Mitchell ClaytonCLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I just want to start by acknowledging Denise Lee's bill being drawn from the ballot. It's a great honour to have that and it's a very very worthy cause and a great opportunity to try and rectify a wrong that's being going on in this country for far too long. Also I acknowledge Nicola Willis. Welcome to the House our newest member and I look forward to hearing your contributions after you've got your maiden statement under way which I'm sure the House will be filled for. Look this is a very worthy bill in so far as it is trying to fix a problem that we've had to deal with for a very very long time. In fact if you look back to 1998 I think the pay equity of women to men was a ratio of about 16.4 percent lower. Now we're actually starting to head in the right direction and I understand what this bill intended to do but the reason why New Zealand First will be opposing this bill is we don't believe it goes far enough. We are now sitting at a pay equity gap of about 9.2 percent differential. Again I say we're heading in the right direction but it's really quite ironic that here we are in 2020 and we're actually in Parliament discussing the pay equity of men and women. I see absolutely no difference between the jobs that men do and women do. We shouldn't be paying people a different wage for doing the same job or a similar job because of ethnicity because of race because of gender. We should be treating everybody equally and the same no matter what. It's about fairness and it is about equity. New Zealand First has always been a strong advocate and I look around the House and I have to say our coalition partners also have a very very strong ethic on this issue and have been fighting for a very long time. I think the Novopay and Kristine Bartlett's outcome was a fantastic result. I think the group that was put together—the joint working group to come up with ways to ensure that we don't have these problems—also came up with some good solutions but this bill doesn't quite go far enough and we can see some problems with this bill. Yes we could potentially work through this in select committee but the reason why we're opposing this bill is because this coalition Government is working on this very same issue to iron out those problems. It wouldn't make sense to put the time of this House into two bills trying to get the right outcome simultaneously. So we will be opposing this moving forward.I have to say I do love members' day. You know having members' bills being read in this House shows the passion. There's a very very robust conversation going on this evening and most evenings in fact when it comes to something that we're very passionate about. But I have to say we are equally passionate on this side about this issue and again I commend the member for her passion for this and the last speaker Amy Adams when she spoke—it very very strongly resonates. You know I grew up with my mother who would be described in any society as a feminist and a very very strong passionate supporter and person who stands up for the rights of women. So I grew up in that environment but I'm not a feminist but I don't have to be a feminist to stand up for what is right about equal pay and pay equity. I'm a humanist and I go back to my point about saying Let's make sure that everybody gets treated the same in the workplace with equal pay with pay equity."The part that this bill doesn't go far enough in is to do with the comparators—the way that this bill if it goes through will be checking the balances of other industries with those people being paid differently. It is about looking within the industry itself so it's internalising the externalities but we want to externalise the internalities of this problem and make sure we're actually reaching out looking at other working groups other working environments with people that are equally skilled that work just as hard to make sure that they have the same right of a fair day's pay for a fair day's work which absolutely underpins this Government this coalition Government.So I again thank the House for their contributions. I thank the member for her heartfelt positive attempt to fix the wrongs of our history. We have got work under way that is being discussed now and will be coming out in the very very near future that I'm sure the House will actually join forces in to ensure that it goes through all stages uninterrupted. Again thank you very much."