Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Acting Prime Minister): There is so much I could respond to in that contribution from Mr Goldsmith but today is a good day. Mr Goldsmith is a historian by training a noble profession I might add. So I want to start for him with a short history lesson.The genesis of this bill this great piece of legislation comes 30 years ago. Now 30 years ago which might surprise some people I was working regularly in the South City New World in Dunedin in the fruit and veggie department. Anyone who wants to know the secret for how to properly cut a pumpkin up lessons will be given in the break. But those 30 years ago I worked alongside some of the best people I have even known some of the most hard-working people I have ever known who were on the checkouts who worked day and night in the butchery and who worked day and night in the delicatessen who were up at four in the morning buying the vegetables that were sold there. And that year 1992 was the year in which the impact of the employment contracts hit in my workplace. Now I was a student I was able to make ends meet but I watched the value of the wages of those hard-working people who worked every day to feed their families erode. Because by design a system was created by the then National Government to ensure that working people's share of income declined.It was not an accident. It was as Helen Kelly told us by design. Thirty years ago that experiment was foisted on New Zealand people and ever since that day working people have been going to work and not getting a fair day's pay for a fair day's work because their rights were eroded their conditions were eroded. What we've heard in the House today and over the last few days—here's the history lesson for Mr Goldsmith: Ruth Richardson is alive and well and kicking over there because they say they're going to repeal it. They want to by design lower the wages of working people. The message for New Zealand for working people across Aotearoa: National hasn't changed. Thirty years on they still want to see the wages of working people decline the share of our national income that working people take home. They deliberately designed the system to reduce that. Well today we turn that around. Today we make sure that working people can finally get the opportunity for that fair day's pay for a fair day's work.During the period of COVID we saw a lot of talk about essential workers. We celebrated essential workers. I can remember writing a small piece for the front page of the Dominion Post to celebrate the people under level 4 who were going out day in day out to make sure that we were all healthy and well. Our cleaners our bus drivers our supermarket workers—we celebrated them. And I can remember writing that day in the Dominion Post Maybe just maybe this will be the moment where in New Zealand we stop and we say 'If someone's an essential worker maybe we should show that we value them as an essential worker in the way that they are paid.'" Again today we take serious steps forward in making sure that that happens. Our cleaners and our security guards our bus drivers the people who make sure that the economy ticks along have for too long been forced into a race to the bottom. Today we turn that around. Today we turn that around.I want to say some thankyous at this point in my speech. I want to thank the Minister in charge of this bill the Hon Michael Wood. Michael your work on this has been phenomenal not just sitting in that chair there for goodness knows how many hours answering banal questions from the members opposite. But the work that you have done to shepherd this legislation to this point it is a Herculean effort. You deserve every congratulation for what you have done.I want to thank the wider labour movement in New Zealand many representatives of whom are gathered together in the gallery today. The labour movement has taken this project on because it means fairness. It means giving working people a shot at getting their fair share. I want to congratulate every union member every working person in New Zealand who has supported this bill. I want to thank the members of the E tū union who lobbied and lobbied and lobbied and told their stories to us time and time again. The people who clean this building the people who work out there on the front line who are security guards dealing day in day out with difficult issues. You came you told your stories to us. They mean something. It means something to all of us today. And I say thank you to you for what you have done.I want to thank some people who are no longer with us. In particular I want to acknowledge Helen Kelly and Peter Conway two giants of the union movement the labour movement in New Zealand. Two people who talked about this very issue. And it was interesting to hear Mr Goldsmith mention a Four Square worker in the north of New Zealand because that's the example Helen Kelly used to give of why we need fair pay agreements. Think about the imbalance and bargaining power of a Four Square worker in Kaitaia when they're up against their employer. They don't necessarily have people around them who can help them bargain—that's what this was about.Here's what Helen Kelly said a few years before her passing. She said "There is a cultural problem in this country. People think workers are lucky to have a job. They shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them and they should put up and shut up. The bottom line should include workers having a secure agreement about how their pay is determined. It's not much to expect." Helen drove a movement inside the labour movement to make sure that we reached out beyond those who we traditionally talked to that we said there was an audience of people here who understood that the race to the bottom was wrong that there was an opportunity if we got the legislative settings right to set the minimum—shoot for the moon but set the minimum. I want to acknowledge Helen. It was six years ago just a couple of weeks ago that she passed away. Today we do something that she wanted. We do something that she wanted for the working people of New Zealand. And I say thank you to Helen and thank you to Peter for the work that they did to get us to this point—and indeed the entire union movement today and in the past.There is nothing to worry about in this legislation. If you're a good employer this is good news. It means you're not going to be dragged down by the people who want to undercut you. This is a chance for employers good employers to come to the table with hard-working people and nut out an agreement and to make sure that the freeloaders in your industry don't get away with it anymore. This is a day for employers to celebrate just as much as it's a day for employees to celebrate. There's nothing to worry about here. We get asked all the time by the Opposition "What are you doing to make us more like Australia?" Hello we're doing it today—vote for it! This is commonplace in the world. It's about basic rights. It's about understanding that when people go to work they deserve a fair day's pay. So I am so proud to stand here as the final speaker on this bill. This is the result of hard work over more than a decade of people in the union movement. But more than that it is an example of rolling back those terrible ideas of 30 years ago. I stood here and did a Budget in 2021 where we restored main benefits to the levels that they were before the "mother of all Budgets". Today we take another important step in rolling back that agenda. But more important even than that is that we roll forward now to an era where people get a chance to bargain together get a chance to get a fair day's pay. This is a great day for the working people of New Zealand. I am so proud to be part of a Government that is passing the Fair Pay Agreements Bill."