Belich CamillaCAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou katoa i tēnei rā nui rā whakahirahira mō ngā kaimahi o Aotearoa.[Greetings to everyone on this very important day for workers in New Zealand.]It is my absolute pleasure and honour to speak at this first reading of the Fair Pay Agreements Bill. To start with I want to emphasise two key points. The first is that this is a significant change that will bring decent working conditions and fair pay to workers in industries throughout New Zealand. It would be and will be the most significant change to our industrial relations framework since the Employment Relations Act in 2000 and it further reverses the devastating changes for working people brought about by the Employment Contracts Act in 1991. But the second point is that minimum standards or the basic level entitlements that the fair pay agreements will bring are not new to New Zealand. Most of the standards that we take for granted and accept as part of a civil and democratic society are already minimum standards like sick pay like the minimum wage like the right to take a personal grievance. So fair pay agreements while they may be revolutionary for those that they will cover will not result in fundamental changes for the people that they don't. These changes are about workers and fair and decent conditions for working people. It shouldn't be threatening. It's just fairness. The clue is in the title of the bill. Of course it will be up to sectors in industries to determine where fair pay agreements are established but a group of workers that has often been discussed as some that may benefit from this proposed legislation are bus drivers. Bus drivers are part of a mature industry in New Zealand and fixed costs are very similar across operators. This has left terms and conditions as the only real point of competition and differentiation between operators. Penal and overtime rates have gradually been removed from bus drivers and with them workers control over their own hours and conditions. I wanted to mention a particular bus driver: Morris. Morris has noticed that his colleagues have struggled after the removal of penal rates to make a decent wage and to spend time with their families. He says—and this is a quote—Flat rates just mean drivers work more and more hours to make ends meet. They're on split shifts. They can be doing 14 hours a day but not getting paid for these hours. It leaves people with no time for their families and it creates fatigue." We know we will need bus drivers like Morris more and more in the future as we move towards a different way of travelling to meet our climate goals. We know that public transport is essential and we have seen this through the COVID-19 pandemic. Morris deserves fair wages and good working conditions but the members opposite are labouring under a misapprehension if they think a single bus driver is able to negotiate his own or her own terms and conditions individually with a strong employer. That is just not the reality for these working New Zealanders. It is not correct that this occurs regularly within our economy or our society. As I said Morris deserves respect and dignity at work and this should be the experience for all New Zealanders and fair pay agreements can deliver this. We also know when you increase wages for people on lower incomes this money is more likely to be spent creating greater prosperity for our economy. Fair wages are not only the right thing to do they are the road to prosperity for all. And this is not a new idea. In fact in 1938 the then Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage told an enthusiastic audience packed into the Wellington Town Hall—and I quote—"No one can say that reduced wages will help trade or bring about prosperity. When workers have money in sufficient quantities trade industry and production are buoyant but the moment that wages are reduced the very reverse is the case." Labour still stands for fairness. We did then and we do today. Labour stands for high wages and for a strong and prosperous economy. We stand against those who would drive down wages in the race to the bottom as has been mentioned or who would take the labour of workers and leave them unable to spend time with their families or take care of their children. Fair pay agreements will not take us back in time as alleged. This is a modern solution to a modern problem of low wages and low productivity and is a further real and substantive step to the realisation of the dignity of workers and the recognition of working people's huge contribution to our society. This bill is the culmination of years of work in the labour movement and union leaders such as Helen Kelly and John Ryall. The Employment Relations Act reversed the worst of these changes but it is not enough. Collective bargaining these days even for multi-employer multi-union collective agreements still only covers those who work in places that are covered by these agreements. And it didn't stop the race with no winner: the race to the bottom. So workers are still vulnerable and this is why we need this legislation. Employers cutting wages and conditions to try and win contracts pits too many New Zealanders against each other. Instead we want a clear and open pathway to better conditions to higher wages for more prosperous and a fairer society. I at this point in my speech want to reflect on the legacy of one particular union leader and my friend and mentor Helen Kelly who sadly passed away in 2016. Her commitment to working people and fairness did not die. It is here in this bill in front of us. In her excellent book Helen Kelly: Her Life the journalist and author Rebecca Macfie reflected on Helen's work towards what we now know as fair pay agreements. She mentioned—and I'll summarise what Rebecca has in her book about this time in Helen's life: "She put a prestigious amount of work into policy that would drive minimum wage and conditions across whole industries. This was informed by her work [Helen's work] at the International Labour Organization where she had collected a bulging file about wage and bargaining systems from around the world. She was particularly interested in regimes—common in Europe—where agreements were negotiated with large employers and extended across entire sectors establishing uniform standards of pay and conditions. She was also aware of international research that showed that there was a clear link between income inequality declining and declining rates of collective bargaining." By 2011 Helen had drafted up a new law providing mechanisms for industry standard agreements. But this wasn't like the old award system that we had in New Zealand. Under her proposal workers could be covered by the industry standard but they wouldn't be forced to so as long as their terms and conditions were no worse than the industry standard. The proposal in this bill is not identical to what Helen had proposed but the concept and the objectives are the same. I wish Helen was here to see the work that Michael Wood and others have done on this proposal prior to the 2020 election and to be listening or even participating in the debate today. In 2020 this Government was democratically elected with a strong mandate from New Zealanders to implement fair pay agreements and this is what we will do. Before Helen died I remember Helen saying to me "How can I stop fighting?" And she never did and we won't either. Fair pay agreements are also Helen Kelly's legacy. On this side of the House we will always keep fighting for decent working conditions and fair pay for people like Morris and the thousands others like him that will benefit from this legislation. However I do think if Helen was here she wouldn't care for the praise. She wouldn't care for the accolades. She would most likely tell us to get on with it and implement the change that needs to be made to ensure more workers in New Zealand have decent conditions and the fair pay that they deserve. So with that I proudly and without hesitation commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): I'd just remind members if they are going to read a speech don't do it so I can tell they are."