Donald Rod: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
Donald Rod: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17901] 
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 It is also a pleasure for me to be back after a spirited night last night. I would like to offer Mr Connell some even more PC amendments to this part and in particular to clause 157 because I do not think that the Crown is being a good employer. It is falling down particularly in relation to pay equity and I intend on behalf of the Green Party to put forward an amendment to fix that particular problem. If members care to look at clause 157(2) they will see that it currently states that: “… a good employer … operates a personnel policy … including provisions requiring— … (b) an equal employment opportunities programme;”. In our view that does not go far enough. We want the Government to have a pay and employment equity programme and in case members are in any doubt about what that means our proposed amendment to clause 157 provides for “a programme that is aimed at the identification and elimination of all aspects of policies procedures and other institutional barriers that cause or perpetuate or tend to cause or perpetuate inequality in respect of the employment and remuneration of any persons or group of persons.” That is something that should be incorporated into this bill because the public service should be a leader in pay equity for a start. 
Unfortunately to the embarrassment of the Government not only does the public service fail to be a leader but the gender pay gap is wider in the public sector than in the private sector. One reason for that is that the public sector employs comparatively more women than the private sector but that is not an excuse. It is time that this Government faced up to the need for a proper pay equity programme and it is time that it put some money where its mouth is. Senior people in the Government often talk about the need for pay equity—the need for women to earn the same as men for either work that is the same or work that is different but of equal value. I say to members on the Government benches—particularly to those members of the Government with a union background such as Lynne Pillay and others— that this is their opportunity to show that they are committed to pay equity and that they do recognise that women still earn only 80c for every dollar that men earn despite improving their educational attainment. So let us deal with the structural discrimination that exists in the labour market. 
The Government of course acknowledges that we have a problem. It is not even as though we have to convince the Government that there is a problem. It has been doing something about it. Its usual strategy is of course to set up a task force so it did that. The Government had one of those in 2003 and since then it has established a unit within the Department of Labour to look at the pay equity issue and to find ways forward. Well let us actually implement some changes. Yes pay equity is a complex issue but there has been sufficient work done for the Government to proceed to put pen to paper and to legislate for pay equity. It should take the first step today by supporting the Green Party amendment to clause 157 so that a pay and employment equity programme becomes part of what is expected of a good employer. It is all there in the task force’s report; it stated what needs to be done. 
Let us face a few facts and look at why pay equity needs to happen. At the moment there is the classic example of nurses and sworn police officers. A nurse’s starting salary is approximately $30000 a year while police start at approximately $40000. At the top of the scale nurses are paid just over $40000 while police earn $60000. That is simply unacceptable. The Government knows that and it should be doing something about it. But pay equity is not just about men and women. There are significant differences in pay between different ethnic groups. The average hourly earnings for Pakeha men was $19.88 in the year to June 2003 while for European women it was $16.96 for Maori men it was $16.29 for Maori women it was $14.53 for Pacific Island men it was $13.90 and Pacific Island women earned the lowest hourly rate of $13.79. That is unacceptable for a Labour-led Government—one that claims it is committed to helping people who are poor or disadvantaged in the community. 
The Government has the opportunity today to fix that problem. It can become a leader and fix the problem in the public service where the average salary was $43163 for women and $52436 for men.