Wall Louisa: Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 11 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8950. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa):Tēna koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Ngā mihi o Te Tau Hou whānau. I hope everyone had a good break. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of our tamariki and whānau from Weymouth Primary School who are here. Nau mai haere mai. I hope you have had a wonderful tour of Parliament and it is a privilege for me to speak in front of some of my constituents.I used to be a member of the Health Committee and I must admit I miss it but in saying that I am enjoying my new role as a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee. It is my privilege to speak in support of this Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill. As others have noted this piece of legislation actually has a few people whom we should credit for highlighting this particular issue. The first is Judy McGregor who was then a commissioner at the Human Rights Commission. She and her colleagues contributed to the writing of a document called Caring Counts: Report of the Inquiry into the Aged Care Workforce. One of the recommendations within that report was fair travel for our community and support workers many of whom are on minimum wage and many of whom had to pay for the petrol they used when visiting clients themselves.We also owe this piece of legislation to two women and I want to acknowledge their contribution. Tamara Baddeley who as a member of the then Service and Foodworkers’ Union now E tū took with her union a case to the Employment Relations Authority. When that was written up Tamara was on $14.80 an hour and in one particular day she had visited 12 clients. I think actually when we think about this piece of legislation we have to acknowledge those who have put in the hard yards and created this opportunity for change. The other person was Jenny Goodman who as a member of the Public Service Association (PSA) was also involved in highlighting the relevance to her work of this piece of legislation and again it was very much about ensuring that our community and support workers whilst they are in the community are appropriately remunerated for something that is actually an essential and core part of their work.What I want to highlight really is that when the agreement was reached instead of going to court the Crown came to the table with E tū with the PSA and with the Ministry of Health. But what should be highlighted is that the select committee was very considered because it extended the scope of this legislation to ACC. The reason that we extended the scope of this particular legislation to ACC was that many of the home and community support workers work in that sector. Both the Minister of Health and the Associate Minister of Health have highlighted the communities that benefit from this valuable work work that our home and community support services workers provide to older people and to people with disabilities. So this is very much about recognising that there were some changes to the negotiated agreement and one of those was saying that this piece of legislation is relevant to those who are contracted through the Ministry of Health but also those who are contracted through Vote ACC.What I want to highlight in my speech is that Part B of the agreement is actually an exclusion in this legislation. What was negotiated had a Part A—and that is this piece of legislation—but what was not and has not been fully realised is Part B of the negotiation. Part B is about a committee coming together to investigate two things. The first of those is an investigation into the funding for this whole area of home and community support services. There is an agreement that the Government has with the PSA and with E tū to look at the funding for the sector. And the second part of the agreement in Part B was to develop and oversee the transition of the workforce to a regularised workforce. What is that about? That is actually about ensuring that our workers have guaranteed hours and that the workforce is paid a living wage. We have talked already about the workforce and how the workforce is valuable because the people it is serving are older New Zealanders and New Zealanders with disabilities—New Zealanders living in the community that if it were not for these 28000 workers some of them would be incredibly isolated. So I think there is general agreement that we value that cohort in our society. If we value that cohort in society that this sector services then actually we need to value them as well. So the most critical part I believe of the negotiations and the agreement is yet to be realised.What I do want to note is that in November last year the Government convened a joint working group on pay equity principles and what that group will end up doing in the future—their work is incredibly relevant to this workforce—is it is going to provide some practical guidance to employers and employees around implementing pay equity. It will also be working on female-dominated vocations or work. That is why it is about pay equity. As we know our women are not paid as much as our men and I want to acknowledge my colleague Sue Moroney who is in the House who has been a champion of this issue for many years. I put my hand up today in the House to say that I am a champion of this particular kaupapa because we are actually talking about home and community support service workers. They are the people in our communities—mostly women—who work with the aged who work with the disabled who provide the care and support that they need to live in dignity and to have their needs met in our communities.I had not been out with a home and community support worker but before Christmas I had the privilege of spending the day with Mele who is an aged-care worker and she works in a facility in Manurewa in Bupa Hayman Park. I spent a day with Mele—I walked a day in her shoes—and now I know the type of work that she does. The type of work that Mele does is to look after about 10 to 12 people. It includes bathing them. It includes preparing their breakfast and for some of the people it includes feeding them. It includes washing them. It includes changing their beds. It includes providing them lunch. It actually includes everything that we would hope for some of our family who are in those facilities: that there is someone who cares about them who nurtures them and who provides for their well-being. Having experienced a day in Mele’s shoes I am incredibly committed to ensuring the protection of this sector of our workforce and of our society who do amazing jobs every day to look after people who are vulnerable—people who actually are our mothers our fathers our brothers and people for whom I believe that as New Zealanders we all think their needs are incredibly important.I really just want to highlight that there is general support for this piece of legislation across the House. I just want to highlight that the changes that were made at select committee were made with the consent of the unions with E tū and with the PSA. In fact some of the changes are not about us leading the changes; they are about those two unions coming to the select committee and saying: “Actually this doesn’t quite reconcile with the negotiated terms that were agreed by the Government.” So they actually held both the Government and also us as select committee membersto account because we got copies of that negotiated agreement. It was about translating that into a piece of legislation that is actually underpinned by all the values and principles that helped negotiate that settlement in the first place. So I can stand here and say that I think we did an incredibly good job to uphold those principles. I think the PSA and E tū will be incredibly happy with this piece of legislation. As a member of E tū I am incredibly proud that our unions are actually advocating—but more than advocating implementing pieces of legislation like this that actually matter to working New Zealanders.I will be monitoring Part B of the negotiated agreement and I look forward to this piece of legislation passing expeditiously through the House. Kia ora.