Wagner NickyHon NICKY WAGNER (Associate Minister of Health): I am absolutely delighted to speak to the Care and Support Worker (Pay Equity) Settlement Bill. This is a significant bill and it is an important bill because it is about supporting our most vulnerable older and disabled people. If you are an older person and if you are older and disabled—and you have got to realise that of anyone over 65 perhaps about 60 percent of those people also have a disability—this is a significant bill for you. This because for our most vulnerable older and disabled people their health their well-being and their quality of life revolves around the attention and the care that they get often on a daily basis from specialist care and support workers.Care and support workers are mostly women—we know that—and they work very long hours. They do a very difficult job. Until the passing of this bill they were often paid at a minimum wage. This bill delivers on the Government's $2 billion pay equity settlement for some of the health sector's lowest-paid workers. It is a historic settlement. It recognises that the work carried out by this female workforce—and there are 55000 workers whom it affects; this workforce of care and support workers—really does underpin the well-being of our aged and disabled people. Whether they are in residential care or whether they are in home and community care support services across the country are reliant on these people.This settlement and this bill will help ensure that we have a higher-paid more skilled and more engaged workforce across the country. Those people are supporting 110000 of New Zealand's most vulnerable. I could not be more pleased. The work of these women is so appreciated by older people and disabled people but actually everywhere I go in the sector people tell me how important it is for carers and support workers to be appreciated and how much they make a difference to their lives.These new pay rates are significant. They are significant for 55000 workers but for at least 20000 workers—those are the full-time workers—they will get an extra $100 a week up to $5000 a year. The settlement is not just about wages. It also provides incentives to help care and support workers to access training and formal qualifications. Employers are required to provide the necessary systems and support to enable workers to achieve New Zealand Qualifications Authority health and well-being certificate qualifications. The idea behind that is that qualifications will increase from level 2 to level 4 over a 6-year period. The Government is very supportive of that and to that end it will fund employers for 2 days per employee per year as its contribution to the education and training.Society's attitudes are changing. They are changing towards older and disabled people. This settlement provides new opportunities to deliver different services. The changing models of care mean that disabled people are increasingly living in home-like settings in the community with 24-hour support from care workers. Whether they are disabled or older where they can no longer live in their own homes care workers also help them live well—as well as possible—in residential care facilities.The care and support workforce has traditionally had a high turnover of about 30 percent. We think that the increased wage rates are expected to help with recruitment and the retention of workers. That will mean a better continuity of care for clients and a more stable workforce overall. I think this is particularly important as we have an ageing population.The settlement also links pay rates to qualifications as I have said and this will encourage care and support workers to increase their qualifications meaning that over time workers are likely to be more highly-trained more skilled more innovative and more able to provide a more flexible type of care. I think that is going to underpin the quality of life for the people they care for.This settlement has been well received across the community. Everywhere I go people seem to appreciate the work that carers and support workers do and they are really pleased to see their increased wages. I think also because they are mostly women it is a real win for gender equality. Everywhere I have gone in the community people right across the board have been positive. That includes health professionals like the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and also business interests like the New Zealand Aged Care Association.The New Zealand Nurses Organisation Industrial Services Manager Cee Payne said: This equal settlement delivers pay rates that truly reflect the skills and importance of the work that care and support workers undertake every day. Decent pay rates and the right to achieve qualifications will grow and retain skilled workers to care for our elderly. This will build public confidence that high quality care will be delivered to our families' loved ones in our rest homes and hospitals." For business the New Zealand Aged Care Association Chief Executive Simon Wallace said he was happy with the outcome—that it would be a "game changer" by making the industry more attractive to workers and that "It will lead to a well-trained better-paid and more stable care workforce."In conclusion I am very very pleased to be able to support this bill. It will give carers and support workers a significant increase in wages and it will give them greater access to training and a well-deserved appreciation from the public of New Zealand. I think it is well supported right across the community by health professionals and by businesses and I think the reason for that is that it will improve the healthcare the quality of life and the well-being of our most vulnerable elderly and disabled people. So I too would like to congratulate Kristine Bartlett and her supporters and everyone who has been involved in this settlement. Kia ora."