want to acknowledge within the submissions the submission from the Coalition for Equal Value Equal Pay. I want to acknowledge their concerns about the potential that this bill may have for setting precedents around back-pay being off the table for other pay equity cases and/or the extinguishment of rights. I do not think we should gloss over that.I have been a union official as some of us in this room have particularly on this side of the House and I want to acknowledge the hard negotiation that must have gone down for this tripartite agreement with the employers with the Crown and with the unions representing the workers all getting around the table to get to this point. I just want to acknowledge how hard that must have been. I also want to acknowledge the fact that it never would have happened if it had not been for the court cases. It was the Crown that lawyered up and fought back as much as possible. But here we are celebrating a happy day Minister Woodhouse so I will focus on that.Louisa Wall: Spent a lot of money you're right trying to fight it. Let's all get real.DENISE ROCHE: It was a lot of money spent on legal cases—you are quite right. We should be honest about that.What this settlement does represent though is a tripartite arbitrated agreement like what they had back in the day back in the 1980s when it was not unusual for this to happen. In fact it happened regularly as a way of setting industry standards. That is what this is a major precedent for and it should be recognised as such because it is a major breakthrough in terms of our industrial relations practice.I also want to acknowledge in the submissions that some of the employers were quite hesitant around some aspects of this settlement bill. I think in particular of some of the responses from the employers about training. Training is what will make the difference between what is just a job and what can be a career and a very fulfilling career. We have seen some of these amazing workers who have struggled to get qualifications in order to provide a better level of care in order for the employer to be able to say it has staff who have got these minimum training qualifications and in order for the employer to benefit from that and certainly for the clients to benefit from that as well but who have themselves not benefited at all. So it is disappointing to have seen some of the submitters from the employers' side saying that they do not really need everyone to be trained when actually this is a crucial part of the settlement. Workers—these women workers—should have access to training and the opportunity to do it and that training should be recognised in their pay packets.I also just need to touch on the fact that while we celebrate that this is an amazing settlement—and I acknowledge the pragmatism that goes with negotiating this settlement—I want to say the same sorts of things we say when legislation for a Treaty settlement comes into the House. There are a few things we always say. The first thing we say in a Treaty settlement which we will say here as well is that we acknowledge that it is not a full and final settlement. We acknowledge that it is not full compensation—we acknowledge that. We acknowledge the generosity of spirit and the generosity of the workers who are affected who are giving up that part in order to get this amazing deal for the entire industry—not just for the union members but for the entire industry. We acknowledge that this was the best darned deal that could be got.But this is not the end; it is just the beginning. While we will look forward to seeing this progress through the House there will be more pay equity cases coming to this House and coming through the courts and we should be prepared for that. We cannot and we should not continue to rely on the exploitation of women workers to provide services—essential services—in this country. We will be looking forward to the next stage—the Committee of the whole House—and of course we will be supporting this bill. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.