Simmonds Penny; Luxton JoPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise unhappily to speak on this Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlements Amendment Bill that amends the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlements Act 2017. I find it as a new MP absolutely astonishing to be in the House doing something like this—a piece of legislation that would be expiring in about a week's time and here we are at the eleventh hour having to make amendments. And while I might normally agree with my colleague Dr Anae Neru Leavasa on acknowledging these support workers and these care workers I don't see how on earth this is acknowledging them. This is disrespecting them that five years have gone past when nothing has been done and now they are being offered 4.6 percent increase over 18 months which isn't anywhere near the inflation rate. So I find it just not giving appropriate respect and acknowledgment to these workers.So how can this possibly have happened? Five years ago the National Government at a cost of around $2 billion gave wage rises to these care and support workers and they are care and support workers who look after the most vulnerable in our community: the aged care the disabled those that are frail in their own homes through illness or disability. These are the workers that look after those people in our community who are the most vulnerable. So they were given these increases which ranged from 15 to 50 percent over five years and over five years you would expect that those agreements would then have been settled. But no we are back here seven days before this Act expires at which time there would be no mechanism to maintain the gains that were made in those wage rates back in 2017. And so this workforce would go back to prior to 2017 terms and conditions. To be doing this under urgency taking away the voice of the care and support workers and their unions and for this to be done by a Labour Government which is steeped—as we have heard—in union organisers is just unbelievable.So how could this possibly have been led to happen? Can you imagine if it was a National Government taking the voice away from these workers and these unions? Can you imagine the uproar from that side of the House if it had been a National Government doing that? So here we are under urgency being held to ransom that of course we have to support this or all we do is punish those workers the 65000 care and support workers that it applies to. Society is judged on how a society looks after their most vulnerable. Well I hope this Government is well and truly judged in about 14 months' time on how they have treated these care and support workers.So the aged-care sector as my colleague the Hon Michael Woodhouse has said is just on its knees at the moment. We have had managers in a state of absolute raw emotion telling us how bad the aged-care sector is. We know that across the country 700 beds have been closed over the last few months; 180 in our own area Otago-Southland alone have been closed. So these workers in these aged-care facilities and supporting people in their homes—that probably should be in the aged-care facilities but there aren't beds for them—are absolutely critical. To have left them like this and offered them that 4.6 percent increase well below what would be inflation—so that's 4.6 percent over 18 months; only just over 3 percent over a year—is to have left our aged-care sector on its knees. They can't get nurses they rely on these care workers and they are left to this Government not getting the legislation sorted not getting their wage agreements sorted—it's just unbelievable.I would have on a weekly basis people coming to my office with concerns about the care that they are getting in their homes from support workers and care workers. Not the workers' fault in any way at all but workers not turning up not having enough time to meet their needs because there isn't enough of them. So how do you think it helps them if they are disrespected in this way how does it help to keep and recruit workers in the support and care areas?Hon Andrew Little: The member's party set the pay rates.Hon Member: Five years ago.PENNY SIMMONDS: The member's party set the pay rates five years ago that ranged between 15 and 50 percent over five years which is considerably more than 4.6 percent over two years. So we have left these vulnerable workers who look after our most vulnerable people in society. We have left them and we have hung them out to dry—or this Government has hung them out to dry. They have got no voice in this process at all. Their unions can't represent them in a normal negotiation process. And goodness as a chief executive I can see how valuable that has been over the number of years. But this Labour Government steeped in union organisers has taken away the voice of the unions. It's unbelievable. They've taken away the voice of the workers. No select committee process—we're standing here doing it under urgency because there is no select committee process. And so there is no opportunity for them to say Oh actually we don't think full 4.6 percent over 18 months is good enough. It's well below inflation."We've all heard the speakers from the other side saying how wonderfully important these workers are how it's mainly women how it's mainly Māori women they are so incredibly important. Well not very important if they're being offered 4.6 percent over 18 months not very important at all. Not important enough to match the inflation rate for them. So hollow words from the other side. They have no opportunity as they would have in a normal negotiation of a settlement to say "We're worth more than this. We're looking after these people that need to be looked after. We're going to be going backwards because you're offering us less than inflation." No opportunity whatsoever for those workers that you purport to represent as a Labour Government. So they are sitting out there waiting for legislation to give them a settlement that they just have to accept that comes nowhere near what I'm sure they would be wanting to ask for.Because this Government had five years when they should have addressed this and they did absolutely nothing. Well no that's not true. They didn't do nothing. They set aside half a billion dollars to pay consultants to rearrange a health sector which I'm really keen to see how that's going to go having looked at how badly their rearrangement and centralisation of the polytech sector has gone. I'm very keen to be talking about that a bit more given how badly that's been exposed. Actually that's going to be another interesting one for us to talk about when redundancies get announced before consultation and I would have thought unions would have seen things like that happening as a lack of good faith and predetermination. So clearly perhaps this Labour Government isn't as joined to the hips with the union as they might have once been because they seem to be running roughshod over all the normal union processes that you would expect to happen.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! I call on Jo Luxton.JO LUXTON (Labour—Rangitata): Thank you Madam Speaker. Mānawatia a Matariki. [We welcome and celebrate Matariki.] Can I just take a moment just to acknowledge our care and support workers across the country who as the previous speaker mentioned do such an outstanding job for many of our most vulnerable in our communities.What I find outrageous is the comments from opposite whereby suggesting that this side of the House do not take into account the concerns and the voices of the care workers and support workers when the principal Act section 8 that was put in place under that previous Government—existing claims were extinguished and potential claims were barred. Now that completely takes away the voice of those particular workers. My colleagues on this side of the House have talked about many of the things that will be amended within this piece of legislation. I am very very pleased to see that one thing that is not being amended is the fact that section 8 of the principal Act will be expiring on 30 June and this side of the House is not changing that. Therefore any claim or potential claim on behalf of support workers will be able to be raised going forward in the future. Now if that is not listening to the voice of the sector I don't know what is. I commend this bill to the House."