Lees-Galloway IainHon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): Thank you very much Madam Assistant Speaker. At 3.43 this afternoon I received a request for information under the Official Information Act. It came from the Hon Paul Goldsmith and what he wants to know is all about the work that we've been doing with the screen and film industry in the first three weeks of this Government. He wants to know what correspondence I've had and what meetings I've had and what briefings I've had from officials and who I have written to. He even wants to know what phone calls I've made. I suspect that what he really wants to know is: how did we do it? How did this Government a mere three weeks into its administration manage to bring the different players together around an issue that caused such bitter division under the National Government?The way the National Government dealt with industrial relations in the screen industry had people marching in the streets. It had the late and lamented Helen Kelly absolutely beside herself because that Government was destroying the rights of working people. It singled out one group of people—one group of workers in New Zealand—and diminished their rights which was totally unacceptable and in contravention of a number of conventions that New Zealand has signed up to. It was all about division and it was all about conflict. And in three weeks this Government has been able to bring all those players together and create harmony and work towards the commitment that we made before the election to restore the right to bargain collectively in that industry.I am happy to share that information with the Hon Paul Goldsmith. We will be an open and transparent Government. We will not abuse the Official Information Act in the way that the previous Government did but I say to Paul Goldsmith You don't have to wait the 20 working days. It's simple: constructive collaboration—working constructively with all the different parts of the sector—the producers the unions the guilds—getting everybody together getting them around the table and working towards a shared vision and finding a shared solution." That's how it works. Take the conflict out of industrial relations—the conflict that the National Government the previous Government used to thrive on. Take the conflict out and work together. It's not that hard and we've been able to demonstrate in the first three weeks that it's actually something that works very well.That's the approach this Government will take to industrial relations. We have a progressive and substantial agenda to restore rights for working people in New Zealand to ensure that we have a bargaining framework that ensures that working people in New Zealand get a fair share of a growing economy. Again I am confident that by working with Business New Zealand with the Council of Trade Unions with chambers of commerce and with everybody who has an interest in industrial relations we will be able to construct a framework that works for everybody. I say to the National Party "It's not that hard." They couldn't do it in nine years of Government; we have demonstrated that we can do it in the first three weeks.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt the member. Could the members at the back of the House please take their seats. Thank you.Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. This has been a busy few weeks for this Government. It's been a busy few weeks for me as a new Minister. It started with halting National's so-called pay equity bill which was really a bill to deny working women the opportunity to make pay equity claims. Again that bill has gone straight to the bin in the first couple of weeks and we have begun the process of designing a new piece of legislation that will actually address the real concerns of working women in New Zealand. We will go back to the joint working group—again working in a collaborative and constructive manner with both businesses and workers—to establish the principles of pay equity to go back to the principles of pay equity that were established by that joint working group of Government of business and of unions working together and we will introduce new legislation that adheres to those principles.Unlike the National Party this Government genuinely believes in achieving pay equity. This Government genuinely believes in closing the pay gap. Just yesterday on Working for Free Day the Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and I met with representatives of working women because essentially because of the pay gap in New Zealand from yesterday through to the end of the year women are working for free. Such is the nature of the pay gap that all the rest of the year women are working for free because they earn less than men in New Zealand. Well I have to say I've been to that event a number of times over the years and it was the first time I've been to one where there was hope—where there was actual hope that the Government would take those concerns seriously and would take genuine and progressive action towards closing the pay gap. What the people at that event said was that it was the right thing to do to throw the previous Government's pay equity bill in the bin and start again. They like to put a little pressure on the Government; that's fair enough. They've given us a one-year countdown to introduce new legislation to actually address that issue. I am committed and this Government is committed to ensuring that we don't just make a lot of noise about pay equity but that we actually address the issue that we make sure that we do close that pay gap and that we do address the concerns about pay equity.The second thing that we did is that the first bill this Government introduced was to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks. Now this is an issue that this Parliament has dealt with many times before. It's passed through Parliament once and then got defeated at third reading after one party decided to change its mind at the last minute and then it passed through Parliament again and actually was voted up at third reading—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. The member is anticipating an order of the day which is clearly outside the Standing Orders. He has a chance of addressing it later in the day.Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: Thank you Mr Speaker. The issue of paid parental leave is one that is important to this Government and we will take action to extend paid parental leave. And then we do wish to work closely with parties around the House to look at other provisions relating to parental leave. There is an opportunity. And I am glad that after the years of division the years of conflict the years of fighting from the National Party against paid parental leave they have now accepted that it is popular it is what New Zealanders want and that they are far better off being inside the tent than outside it. So again I extend the hand of friendship and the desire to work collaboratively and constructively with parties around the House. I do want to work with the National Party with the Green Party with the New Zealand First Party on what further developments we can make to paid parental leave. That journey will never be over. The introduction of 26 weeks' paid parental leave was never going to be the end of the journey. There's plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to work on other matters.The other area where this Government has been working incredibly quickly is around the issue of ensuring that the trade agreements that we engage in are both progressive and comprehensive. We do agree in the Labour Party that we need to be connected with the world—that global trade is good for us when we have high-quality trade agreements. Again the National Party told us time and time again that things couldn't be done: that we couldn't ban foreign buyers and enter into a regional trade agreement that we wouldn't be able to make any progress on investor-State dispute settlement clauses that we wouldn't be able to ensure the integrity of environmental law and labour law in New Zealand. Couldn't be done! It could not be done the National Party said. Well again in three weeks this Government has been able to make progress on every single one of those issues. It simply takes willingness and it simply takes the talent of Ministers who actually know how to do their job to deliver on the promises that Governments make.This is an active Government. This is a progressive Government. This is a Government that will continue to put people first and as the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this is a Government that will act with empathy. We are more interested in people and the impacts of policy on people than we are on numbers and figures and statistics. We will rate ourselves and rate our success on whether or not people are better off. I have to say it is a pleasure and I am proud to be part of a Government that in a mere three weeks has demonstrated its determination to put people first and has demonstrated that if you have the will it can be done. It has been a great start so far and there's only more to come."