Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. In a word: gutted—gutted by this piece of legislation gutted for the workers. I was also out on the steps of Parliament talking with workers: supermarket workers and early childhood education (ECE) workers who are good salt of the earth people. What I would say in terms of the speech that we just heard from the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety is this: she should climb out of the ivory tower of right-wing economic fundamentalism and talk to the people. Talk to the people—talk to the people. I joined the picket last week of ECE teachers. It has been acknowledged across the House on both sides of the House that there are serious issues in terms of pay parity within the ECE sector—the ECE sector. These fair pay agreements would go a long way with making sure that we address those parity issues. Fair pay agreements would have put more money in the pockets of people teaching our mokopuna keeping our hospitals clean and safe stocking the supermarket shelves and getting us around on the bus. It takes a particularly callous Government to turn its backs on the people who do so much for our communities. These are thousands of people who will be forced to work two or three days just to make ends meet. The other thing which is particularly appalling about this piece of legislation is the proximity to Christmas. We're two weeks out from Christmas and what we have is a Government which is addicted to cancel culture. I thought they didn't like cancel culture but here they are. They're cancelling climate action cancelling te reo Māori and here they are cancelling Christmas for the workers. Nothing but ciggies under the Christmas tree for the workers this Christmas and what a shocker that is. I want to acknowledge all the work that the workers have been putting in and their unions. I know they've been putting a lot of the hard yards ever since this piece of legislation has gotten over the line: working with their people understanding the different conditions. I remember I went for a walk with some of the workers and we went and talked with the different security guards in my town of Palmerston North and they were talking about labour flexibility. If you are stuck in one job and you want to move to another one but they've got completely different working conditions and pay rates it makes it very difficult for them to move from that worksite to another. Fair pay agreements would have helped to address that. Fair pay agreements would have helped to create a floor in order for people to actually work together to make fairer working conditions for workers.The other thing that I would like to note as well is the number of leaked documents coming out of this Government. Somebody's not happy on that side of the House. They like to point the finger at the workers but maybe it is one of their coalition partners—who knows? But what it did say is that by repealing this legislation it's going to make working people's lives harder. It's going to make workers' lives harder. In particular it's going to make work harder for women harder for young people harder for our Māori workers and harder for our Pasifika workers as well. Those people that do the hard yards. Those people that stock our supermarket shelves that clean our offices that move us around on the buses that take care of our mokopuna. This House should have those workers at the front of mind whenever they move legislation through the House. This House needs to be focusing on what it needs to do to improve the working lives of those workers. The Greens will always be on the side of the workers and in this particular case we are absolutely gutted and appalled that this Government is pulling this move this close to Christmas casting uncertainty on to hundreds and thousands of working people's lives. So you will see through the course of this debate calls from the Greens to highlight the very specific lives of working people people that stock those supermarket shelves. Let's remember: when we were moving through the pandemic we called them essential workers—we called them essential workers. I say this to the workers: you were essential then; you are essential now—you were essential then; you are essential now. Members on this side of the House will continue to speak up for workers will continue to speak up for working people. Thank you Madam Speaker.