White HelenHELEN WHITE (Labour—Mt Albert): Thank you Mr Speaker. Today is a day where a whole lot of New Zealanders lose a brighter future. What had been established over many many years was that we had a problem. We had a problem of a low-wage economy where a whole lot of people were sinking and we have the consequences of that which we see every day. I used to see that in my office because I worked in this area and it sent me to Parliament because it was utterly tragic what I saw.Now last night I told a story to you about that on the other side of the House. I told you about how the comment that we'd had earlier about bus drivers about them stopping to pee on the side of the road because there were no toilets was true. I knew it was true because I had been in a situation where I had written a strike notice which simply insisted on toilet breaks. The response I got wasn't the quiet I'm getting this morning; it was cackling. It was cackling and dismissive. But that's a real story. What happened in that situation—and I'll repeat it for those who weren't here—was that I wrote a strike notice which simply said that the Auckland bus drivers would go away and take their toilet breaks as a form of strike action. The response of their employer at the time was to lock them out because that was enough—that was enough—for them to tip all those workers out on the street and not pay them. We ended up with it going into the Herald as an editorial that perhaps on this occasion those workers weren't to blame and in fact their employer probably deserved a little bit of criticism over this.So when you talk about good employers you've got to remember there are some ratbags out there and the good ones are actually in a position where they're harmed by those bad ones. Let me take that example a little bit further because those bus drivers were in a situation where we had set them up as a Government as a Parliament where the employers of bus drivers were constantly racing to the bottom because they had to compete with others who were willing to do that. So there was a competitive process between different bus companies and the one that could pay the lowest wages won. That's how we had set things up because of the ideology that I am watching in the House this morning pass this bill. It was seen as a good thing for us a good thing for New Zealand to have the lowest-paid workers that we possibly could because that would somehow bring about equality and wellbeing and growth to our economy. Well it didn't. What it did was it sunk people sunk people to the absolute bare minimum and we have terrible child poverty as a result. That is what you are reinforcing again today in the Government. That is a problem because you are sinking people in the Government today. You are sinking their hopes and their dreams and the dreams of their kids and that is what is going on.So we know we've got a problem. We know we've got a problem with all those sectors that have just asked for the bargaining that they have. One of them is bus drivers but there are others. There are early childcare workers there are hospitality workers. Those groups of people haven't flourished in our society; they're not paid enough and the solution that was crafted was just to give them a minimum floor. The 80 percent of people who aren't in unions were going to have a minimum floor. That's all that we were doing. That wasn't something that we should be afraid of. That was something that put employers on a level playing field so that we could get on with doing what we need to do best which is paying people a decent amount because growth means nothing if it's all going to the multinationals overseas which it was with the bus companies—they were all based overseas. These companies were making money and taking it out of the hands and the families in this actual society.So that's who we owe an obligation to and we need a future. Today we're taking a step way back and there'll be consequences but we'll be here in three years with a future and a solution that is positive and that is all about growth and real growth and real wellbeing of New Zealanders not this ridiculous hark back to the past.