Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm taking this call to support the Equal Pay Amendment Bill. While we support this bill I want to say that this side is really disappointed to see that this bill had been sitting on the Order Paper for 13 months. So this bill was reported back from the Education and Workforce Committee in May 2019 and today is 25 June 2020. So for 13 months this bill was sitting on the Order Paper. If the Government was so passionate why was this bill sitting on the Order Paper for 13 months?After the bill was reported back the very next day on 14 May two Ministers in charge of this legislation the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and the Minister for Women—did a joint ministerial statement and the title of that was Supporting working women with pay equity: next steps". If I read the first sentence that was "Women who aren't paid the same as men for similar jobs will be given the tools to make a pay equity claim as the Wellbeing Budget delivers a practical solution to gender discrimination in the workplace." They're talking about the previous year's Budget and they have already delivered this year's Budget.So this is a good example of this Government being a big-talk Government but when it comes to delivery there is no delivery no action. So they were really good at doing that press release but then they didn't progress the legislation through the House and we—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I'm going to stop this member and ask her to relate this to the actual bill. I've heard a lot about the process a lot about her opinion of what happened after the bill was reported but actually nothing relevant to the bill. So the member needs to stick to the bill.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Mr Speaker this is the second reading and we're talking about the select committee process so it was reported back from the select committee on 13 May.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Yeah and I reiterate what I said: you need to in those comments bring it to the relevancy to the bill.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Thank you. Thank you Mr Speaker. So what this highlights is that the bill was reported back but then there was no action. In the select committee process we worked really hard on this legislation. We were sitting long hours; we even applied for an extension. The first time the extension was declined and then we applied for an extension again—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Which again is all part of the process but it is actually addressing—Nicola Willis: The select committee process is what second reading speeches are about.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Mr Speaker this is the second reading—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! I'll do this on my feet then. I tried to do it from a point of encouragement and now I'm making a ruling OK? And I don't appreciate when I'm doing that that other members interrupt or try to interject. It's not helpful at all. I'm warning the member that this is her warning. She needs to speak to the bill not about the process.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker this is the second reading and I'm talking about the select committee and I'm talking about the process that we had to deal with in the select committee because this is the second reading and I'm reflecting on how we worked hard in the select committee on this legislation.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Yes and I've made my ruling on that. The member's not going to—I'm going to start the time again and the member can speak to the bill.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Thank you. So in the select committee process we received 596 submissions and out of that we had the opportunity to hear from 41 submitters and I want to thank these submitters because they've made this effort twice because this bill was on the Order Paper before. But when that Government came into office they decided to not carry over with that legislation; they decided to dump that legislation bring this legislation again under their name.So these submitters had to make this effort twice to submit on this legislation which is very much similar to the legislation we had before on the Order Paper. So I really want to thank them for their effort. And in the select committee we received various kinds of submissions and there were some submissions that were copy and paste—that was totally fine. But the message that came through was very similar and the message was that—as in the example here of one submitter which I have picked and I'm quoting this sentence from the submission—"We have waited too long for our work to be valued." And that length of time was added to by 13 months of this bill sitting on the Order Paper.We also received some submissions which were handwritten and that I think was really amazing because that shows us that the technology was not a barrier for people to come forward and submit on this legislation which was really positive. So we could see how much interest was there in people to engage with us on this legislation.Another example that I have picked here is of a person who is working in a female-dominated industry and this person says if that industry was not that low-paid then they would have attracted more males into that industry as well. So this was actually a really good perspective that the submitter provided.The other thing we saw in the select committee was that some submitters were not just talking about themselves; they were talking about their co-workers. They were not advocating just for themselves but they were advocating for their co-workers as well. And this is another submission where I would like to quote a sentence from the submission: "I feel that I'm paid fairly in my role. However I do feel that there needs to be more equity and fairness in terms of pay equity for support staff." So she is talking about support staff in her industry where she works. So this was really good to see that people were actually not just concerned about themselves not just advocating for themselves but they were advocating for other people in their industry as well.In the select committee process the whole select committee—members from all sides—worked really nicely on this legislation. There was so much interest to ensure that this legislation when it was reported back was reported back in the best possible state. And now we understand that the Minister is going to table a Supplementary Order Paper and we really look forward to seeing that Supplementary Order Paper and speaking to that Supplementary Order Paper as well.It was to the extent that the officials had to for pay-back provisions in this legislation bring a PowerPoint presentation to explain how it would work—so that was the level of engagement we had in order to make sure that when this bill was reported back it was reported back in the best possible state.Michael Wood: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just do raise a point of order and it's to bring to your attention there is a member in the House who was required to not be in the House earlier by the Speaker. It could be that there's been a change to that ruling or there's been clarification about the time length of that but I just bring this member to your attention.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Speaking to the point of order.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): No. You won't be. You will leave the Chamber immediately. [Interruption] I will call the Serjeant-at-Arms. [Interruption] Order! The member will leave the Chamber immediately.Hon Dr Nick Smith withdrew from the Chamber. Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: So going on to the changes that we made in the select committee I know that members—those who have spoken before me—have covered some changes and I would like to cover a couple of changes as well. One change that we made in the select committee process which I believe is a very important change is about the timing for raising the claim. In this legislation employees can raise a claim under the Equal Pay Act they can also raise a claim under the Human Rights Act and they can also raise a personal grievance under the Employment Relations Act. When the legislation was proposed the term used was "raising personal grievance" so we wanted to clarify: what does that mean raising personal grievance? Does that mean verbally somebody raises that personal grievance? Is that considered to be enough to block that person from making a claim under other legislation—that is the Equal Pay Act and the Human Rights Act? So that was clarified in the select committee process and now it's clear that the person will have to actually lodge a claim with the Employment Relations Authority. Then it will then be considered to be raised as a claim under the Employment Relations Act so the person will not be able to make another claim under the Equal Pay Act and the Human Rights Act. I believe when we are talking about providing tools to women or employees to make such claims it's important that the process is really clear so this was one of the examples where the select committee worked really well to make sure that the process was clear.The second thing which has been already talked about is the threshold. As the legislation says one of the criteria is that the work should be "predominantly performed by female employees"—predominantly. So we wanted to make sure that this word "predominantly" is interpreted appropriately. We didn't want it to be interpreted as a workplace where 90 or 95 percent of employees are females. We wanted to make sure that it is a reasonable number and that's why the number that is put in there is "approximately 60% or more". It's really important to note this word "approximately". We deliberately decided to put these words "approximately 60%" because we didn't want a clear cut-off at 60 percent. So it could be 58 59 percent—that means yep it's approximately 60 percent so that will be considered to be a place that is employing predominantly females. So this was another important change.Then finally in the remaining time that I have I would like to touch on confidentiality of the person making the claim because the employer is required to notify other employees that will be affected by that claim. It was really important for us to clarify what it means for that person or the employee that is making the claim initially so that has been clarified as well in this legislation.So this bill has been definitely improved in the select committee process and as I said at the start we are supporting this legislation but we are quite disappointed to see that it has taken this long for this legislation to come up for this stage. Thank you Mr Speaker."