Adams AmyHon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. We've just heard the most remarkable bluster and prose from the member Megan Woods who seems to think that simply shouting and being domineering makes up for action. I have to say to this House that empty words hollow promises and a lot of talk do nothing for the women of this country. In this House any of us can stand here and make speeches and we can claim to represent the downtrodden and support those who need it and stand up but actually it's actions that matter. And from the last speaker we just heard a long-winded speech about how much they cared and how much they would do. Here's the reality: the first thing this new Government did on taking office was to wipe from the Order Paper a bill that gave women the chance to have an equal pay claim heard. It's worth reflecting on the fact that this is not just because they didn't agree and it was the old Government's agenda. They left almost every other bill on the agenda and they disagreed with most of them. The one bill that the incoming Labour - New Zealand First supported by the Greens Government wanted to strike from the Order Paper was the bill that gave women a process and a way to have a fair claim an equal pay claim heard. It's a matter of fact and anybody can go back and check the reinstatement motion. I'm happy to point them to the place in Hansard if they don't remember if their memories have blacked out their own egregious actions. The first thing they did was strike the equal pay claim legislation from the Order Paper. My colleague Denise Lee has done exactly the right thing which is to say that the women of New Zealand deserve an actual process—not empty words not hollow promises not baseless rhetoric about all the good they want to do. This is action. And the one thing this side of the House and my colleague Denise Lee have said to the Government is: women deserve to know how and when they can make an equal pay claim. We have asked the Government repeatedly: what is the time frame? When will women be able to make an equal pay claim? What is the process they can follow? Are you going to force them to go—[Interruption] Not you Madam Deputy Speaker. Will the Government force them to go to court to argue their case? And—nothing. The only concrete thing this Government has done is remove this bill that was well through the processes of this House that implemented the joint working group's recommendations for a process to give women an opportunity and a real process to have these claims heard—wipe it from this Parliament. Now on this side of the House we don't just talk about gender equality we don't just talk about supporting women we don't give speeches about how important it is and do nothing. This is a real bill with content based on the excellent work of the joint working group that my colleague the Hon Michael Woodhouse introduced in his time as a Minister. This is a hard piece of policy work that our Government progressed because it mattered that we put on the Order Paper because it mattered and that this Government had just dispensed with because it didn't suit their agenda. Well I commend my colleague Denise Lee for bringing it back to the House because this is a woman who wants to see other women have a chance have an opportunity to make a real difference for themselves—not to have to go to court; real action for the women of New Zealand. We are the Opposition; we understand that. We don't have the power and the numbers in the House to take through our own agenda but what we won't do is sit quietly and watch the women of New Zealand have no opportunity to make a claim have their real genuine issues be pushed aside while this Government wants to rebrand reframe it and claim it as their own. We've seen that time and time again. We want to put the women of New Zealand first. This bill gives them a chance to do it. It doesn't put them on the eternal never-never of when they can bring a claim. This is a real chance to give women that chance to have their claims heard. Now if the Government was genuine if there was anything genuine in the Government's wish to help women bring their claims they'd say OK National. You know what? This is bigger than politics. Let's get this done and if there are things we disagree with we'll work on it. You know we can disagree with the structures or the provisions the comparing of the comparator industries we can work on that." They haven't done that—they haven't done that. All they did was wipe it from the Order Paper and say no to the women of New Zealand. Well this side of the House wants real action for New Zealand women not just talk."