SpeechHon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): Thank you very much Madam Chair and it gives me great pleasure to rise during this debate to speak to a report which I don't believe I've heard any member of the Opposition refer to and that is the excellent report of the Education and Workforce Committee into the Estimates for Vote Labour Market. I am surprised that members opposite haven't engaged in this part of the debate because the honourable member Scott Simpson was a lion in the hearings. He was determined to make the case that this Government's efforts to increase the minimum wage to improve collective bargaining to introduce fair pay agreements to improve ACC outcomes and to improve the immigration system were all going to destroy the New Zealand economy and that the result would be more people unemployed and fewer jobs.Well what have we seen in the weeks since that hearing—what have we seen in the weeks since that hearing? Possibly the reason why the members of the Opposition have said not a dickie bird about this part of the debate is that we have seen unemployment fall to its lowest level in over a decade—its lowest level since the last time the Labour Party was in Government—at 3.9 percent. We've also seen wages increase hourly earnings increase by 4.4 percent: the largest annual increase in over a decade and you guessed it—that's right—the largest increase since the last time the Labour Party was in Government. The truth is that no matter how much the National Party run around the country trying to fearmonger and scare business and reduce and undermine business confidence the stats tell us that people are working and that more people are working and they're earning more for the time they spend at work.We talked a lot at the committee about labour market productivity and the National Party again tried to make the case that the changes that this Government is making are having an impact on productivity. Well that's not the case at all; the statistics tell us the truth. Our productivity has kept up with other OECD countries but our labour productivity has been lower than the average of high OECD countries for some time. In fact the report itself says that New Zealand has had—quote— 'a bit of a conundrum around productivity' for the last 10 to 20 years." That conundrum is that we've followed neo-liberal theory for 30 years and we haven't had the productivity gains that we were promised. So it is actually time for a new approach. It is actually time to deal with some of these long-term issues which have grown over decades and that's what this Government is doing because we do have a productivity challenge in New Zealand. It's been around for a long time. The last Government—the National Government—was not able to deal with it because they didn't make it a priority. This Government is making it a priority.But the thing that really concerns me is that whatever productivity growth we have had wages have not kept up with it. So as our economy has grown the benefits of that economic growth have gone to a very few at the top whilst most middle and lower income earners have not been able to enjoy the fruits of that economic growth. That's why this Government is pursuing changes to our industrial relations framework—not just the changes that we introduced through the amendments to the Employment Relations Act but our work on fair pay agreements which is a significant piece of work again to deal with those large problems that the National Party simply were not prepared to deal with.I understand that Simon Bridges believes that if it's hard you shouldn't do it. That's what he said about fuel prices. There were no easy answers so the National Party in Government didn't deal with it. Well it's certainly the case that when it comes to labour productivity—improving productivity and improving wages and growing the number of jobs—there are no easy answers and that's why this Government is embarking on a significant reform of our industrial relations framework through fair pay agreements because it's hard but it's necessary and it's work that needs to be done. We won't shy away from it just because it isn't easy and I say to people who are looking forward tonight to that work coming to fruition: these problems have taken a long time to grow and they will take a long time to solve but this Government is committed to doing it.So I'm going to say that I welcome this report. I think it's an excellent report that demonstrates what this Government is doing to grow wages and to improve jobs in New Zealand.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): I call—Jo Luxton. My apologies."