Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): The Green Party's really happy to be supporting this bill because ultimately this is about protecting our workers making sure that people have good wages and there's just no discrimination in the workplace in relationship to those people that may be on a KiwiSaver scheme or otherwise. This is commonsense. Those protections should be in place and should never have been removed. As we have a growing ageing population it's critical that we actually bolster the support mechanisms that exist for people to retire with enough savings and the safety net to allow them to lead good lives because the number of older people who are renting and who are living in poverty is increasing. The last thing we want is people being discriminated against based on whether they are on a KiwiSaver scheme or otherwise.It's really interesting how for the passage of this bill the rhetoric from the National Party members in particular has changed. Because if I look back at the contributions from the first reading and I'm just going to quote Simon Watts here from the first reading he basically talked about how this is a good bill and he specifically talked about—he didn't want to speak long. He talked about how they were going to be supporting this bill. Then we also got the first reading speech from Hon Paul Goldsmith who said that this bill had identified a problem. But then how quickly we move to say other types of rhetoric from the contribution from Louise Upston in the second reading saying that this was an ideological bill. So what changed? Was it the baubles of office that just made them change their position that it was easier to take a position of supporting this bill when in Opposition? Because ultimately this is at the expense of workers. And I guess it should come as no surprise that at the second reading the National Party MPs are showing their true colours and turning their back on workers as they have done actually throughout the passage of legislation while they've been in Government.And the Green Party will continue supporting our workers to ensure that they can retire with a safety net that allows them to live with dignity. No one in the workplace should face discrimination for the type of retirement scheme that they're in. To hear the New Zealand First MP talk about how minimum wage workers will be protected anyway I guess just reeks of the kind of low-wage economy that Government members are quite comfortable having. Because ultimately we want people to earn good wages not just to be on the minimum wage. And having those protections in place actually guarantees that workers can continue growing their wages without that discrimination happening. At the end of the day members can't have it both ways. They can't continue the discrimination that workers face when it comes to having a good retirement plan and keen say the superannuation below the poverty line for many of our older people who will continue to be renting as they retire.The Government side of this Parliament is accepting that we're going to have more people living in poverty as they retire. This bill would have protected some workers by boosting their incomes throughout their lifetime as they work towards retirement. At the end of the day we should not accept that any older person has to live in poverty. So we commend the member who brought this bill forward and we do hope that the Government takes the wellbeing of our ageing population seriously. Let's not mistake the breadcrumbs that they've given our communities as genuine safety nets for those people that are doing it tough.Finally yeah I just want to say it's good to have these receipts from the National Party MPs where they were quite happy to pretend they were supporting this bill at first reading and then somehow have turned their backs without actually explaining why. I think this is part of the problem I have is they haven't really explained and articulated what exactly changed from their kind of uncritical voices of support at first reading to now calling it an ideological bill because every bill is ideological actually. There's no such thing as lack of ideology in this House when it comes to legislation. You can't take politics away from literally Parliament—this is a political space. So let's just make it clear all the National Party is doing is showing their true colours by once again voting against a bill that would have protected workers.