Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): It's quite an honour to speak after my friend and colleague Anna Lorck and I have to add my thanks to those that she has listed actually and for the incredible work that she has done for the people of Hawke's Bay over the last few weeks. I think it's fair to say there's not a more energetic MP in this House a more passionate advocate for the Hawke's Bay and so in their hour of need they really do have a great champion here. It's great to hear her stories that she has been sharing with us and wishing those communities all the best over the coming weeks. It is International Women's Day and I'd like to put a gender lens over the Prime Minister's statement but it's also fitting for me to acknowledge my good friend who passed away Georgina Beyer. I knew Georgina many years ago when I was a journalist and she was a stripper. Our paths have crossed many times and Georgina has always been the best of company the most gracious fun honest humble and passionate advocate for women's rights and I miss her very much this week. It's also a day when we should be looking at where women are and that's why I want to put this gender lens over the Prime Minister's statement. I can tell you that even though the Prime Minister hasn't explicitly done so himself when I see the statements that he's made and the plans for our country they stack up very well and the reason is because when it comes to the cost of living it is often women who are hit the hardest. When it comes to targeting support the support that is being given by this Government is really for those who are hit the hardest and that includes so many women. One of the areas that he alluded to was fair pay agreements. They are a crucial tool for making sure that we can not only improve productivity but also increase wages and many of the groups that are impacted will be women's groups. There are three industries that have made an application for fair pay agreements and two of them—supermarket workers and hospitality workers—are particularly full of women and so they will benefit for that. That will be a game-changer.We heard today from the Minister for Women in the House that under this Government the gender pay gap while sticking stubbornly at 9.2 percent in the private sector has dropped fairly dramatically from around 12.2 percent to around 7 percent for women in the public sector and that's been as a result of a strong push by our Ministers. But we're also making sure that the incomes of our lowest-paid workers are able to keep up with inflation and once again women are overrepresented in that cohort. So we are increasing the minimum wage to $22.70 from 1 April. Now that's an additional $60 a week for those workers and for many mothers that means the difference of working one job instead of two or two jobs instead of three. It can mean being able to pay the fees for their kids to be able to do extra school activities playing sport being able to catch a bus maybe buy some equipment for their children and so on because it is often the women who are putting the needs of the children first. We have also reversed a freeze on the income indexation threshold for childcare eligibility put in place by National in 2020 and it's interesting that Maureen Pugh would raise National's policy around childcare. It's fantastic to see that National have finally come to the party but the problem that I have is that she's saying that the money that will be saved will go into the back pockets of parents. When I look at the policy as it's currently done: first it's not costed so if people increase childcare if they increase their hours there'll be a blowout; and secondly there is nothing to stop the childcare centres—particularly those that are for profit—from increasing their fees for parents. So it's great that National are now seeing the value of that for parents but the way that they're going about it once again hasn't been thought through. It is not going to make the difference to women and it is not going to make the difference to women being able to get out and work with that support. There's a whole context around which these changes are coming and there are many things that our Government has done to specifically increase support for women. We've introduced the Families Package we've recorded the lowest gender pay gap in recent history we've got the highest number of women in Cabinet we have the highest number of women in our Parliament—many thanks to the Labour Party. So the Prime Minister's statement definitely looked at the impact on women and for that reason I'm very proud to support it.