Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker and thank you for the opportunity to speak on this member's bill in the name of my colleague Dr Deborah Russell and I thank her for bringing it to this House. Sexual harassment is certainly very different from the sort of situation which Mr Baillie described about a worker taking a company car without permission. It is right that we treat the way that you might raise a personal grievance about those two issues very differently. But I've also reflected on the speeches in this House and about what sorts of situations one might raise a personal grievance in. I heard the words of my friend on the other benches Jan Logie ringing in my ears when she said We get awkward and uncomfortable and nothing happens when we can't talk about these things." What is the cost of that inaction? The cost of that is in situations like when I was in year 11 at high school. I went with my friend to a doctor's appointment and I sat down with her in the waiting room distracting her with a quiz in a Dolly magazine. As soon as we got into the office she burst into tears and it was up to me to explain to the GP why we were there. I told this GP that my friend had been working in a cafe for three months. Her manager had started hugging her on the first day that she was on the job. He would text her at random times of the night. He would hold her hand while he gave her the best shifts in the roster. He would hold her arm while in front of customers. One night when he was dropping her home he pulled up on the side of the road and undid his pants. We were in the waiting room of the doctors waiting for an appointment because my friend was worried she was pregnant. It was the GP who told these two 15-year-old girls in our school uniforms that this was sexual harassment at work among other things. As she organised tests and medication for my friend the GP told me that we could get help for someone who had been harassed so severely at work. She wrote my friend a letter confirming the medical exam and she told us that she'd give evidence if my friend wanted to take it further. But my friend never did take it further. She felt shame and so much embarrassment even to this day about her own naivety. But I look back on that and see someone who couldn't get away from a manager who was acting publicly like he owned her.So this bill would improve the personal grievance process available to people in her situation people who need time to think on the experiences that have happened to them people who need to speak to their friends people who need to seek the guidance of their doctors of their church ministers of their teacher of people who they trust. This takes time and 12 months to be able to do that as a young woman for anyone in this situation is what we need to improve this law. It's a useful change because everyone has the right to feel safe at work and more importantly have the time to safely raise issues with their employer.The bill is a small change but it will significantly impact on workplace culture and particularly silence towards sexual harassment. This culture of silence towards sexual harassment is something that all of us need to address. It's right that we're doing it in a member's bill and with the support of the Parliament. I would implore all members around this House to take note and pay attention to the way that this bill strikes a careful balance between the rights of everyone involved in the employment process and the grievance process because we need to get this right. It needs to be enduring. We cannot have a system where we revisit these rules because the cost of not doing anything and the cost of not talking about these things and the cost of not making constant progress to improve the situation of workers—whether they are young whether they are women whether they are working in jobs where they are disempowered to raise issues with their employers—would fail all of them.Ending violence against women wherever it is—whether it's in the workplace; whether it's at home—has to be a priority and changing our culture around raising these issues is a big part of that. This bill does it.Now speaking directly to people who might be going through this it's not your burden alone and it's not the friend who was in my position who would be alone is what I would say to them. There is a framework of legislation that my colleague Jan Logie outlined that deals with this sort of thing. The health and safety requirements at work require everyone to stamp out this kind of behaviour—not just your boss not just your manager not just the owner; everyone around you has a role to play in this. Making these processes easier for people and their situations is something that we can do in this House very proudly. I commend the bill."