Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. I too rise to celebrate this piece of legislation and a righting of a grievous wrong in our country. It's not what I intended but I want to start my speech with just a little bit of a review of history because the National Party is so busy rewriting it that I feel compelled to be able to put some of the reality back on track. So we've heard that actually there was no reason for this legislation—none whatsoever—and that the National Party had intervened to save an industry and protect workers. Whereas actually and I'm also going to in this reference part of Rebecca Macfie's biography and some material in that biography of Helen Kelly where she talks about the process that's led to this legislation today and what was happening under National saying that unlike their international peers New Zealand actors didn't work under union contracts and were increasingly aggrieved that their pay and conditions seemed to be getting worse despite the growth and success of the New Zealand film … in the global film industry" and that New Zealand cast and crews—and this is quoting from it—"had become known as the 'Mexicans of the South Pacific.' "I want to acknowledge the racism in terms of reference to Mexicans in that statement and that came from an American context. But that was the reality for the people behind our creative industries film industries and screen industries at that time. It was where we heard of an attempt of one production where they went to the producer to have the discussion about having a collective contract and the entire cast was sacked and recast just for wanting to have the conversation. So there were efforts to be able to unionise and change this. There were efforts that then led to a boycott of the Lord of the Rings films that naturally I think in terms of the public conversations and how dear those films were held to New Zealanders led to an uproar in response to that. Then at that point the Council of Trade Unions intervened and got an agreement between the producers and Equity New Zealand to be able to negotiate a resolution. Problem solved. But then big capital in the form of Warner Bros. and their executives flew into the country late at night and met with John Key. Then under urgency with no select committee process a law to remove employment rights for our film and screen industries were put in place with no public transparency no ability for people of this country to have a say or even understand what was going on. We have seen that the rights and the pay and the conditions of these people that feed so much of our sense of cultural understanding as well as promoting this country to the world have just been eroding ever since. That is the history and why this piece of legislation is so important. It was Labour Party policy to overturn this but while we hear from other speakers that "The Labour Party is just so ideological they'll just do that."; actually the Labour Party decided to bring together a film working group with producers and guilds and unions to negotiate a solution rather than just overturning it. They heard the potential concerns and wanted a sustainable solution to the problems in our film industries. It got agreement of all of those parties over a 10-month process. It was not what I would normally describe as a slapdash process but that's what we heard from the National Party despite their legislation passing in urgency after a late-night meeting with international interests—that I might describe as slapdash knee-jerk offensive and anti-democratic but hey that's for another day. So we have this piece of legislation that has gone through a long select committee process and a lot of really good changes were made in that in terms of the detail and strengthening it. I really want to acknowledge that a lot of occupational groups today is so important. I think I acknowledged Equity New Zealand and Denise Roche in the House to observe this because this is such an important day for our actors as well as our writers and our directors and editors and they have been waiting for this. Collective bargaining will be a game-changer for many in our screen industries. It represents a maturing of the industry and a sign to me that as a country and as a Government and as a support party we are no longer willing to sacrifice our artists to the altar of exploitative interests. Once this bill is in effect all contracts will have the protection against sexual harassment bullying discrimination and unfair termination. That's what the National Party is arguing against. I hope they feel proud. I would not be proud to be taking that position; I find it embarrassing. Every person in the industry will have these contracts with the protections even before collective bargaining and they will maintain their independent contractor status as has already been clarified because the National Party does not seem to understand the legislation. I really want to acknowledge that the fearmongering that I've heard from National about this putting our industry under threat neglects to mention that these protections are in place everywhere else in the world. This is not setting up additional protections for our workers; this is providing our workers with the same protections as those in other countries so that they are not treated as the lackeys and the cheap buy of big corporate interests which is what John Key created and reinforced and went behind. So this bill will support a more stable industry where producers will be able to predict their budgets and their budgets will be able to be based on reasonable wages and conditions and they will be able to plan for that as they can in other jurisdictions. Today is a day to celebrate our creators and rather than just say that in words to say it in a way that matters in a way where we get behind them having the ability to have basic protections and hopefully increasing pay and conditions at work. The Green Party is stoked to be able to support this piece of legislation."