Lees-Galloway IainHon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Well this coalition Government has spent its first year in office focusing on effecting real change that makes a real and positive difference in the day-to-day lives of real New Zealanders. It started at the very beginning with the extension of paid parental leave to 22 weeks and the legislation that will ultimately lead to the extension to 26 weeks. We increased the minimum wage to $16.50 an hour. We introduced the Families Package which lifted the incomes of over 350000 families. We provided the Best Start support for children's early years the winter energy payment for our elderly on the super and for people who are on benefits. We have even changed our employment law to make it easier for working people to bargain for a decent wage so that a fair day's work truly means a fair day's pay. These are the things that we have spent our first year focusing on: real difference that makes a real change in people's lives.As we start this year we can see there is a strong public endorsement for the approach of this Government. The news over the last couple of weeks has demonstrated that the people do like what this Government is doing: a strong endorsement of our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her style of leadership both on the international stage and domestically that talks about compassion and kindness as well as running the strong economy. There is a strong endorsement of this coalition Government: three parties that not only bring three different viewpoints under a shared set of values but also represent a majority of New Zealanders from all walks of life. People see the way this Government is working together in a coherent and constructive fashion in the best interests of all New Zealanders and they like what they see. But most of all they like the vision for a more productive more sustainable economy that really delivers positive change for all New Zealanders. But as the Prime Minister has said it's only one year. There is a lot more to do and of course the centrepiece for this year will be the Government's well-being Budget—a Budget that acknowledges that we have to measure a lot more than just economic growth. Economic growth is important but we also need to look at things like the well-being of our young people; our mental health; lifting Māori and Pacific incomes skills and opportunities; creating opportunities for productive businesses regions and iwi. These are the things that truly represent progress for this country. And I heard the National Party today trying to pick some holes in the approach of the well-being Budget questioning the value of finding a friend—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Yes.Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: —because finding a friend Nick Smith is actually about connectivity. It is actually about a sense of community a sense of place and purpose within our communities and I would have thought the National Party of all people would have understood the value of finding a friend—those folks over there in glorious isolation telling themselves It's all OK because we're still polling around about 40 percent." But they don't play well with others. They don't play well with others and that's what's going to keep them out of Government because they can't find a friend. So I won't be lectured by the National Party on the value of finding a friend not just because of the irony of the position that they find themselves in but actually because that is the kind of thing we do need to measure: people's well-being people's connectivity their place and purpose in our community. And I'm proud of the fact that our well-being Budget will do that and I can tell the National Party the world is watching. They are impressed with New Zealand's leadership. They are impressed with the leadership of Jacinda Ardern and they are watching to see how New Zealand goes about implementing that well-being Budget. Now the central tenet of the well-being Budget of course is the fact that while economic growth is important it alone does not guarantee improvements to New Zealand's living standards. Government must do much more to make sure that we don't just grow the pie but that we make sure that it is shared fairly and that everybody gets the opportunity to experience the prosperity of this nation. At the end of last year I received the Fair Pay Agreement Working Group's report. They identified some of the challenges that we must overcome if we are to ensure that everybody shares in the prosperity of this nation. They identified the fact that New Zealanders work longer and harder and for lower wages than most other people in the OECD that our labour productivity is woeful and that that has been overseen by successive Governments and we cannot allow it to drift on and let our lowest paid continue to slide further and further behind. They identified the fact that inequality of incomes is growing in New Zealand and in fact what we are seeing and what we have seen over the last 30 years is a hollowing out of those on middle incomes. The people who work for wages who earn moderate wages have seen their pay in real terms stagnate while those at the top have gone further and further ahead. And they've looked at what happens around the world to address these issues and they've identified a gap in New Zealand and that is the fact that we do not have any form of sector-level bargaining. This is not an unusual thing. It happens all around the world. Two-thirds of OECD nations have some form of sector-level bargaining. In fact the OECD as an organisation as recently as last year 2018 said that in the 21st century a strong market mixed economy like New Zealand should have some form of individual bargaining some form of enterprise-level bargaining and some form of sector-level bargaining because that drives high employment and it drives improvements in wages and reduces inequality. What we are missing in New Zealand is that sector-level bargaining.So I welcome the report from the Fair Pay Agreement Working Group. The Government will look at those recommendations and we will progress with that work over this year because we do have to address New Zealand's woeful labour productivity and we do have to address our low wages because it isn't just about having a strong economy; it's about making sure that everybody gets to participate in that.For the same reason we will increase the minimum wage again this year to $17.70 an hour taking effect from 1 April 2019. That will benefit around 209000 workers lifting wages throughout the economy by $231 million lifting wages for a full-time worker on the minimum wage by $48 a week. These are the things that make a real difference for real people. But we know that businesses want to see some change from Government as well and that's why we've initiated a review of the Holidays Act because we know that it's a piece of legislation that is difficult for businesses to administer and it often means that workers are not getting what they are entitled to. This is something the previous Government wasn't up for; they put it in the too hard basket. But not for this Government; we are prepared to take up the challenges. It's not an easy job to do but that's what Government is about: tackling the difficult jobs and that's what we will do this year with that Holidays Act review and we will implement new legislation to improve the way people's holidays—the way their entitlement to annual leave and other holidays is administered. We are also doing a lot of work in the immigration portfolio. We need our immigration system to work well to drive economic growth but also to improve well-being for everyone in New Zealand—those who were born here and those who have come to make a life here from somewhere else. Most importantly we need to make sure that our immigration system is working for the regions. New Zealand's regions have quite different needs: Auckland is different from Southland is different from Hawke's Bay is different from Northland. But we have a one-size-fits-all system and when you make a change to benefit one region under our current settings you're more than likely going to do something that will be detrimental to other regions. So we're out right now talking to people about our proposals to reform the immigration system to make sure that it gets the skills that we need and the people that we need into the parts of the country where they are most needed. It is also designed to stamp out the exploitation of migrant workers. Of course New Zealand is a migrant nation—we have always welcomed migrants from all around the world—but it is totally unacceptable that we have people coming to New Zealand from all parts of the world to be exploited to work for the minimum wage to be put in low quality accommodation to not receive what they are entitled to in the way of holiday pay or their minimum wages. That is completely unacceptable and it was a shameful reputation that New Zealand was developing. We will put an end to that with our changes to the immigration system.I am proud of this Government's first year. We have done an awful lot to improve the well-being of New Zealanders but there is so much more to do. This is a Government that is full of energy that is full of passion and that is working together across three parties to represent the best interests of all New Zealanders and that is why this is a strong Government with a strong endorsement from the people of New Zealand."