Walters Vanushi; Dean JacquiVANUSHI WALTERS (Labour—Upper Harbour): Thank you Madam Speaker. Lovely to be the last speaker before the dinner break. I actually thought I might be helpful to my Opposition colleagues as a start just in terms of understanding the concepts of discrimination but also affirmative action. I think one might think that they thought it was a new and wild concept that had never been used before if you listened to some of their speeches. But the idea of first asking Where are we now?" and looking at the inequities in society is actually something that's quite embedded in much of our law. So just a helpful first suggestion: Opposition members might want to look at section 73 of the Human Rights Act which allows affirmative action to achieve equity in the employment context. The former Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner and actually former National Party member Jackie Blue's view was that without that sort of affirmative action New Zealand's progress towards gender equality in private sector leadership would remain abysmal. The concept of looking at where we are and looking at inequity is good governance. We do it through a lot of the areas of law. To say that affirmative action and looking at where we are now is a bad thing is horrifying. It is a failure to see who we all are to each other. So I would encourage the members just to do a little bit of homework in terms of understanding the history of that concept and its use in our law. But I was really wanting to focus on what we are doing in terms of helping address the bread and butter issues that New Zealanders are facing at the moment. I was a child growing up in the 1980s and like many others in the room I'm sure I remember walking into a Big Fresh and seeing the giant fruit bananas and veges dancing around. I remember going to the Foodtown the Right Price the Price Chopper as a child but then of course in the 1980s and 1990s we saw mergers and acquisitions which meant we essentially only had one major provider and that has led in many ways to the situation that we have now. It became so bad that you really had providers who were responsible for and owned the production of fish right through to when that fish was sold to you which was why we didn't end up seeing competition on our shelves. We are addressing the real issues. We are working to ensure that there is more competition in the grocery sector which is why we have introduced legislation to ban restrictive land covenants as well. And I invite members if you haven't been already to come out to north-west Auckland where we do also have the likes of Costco who are in the market and are absolutely making it more competitive with the supermarkets that are there as well. When we say we are addressing the bread and butter issues we mean it; the real bread and butter issues. What principals will tell me in the Upper Harbour electorate is that it is a game-changer that kids can turn up to school and have free lunches—it's a game-changer and this Budget is extending the provision of those free lunches in schools. They tell me the same thing about accessing free period products where girls can come to school and not have to worry about bringing them from home. On this side of the House we are a leadership who are focused on women. We are focused on women being in leadership roles in the House as well as women being in leadership roles on public sector boards. If you look at the voting record of this side of the House we have voted to decriminalise abortion and we have voted to ensure abortion safe areas. We are all about looking after women's rights as well. If you look at what we've done through this Budget we've made sure that young families can get back into the workforce and that is largely women. After I had three kids who were all under about 5½ years old the key discussion at every coffee group meeting was when is the tipping point? When can you go back to work? And for most people it was around the three-year mark. From here on in those mums with under-three-year-olds will be able to re-enter the workforce.We are focused on the issues that matter but we are also focused on the values that sit behind those issues. Thank you Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Members the time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break and the House will resume at 7.30 p.m.Sitting suspended from 6.02 p.m. to 7.30 p.m."