Moroney Sue: Remuneration Authority (Members of Parliament Remuneration) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Remuneration Authority (Members of Parliament Remuneration) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2322. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): That last speech was from the Minister the Hon Michael Woodhouse who lives just down the road from Wendy’s which has opened up in Dunedin using zero-hour contracts and he is all good with that. That comes from the Minister who is actually allowing aiding and abetting zero-hour contracts.I want to speak about the amendments to the Remuneration Authority Act 1977 because that Act has been a longstanding convention as to how we set MPs’ pays in this Parliament. The idea that we have an independent authority that actually undertakes an analysis of similar occupations and similar work that is done in New Zealand compares it with what MPs do and then makes a determination based on that is actually quite an interesting notion. In tearing that down the question that I want to ask the Minister is whether he is also attacking the Court of Appeal which has asked actually that a very similar process to this be undertaken to determine equal pay for rest home workers. In fact the Court of Appeal has asked that in the Kristine Bartlett case—where she has contested very bravely yes with her union the Service and Food Workers Union the idea that rest home workers are not being paid fairly—the parties come together and actually run through a process that is pretty similar to what the Remuneration Authority currently does; that is to look at similar work that has been done by male-dominated occupations and to see whether in fact the very low pay that is paid to rest home workers is the pay that it should be.So the question I have to ask the Minister is that in repealing and changing the process that the Remuneration Authority has been through is he also preparing to amend the Equal Pay Act 1972 so that rest home workers cannot get their equal pay issues attended to in the Court of Appeal? I seriously want the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety to rise in terms of this debate and answer that question because there are tens of thousands of New Zealand women workers in low-paid industries who are going to be dependent on the outcome of that particular process. I want to know whether this is actually the stalking horse for making that change to the Equal Pay Act 1972. The Remuneration Authority and its processes are very similar to the sorts of processes that the Court of Appeal has asked the parties to go through in that case.I really want to turn this debate a little bit on its head. Yes absolutely I agree and we in the Labour Party agree that MPs’ pays should not be disproportionate to the pay of people in New Zealand generally. That is something that we strongly believe in because we believe in more equality and we in the Labour Party do not want growing inequality. So really what we should be thinking about if we want a high-pay high-skills economy is whether we should be actually tossing out these sorts of processes or should we be saying that perhaps those processes should be open to other groups of workers other groups of female-dominated occupational workers because that in fact is what the Court of Appeal is asking for in that event. I hope that this bill is not the forerunner of the Government cheating New Zealand women workers out of their day in court and out of actually having a fair process for setting their wages and conditions.I also want to raise the issue about the gender impact of the insinuation that the Minister has put before the House that this bill is a way of dampening down Public Service pay expectations because we know that some of the very big contracts up for negotiation this year involve tens of thousands of female workers of women workers—teachers and nurses. If this is the stalking horse for the Government dampening down the expectations of those workers who let us face it through the years of this National Government and the global financial crisis have sacrificed wage increases for the good of the country—they have sacrificed wage increases for the good of the country and it is their timenow.