Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to support the Remuneration Authority (Members of Parliament Remuneration) Amendment Bill. This bill effectively implements the Government's decision to freeze MPs' salaries superannuation subsidies and expense allowances at the current rate for the next year. The rise comes about because of what we heard from the last speaker Michael Woodhouse which was that 2015 change. On the advice I have received the pending 2018 decision this year would increase MPs' salaries by 3.08 percent and our expense allowances by 1.5 percent. That change comes about because of how it was indexed to the public sector wages measured in the quarterly employment survey.Look we've got to be frank. It's failed in what I believe its original intent was: to restrain MP pay rises. That decision is still delivering MP pay rises at a time when kids are still growing up in poverty homelessness is still on the streets and we are seeing our families facing energy poverty and high costs of living. So while this freeze is in force it gives the Government time for a process to be worked out.Now the Green Party has long questioned how MP salaries are set. We heard from the member that in the 1990s it was MPs themselves who set that and I think any reasonable member would say that it's simply unacceptable for those who benefit to set the decision. But equally so what we need is a formula—a transparent simple understandable formula—that everyone can get behind. That's why we've always proposed the idea that our salaries be set to the nominal median wage. Don't set it to the average wage: a more accurate reflection of how New Zealand and New Zealanders are doing is by linking it to the median wage.Now importantly it shouldn't be linked to the percentage rise; it should be linked to the nominal rate. Here's the kicker right: if the workers' median wages go up by 200 bucks a year MPs' should only go up by that amount. If you do it by a percentage you're going to see that growth. Now the fact is that I asked the Parliamentary Library to do some research for me and what we know today is that our salaries are 2.7 times the average ordinary wage and 3.2 times the median salary. That's a slight decrease from 2003 on both criteria. We also know that we are according to Parliamentary Library research amongst the top 10 paid members of Parliament in the developed world. Now it can fluctuate because of currency changes. But look I think what the public want to see is us having a formula that is fairly remunerated.I do take umbrage with the point made by the last speaker that we want to attract high-quality people. Of course we want high-quality people in this Parliament but if your definition is people who will only do it for a salary of an appropriate level that's not a definition of high quality; that's a recipe for making sure we get more wealthy people in Parliament. What we want is a diverse House of Representatives. What we want is people coming to this Chamber not for the salary but because they want to serve their country. When our salaries are in the top 10 of the developed world I think what we need to make sure is that we do have a fair simplistic and transparent formula that everyone can understand.So we are very happy to support this. The proof is going to be in the pudding—that formula that comes out once the freeze is lifted. I do note that the Green Party did work with the previous Government back in the time of the global financial crisis and we reached an agreement on that MP freeze. What we need to find is a durable robust and enduring framework so we aren't constantly bringing this legislation to the House. I don't think the public want to see MPs talking about themselves; they want to see MPs coming to this House talking solutions. It might be a little bit easier and more palatable when we're freezing our salaries but they want to see us talking about dealing with child poverty dealing with energy poverty dealing with the costs of living cleaning our environment and delivering a richer New Zealand. Kia ora koutou.