Young JonathanJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): We do have an election coming up on 23 September and I do hear what the member opposite Iain Lees-Galloway says but he must also consider the prospect that he may still be—as others may be—an Opposition member; therefore this bill will go through the select committee process. That member knows because he is a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee that that committee has handled some very complex bills in the past. One of them of course was the Health and Safety Reform Bill which we adopted after—we did a very good job on that committee.There were provisions put into that bill that did not need the grandstanding of that member's claims when he says that he brought magnificent change about. That was not the case and he knows that. The Employment Standards Legislation Bill was another bill before that committee that had a lot of complexity. This bill has complexity in it and if there are members of that committee who exist in Parliament today they will go forward and will be looking at this bill and then the people of New Zealand can be assured it will go through a robust process which this Parliament ought to be proud of out of all parliaments in the world because it is a fair and robust process. The public come in they say their piece they are listened to and they are considered in terms of what they say.We have a history in this country of leading the way in terms of recognition of the valuable contribution of women in our society and there is more to do. There is more to do; we acknowledge that. As a previous speaker Dr Parmjeet Parmar said we have gone from 16.3 percent in terms of the pay equity gap down to 12 percent and we need to go further. Obviously that is why this bill is before this House where we can champion the valuable contribution of women and value that contribution through pay equity. I can assure you that I and other members of this Parliament want to seek that end and that is true.We all know women in our lives who make magnificent contributions in our workforces in all sorts of places of employment and it is very very important that we continue to drive this battle forward and see that acknowledged. Women's participation in the New Zealand labour market continues to grow: 65.3 percent compared with 1995 when it was 55 percent. So there is recognition of the value of contribution—there certainly is. We see that women now have the highest participation rate ever on State sector boards at 43.4 percent. So we are making progress. There is more to be made. There is more to be made and we will continue to press forward with this work in this country to continue to be a world leader in this aspect.There are lots of details there are lots of mechanics that obviously have come under discussion and debate tonight and that is a good thing—that is a good thing. This bill distinguishes between equal pay unlawful discrimination and pay equity claims and provides for a process for making and resolving each type of claim. We will test that as we go through the committee. I am very pleased to support my Minister and colleague the Hon Michael Woodhouse and commend this bill to the House. Thank you.