Little Andrew; Rurawhe AdrianDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Thank you very much Mr Chair. I appreciate the call. In the select committee report on this particular Vote sneakily right down the end is progress of the Equal Pay Amendment Bill. So I'd like to ask the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety given that there was an extraordinary—and it's reported in the report—13-month delay from when we reported back from the select committee to the House for the second and third readings for this particular bill and the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that the Government tabled which was rather large and lengthy and was referred to by several Ministers that it was important and was aligning aspects of the Employment Relations Act to the Equal Pay Amendment Bill—given that 13-month delay does he regard the content of the SOP—did that warrant the 13-month delay? That's my first question.The second question is in regards to the $1 million that the 2019 Budget set aside to implement the framework for pay equity for the new bargaining scheme. Could it be available—will it be available—for what I'd call a claim navigation assistance scheme? The reason I ask for that is that you may get a scenario where there is a multi-employer and a multi-union claim a large claim that gets quite complex. What support regime will there be? Could that particular appropriation of $1 million be set aside to give support to businesses who may find themselves in a large multi-employer claim but as a business are not a large business? What assistance is going to be available for them to navigate what could be quite a complex scheme and has that been addressed by the Government in this particular round of Estimates?Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): Thank you Mr Chairman and thank you to the member who has resumed her seat Denise Lee. In relation to the first question about the Equal Pay Amendment Bill—was the 13-month delay warranted or justified—I think bearing in mind that part of that delay was because of COVID-19 and the reality is that lawmaking stopped for a period of some weeks yes it was warranted. When the bill was reported back from the Education and Workforce Committee it was apparent that there were issues that the Government with the benefit of its advice thought could be improved could be made better. And indeed the social partners had come to the Government and said Actually there are some things in there that we think could be dealt with better. We've got some ideas about how that can be done in a better sort of way." So the Supplementary Order Paper reflected that and that came back. Now it has been fortunately debated and concluded. I think the whole objective of the exercise was to make sure that the scheme that is available now for workers and workforces to achieve pay equity is a much more accessible scheme—not the convoluted sort of process that has been around up to now and indeed contemplated in previous proposals for legislative change. So it might have taken a little longer and some people may have felt a little frustrated about that but the reality is I think everybody agrees now—reflected in a unanimous vote in the House—that we have a law now that I think will go a long way much more quickly to improving pay equity outcomes for New Zealand workers.On the second question which is about the scheme I'd just point out to the member that $750000 is available for implementation of the scheme this year—$250000 was spent last year in preparation for it. So it is expected that assistance and advice will be required for participants as they go through the process to achieve and negotiate pay equity. That support and assistance will be—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Members that concludes the part on workplace relations. We now move to employment if there's any questions."