Belich Camilla; Salesa JennyCAMILLA BELICH (Labour): E te Māngai o te Whare ka nui te koa o te ngākau ki te tū ki te kōrero i runga i tēnei kaupapa o tēnei ahiahi—it is a pleasure to stand and speak on this significant bill for its third reading: the Fair Pay Agreements Bill. The day has finally arrived. In the general debate we have just had the Leader of the Opposition start with a folk tale and I want to counter with another one one we all know. It is the tale of Chicken Little. Chicken Little was hit on the head by the falling acorn and we know how the story goes. Chicken Little concludes not that the acorn has fallen but that the sky is falling and Chicken Little rushes around telling all of the farmyard of the imminent destruction they all face. There are some similarities here to Chicken Little in the Opposition. We heard the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Wood go over the list of improvements for the lives of working people that the Government has brought in in the last five years and the National Party's opposition to that. We heard about how they opposed the increase to sick leave during a pandemic we heard about how they opposed the increases to the minimum wage and we heard about how they opposed the introduction of Matariki as a holiday but it is not just in this term of Parliament that we have heard the same oppositional rhetoric from the National Party to increases to working rights. This is something that has happened again and again and if we look back to the Employment Relations Act 2000 we see that very similar arguments were used as have been used in this bill today. The Rt Hon Jenny Shipley in the first reading of the Employment Relations Act 2000 alleged at the time that Labour was Taking New Zealand back to ideas that most people thought were extinct" and that it was "no way to forge the future for this country." Does that sound familiar? It sounds quite familiar to what we heard from Scott Simpson who was saying that we were old-fashioned and that we were taking the world back to the 1960s. Then we look at what Max Bradford said in relation to the Employment Relations Act 2000. He said "why is the Labour-Alliance Government digging up the old processes the old institutions the old dinosaurs of the past in order to get it? … We have a grand march backwards into the past"—same playbook same old tired arguments same unfounded scaremongering about the improvement of workers' rights. So why is the National Party telling New Zealanders to believe that fair pay agreements will really cause the sky to fall—why? Because workers are getting a fairer deal. The sky did not fall because of the improvements to workers' rights in the year 2000 under the Employment Relations Act—in fact we've heard from the other side how things have just got better—and the sky will not fall because of fair pay agreements in 2022. Good employers will take advantage of the new opportunities to compete on quality and service and not slashing the wages of the people they depend on. Good employers and their representatives will participate in bargaining in good faith. Good employers—and I note most employers in New Zealand are good employers—will often say that their employees are their greatest asset and while this is true it is important to remember that workers are far more than the return for their labour. They are people and we have heard again and again from this side of the House "He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata he tangata he tangata." They are people and they deserve respect. Working people deserve to live a life of dignity. They should feel secure and be part of a society that treats them fairly and this is what fair pay agreements are all about. Good employers will adapt to fair pay agreements they will go about their business and they will turn a profit only this time under fair pay agreements they will have more secure contented and likely productive employees. The sun will shine and the sky will not fall. On a more serious note the fair pay agreements that the Government is bringing in are to build a fairer and more resilient society for all New Zealanders: business owners workers unions—people. It is why we came to this place—to make this type of change to change the frameworks that we work under to make a better New Zealand for New Zealanders and strengthening our industrial relations framework through the fair pay agreements makes a fairer and more equitable society for everyone. I want to take a moment here to thank the unions and working people that they represent. This has been a long time coming and has been the result of the work of many many people and I just want to note a few of the unions who I know are listening to this debate today. The Council of Trade Unions E tū FIRST Union the Public Service Association and the Tertiary Education Union are just some that I note who represent hundreds of thousands of working people who will benefit from these fair pay agreements. So I just want to note that this today is a result of many many hours of work and many struggles from many different people. The Minister has said that we must value work. When I came to this House in my maiden speech I said that I was brought up to believe that a job worth doing was a job worth having and a job worth having in this country and a job that must be done in this country should be treated with respect. This is fundamentally what this framework of fair pay agreements is all about. As the Minister has noted we have been in this party fighting for the rights of working people for over 106 years. This was a commitment in our manifesto to bring in fair pay agreements and that today is exactly what we are going to do. I just want to note before I conclude a comment made by the ACT member Chris Baillie talking about how there'll be an increase in strikes. It is fundamentally untrue that there will be strikes as a result of this piece of legislation. Strikes are not permitted—some have argued they should be. But they are not—if you read the legislation—allowed under this bill so it is purely disinformation to suggest otherwise. In the first reading I reflected on the legacy of union leader and my friend and mentor Helen Kelly. We have heard again from the Minister today about the work that she did that resulted in this bill before the House. In my maiden speech I shared Helen's vision that she articulated in 2013 at the Labour Party conference and I will quote from this: "We need a new vision … one that recognises the best of human nature and … that our individual happiness is dependent on each other's rights and needs as much as our own."—our individual happiness is dependent on each other's rights and needs as much as our own. Fair pay agreements recognise that as a society we can do better. We can set minimum standards across occupations and industries and it will be better for everyone in New Zealand once that floor is set. Because Helen said that our individual happiness is dependent on each other's rights and needs as much as our own I would like to note that through these fair pay agreements that is what we are progressing today. Helen Kelly passed away in 2016 but her commitment to working people did not die. It lives on in this bill today which I again proudly commend to the House. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call. I call Sam Uffindell—five minutes."