Logie JanSCREEN INDUSTRY WORKERS BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 4 March 2020.JAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's with great enthusiasm that I rise to express the Green Party's support for the Screen Industry Workers Bill this afternoon. I think like most New Zealanders I love a good story and I love a good film and a good show. Some of the films that have come out of this country and the TV shows have changed my outlook on the world; they've deeply affected and moved me and connected me to other people in ways that I hadn't had access to before. And at times they've just made me laugh when you know that was not something I thought was possible at that point in time. I really have so much admiration for all of the talented performers and writers and technicians and other artists who have enriched my life in these ways.Films to me have always seemed—particularly films but TV as well—quite glamorous. But then when I talk to people working in the industry—or those who have now left because they couldn't find a way to be a decent parent and work the really really long hours or be confident that they could contribute to the family budget in a way that was manageable or actually even be able to manage their own safety when they didn't feel there was an avenue to address safety concerns—the glamour was lost. And that's been the reality for a really long time in this country that our artists and our technicians and these people who enrich our lives have often just been put in really precarious situations. The average income in the film industry the Minister said in his opening speech is around $40000 a year which doesn't quite match the image I think most of us have in this country of what it might mean to work in the film industry. And it's really clear that a lot of people who have stayed in there have stayed because they are driven as artists to contribute and to tell those stories. I think it's incumbent on us as a country to look after those people and to make sure that they in turn for what they give to us are able to have decent lives to feel safe in their workplaces and to be paid fairly for the work that they do. This piece of legislation is a really important step to enable that to happen. It overturns the Hobbit law" to restore basic protections and rights to people in the screen industry. And it reflects the outcome of the Government-created Film Industry Working Group which brought together unions and the film and television sector and Business New Zealand who sat down together and worked out how to be able to better support decent conditions for people in the screen industry as well as secure the place of the industry in our country. By sitting down together they managed to do that. That is a credit to this Government saying that this was important that the conditions of those workers was an important discussion to happen and a fundamental belief that by those parties sitting down together they could work something out. This is in stark stark contrast to the previous Government who sold out all of those people in this country. Those artists who we admire—who had been attempting for years from around 2009 to try and get standard contracts in the industry to be able to protect people in the workplace—had been met with absolute resistance from the film industry. In one production where there'd been a request for a discussion about having a standard contract for people the producer had come back and threatened to recast the entire show even just in response to the request to have that conversation—those were the people that was the action that the National Party came in behind and supported. They supported the tiny privileged few over the wellbeing of our artists who enrich our lives so much. This piece of legislation what it does is what that working group worked out together is—it doesn't go as far as say the Green Party's policy would have wanted which would have been to ensure full employment rights for everybody who is we would argue in a position of being employees in reality or even the right to strike or the right to industrial action. But we're very happy to support a solution that has been worked out through the unions and the film industry and Business New Zealand which is what this does. We really think that like fair pay agreements this is the way forward for us in this country to be able to ensure everyone benefits from increased productivity and wellbeing in our country. So the details of it are that—while it doesn't make people employees it keeps them as contractors—it enables them to collectively bargain. There's also the option for there to be improvements to that standard that may be set across an industry at an enterprise level or within individual contracts which seemed last night listening to the National speeches was not something that was understood. And it requires workers to have written contracts containing the notice period for terminating the contract and any associated payment that may be made to the worker and a process for responding to complaints of bullying and discrimination and harassment. I really do think—when we have been hearing the stories and have recently seen the conviction of Harvey Weinstein in the US—it's really important to reflect and I would ask the National Party to think on the fact that they're voting against legislation to enable a process of responding to complaints of bullying discrimination and harassment.I've sat in meetings with women in our film and screen industries and have heard the stories and the concerns within our own industry here and they've come together as women across the industry to put some amazing things in place. This is our chance to get behind them and make sure that we have legislation that backs them up to be able to protect them. As we saw with Harvey Weinstein as in the same stories that happen here the threat of being blacklisted has a silencing effect and puts people at risk and that requires strong protections to be able to balance that threat. That is a key part of what this legislation does and it is critically important for the women in those industries but also for us as a country if we're going to be consistent in all or any of our conversations around wanting to address sexual harassment in particular. I also just again touch on the fact that this is overturning the "Hobbit law". When I was thinking about this speech and I put something in a search it came up with the Urban Dictionary and the definition of "Hobbit law" which I thought I might share which is: "Law that is introduced as a knee jerk reaction usually to erode the rights … of people at work." That is on record. That is in the international Urban Dictionary as a result of the National Party's approach to industrial relations in this country. It is really shameful but what is more shameful was the impact on our artists and in my final moments I want to just to give a huge shout-out to Equity New Zealand in particular and Helen Kelly from the Council of Trade Unions who stood up against lies and power and manipulation and stood by the people in their industry and an absolute commitment to their right to dignity and safety at work."