Warren-Clark AngieANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour): Talofa lava. I am delighted to stand today and take a call on the first reading of the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Amendment Bill. This bill amends the principal Act the Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act 2017 which increased the pay rates of care and support workers in aged and disability residential care and home and community support services. So this bill adds mental health and addiction support workers to the principal Act. What a day for this bill to come to the House. I have here in my hand a copy of He Ara Oranga the report on the Government inquiry into mental health and addiction. We've heard today the announcement from the Hon David Clark and the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern about our response to mental health and the addiction inquiry and tomorrow we'll see a wellbeing Budget. This is part of the picture of what we need to do in this country around our mental health services. So I'm so very proud to be standing alongside this Government to actually put the dollar into the front-line staff who deliver vital services and are a vital part of the picture. These workers should never have been left out. I have heard what the Hon Michael Woodhouse has said but what we know is that the work is so very similar and what we know is the workforce is so very similar—namely minimum wage work predominantly women. The picture is so very similar. Therefore it is right that we correct this—I believe—injustice. They're doing the analogous work. They're there alongside those workers that Kristine Bartlett fought for which resulted in that settlement. The Hon Michael Woodhouse spoke and said that you know no doubt we will talk about the rewriting of history but we know it took seven years. We know the settlement took a very long time and in fact we know that that settlement was directed in the end and it had to happen. So as a consequence we are not rewriting history; we're just talking about the history. So ensuring our mental health and addiction workers are paid what they deserve will help deliver a robust workforce. Look we've inherited a groaning health system and part of the work that these workers do is very difficult work. It's hard work; it's complex work in many many ways. This work is in fact hard and sometimes dirty and it deserves to be paid well. It is a proud day for our Government to be putting our people and their wellbeing in place. I want to talk very briefly about the way that as women in society we are often underpaid and the fact that this legislation will be retrospective in that it will go back to 1 July 2017. I think that it is no matter the time that this will take to get through the House—although I take from the Hon Michael Woodhouse's comments that this will be fully supported across the House and that we and the Health Committee will work very closely together to speed this bill through the House—still important that this occurs.I want to finally just make final concluding comments about the unions E tū and the New Zealand Public Service Association. Essentially with the work alongside employers—alongside the employers who are absolutely supportive of this legislation as well—we have come to a place where this bill has been drafted with the support of the community. I think that that is a really important matter to discuss. I think it's really important because those employers saw the types of work that these people were doing they saw the payouts that were occurring for the same level of work in other workforces and have come to this agreement. With that I commend this bill to the House.