Radhakrishnan PriyancaHon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector): Thank you Mr Speaker. The member who just resumed his seat Chris Bishop talked about wasteful spending. He alluded to Minister Wood's contribution today in the House. The Minister was talking about investing in workers—that is what members on that side of the House consider wasteful spending. He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata he tangata he tangata." "What is the most important thing in the world? It's the people it's the people it's the people." It's also the people who are our economy's biggest asset the people that we on this side of the House are investing in.Monday was Labour Day a day that is an opportunity to celebrate the progress made by the labour movement to improve workers' pay and working conditions a day to reflect on the work that we still need to do in that space and unfortunately a day that the National Party wants to abolish. Today is significant: we will be passing in this House a significant piece of legislation the Fair Pay Agreements Bill. That is legislation that will stop what we have seen in many sectors across Aotearoa: a race to the bottom that is fuelled by worsening pay and conditions for some of our lowest-paid workers. Can I acknowledge all those in the House today who for many years across various spaces whether workers themselves or union members have fought for this.It is shameful that the National Party is opposing this legislation but given their track record it's not terribly surprising. This is legislation that can improve pay and working conditions for our cleaners our bus drivers our security guards our retail workers our orderlies our aged-care workers and our early childhood educators and teachers. Our society relies on the work of so many of these workers but the race to the bottom that they have experienced has meant that their work hasn't been valued as it should be. That at the core is what fair pay agreements are about: they're about valuing work and valuing those who provide that work.In Auckland we are seeing the impact of this race to the bottom very clearly. One of the biggest issues that gets raised with me in my electorate in Maungakiekie is the impact of rail closures. I have seven train stations across my electorate that are very well used. Auckland Transport has recently announced that there will be a closure of the rail network across Tāmaki-makau-rau next year and I understand why that is: it's to improve the foundations of our network some of which were built 150 years ago. I get that at the end of that we'll have more reliable and faster trains and we want that. However I want to ensure as the local MP that we have viable and frequent bus replacements. But there's the rub because we don't have enough bus drivers. We have a shortage of bus drivers significantly that was caused by a contracting system that forces operators to lower drivers' pay and working conditions in order to compete commercially—that's the race to the bottom.We're doing a bunch of things to address this. There was money in Budget 2022 specifically to address this as well but this legislation the Fair Pay Agreements Bill is one that could address exactly what we are seeing and experiencing today. It's also a piece of legislation that's—SPEAKER: I'm going to ask the member—you can talk about the principle but you cannot anticipate what is about to come up in the House.Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Sure—should the bill pass—SPEAKER: Yeah. So don't actually talk about the bill.Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Sure. All of the work that we're doing on this side of the House is to ensure that many of the workers that we are supporting—and many of them are women and they are men and women from our Māori Pasifika and ethnic communities—the work we are doing is about valuing them and their work. These are also people who face pay gaps and some of them are groups that disproportionately experience migrant worker exploitation. The range of work that we're progressing on this side of the House will go a long way to address all of those issues: work we're doing to prevent migrant worker exploitation from happening in the first place to protect those who've been exploited and enable them to leave those situations quickly and safely and work that we're doing to enforce legislation to deter further exploitation and also to better hold to account those who do exploit their workers.Last week we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act 1972. It's a piece of legislation that's instrumental in ensuring the legal right to equal pay for equal work in Aotearoa and we passed an amendment that will make it even easier for people to raise those equity issues."