Lees-Galloway IainIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): Well today really really is the day to celebrate. We have talked a lot about celebrating throughout the progress of this bill through the House but today is truly the day to celebrate the end—well it is one end. It is probably not the end but it is one end of an astonishingly long process that has been undertaken by care and support workers over a very very long period of time.I have done it before but I am going to do it again: I want to get on the record one more time just what an effort it has taken from both the unionised workforce in the care and support sector and their unions to actually get to this point. Going back a long way there was a thing called the A Fair Share for Aged Care campaign. There were things that happened before then as well but that is as far back as I think we have got time to go today. Going all the way back to the A Fair Share for Aged Care Campaign—it was a campaign to raise awareness amongst politicians to raise awareness amongst the public and to encourage employers to do the right thing and it was an attempt to try to bring everybody together to deal with the chronic low wages in the care and support sector. As part of that a petition was gathered with well in excess of 40000 signatures. I cannot remember exactly how many signatures it had but there were well in excess of 40000 signatures. That petition was brought to Parliament. There were presentations to a select committee here at Parliament.There were various attempts by the unionised carers and nurses to establish multi-employer collective agreements. One of the developments over that time was that more and more of the sector fell under the auspices of larger chain employers so we saw a reduction in the number of small stand-alone what people call mum and dad outfits I suppose and more of the large chains taking over—often chains owned by private equity. That actually created an opportunity if not for multi-employer collective agreements for collective agreements that affected a much larger group of workers.All of these were developments along the way but it never really sort of cracked the nut. It never really dealt with the very very low wages in the sector. Then the unions came up with a master stroke and that was to go to court and demonstrate that the care and support workforce being largely female was being discriminated against and that that was the breach of the Equal Pay Act. Kristine Bartlett—the wonderful Kristine Bartlett—stepped up and was the face of that court battle. Peter Cranney stepped up as well and was the lawyer—a wonderful union lawyer who has taken a number of cases on behalf of working people in New Zealand.Grant Robertson: A number.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: A number—a very large number; I cannot count that high.Through the efforts of those court battles—funded by unions funded by the membership fees of unionised workers across New Zealand—the unions and Kristine demonstrated that there was discrimination under the Equal Pay Act. Despite appeals despite efforts to have that decision quashed we eventually got to the point where the courts said: There's going to have to be a significant change to the pay rates." That was the point at which the Government said: "Let's get around the table. Let's get around the table and negotiate this." What happened then was something that I think we need to see a lot more of and that was employers from across the sectors unions representing workers from across the sectors and the Government sitting down and negotiating a deal.As members have often acknowledged through this debate that deal involved give and take on both sides. The unions representing the workers were actually prepared to give away a lot particularly in back-pay. But this is not a settlement that recognises all the disadvantage that has occurred over the years. Some members have compared it to Treaty settlements and I think that is right—that actually it is an agreement that looks towards the future even if it does not necessarily deal with all the damage that has been done in the past. I think we should be very appreciative of the care and support workforce in that it has been prepared to forgo quite a lot in order to get a settlement in order to draw a line under the past and in order to look forward and move forward.The unions the employers and the Government got around a table. A settlement was reached and now this House is enacting that settlement with legislation. That is a fantastic model. It is the model that has been used to solve this claim but it is absolutely a model that could be used to solve low pay across a number of sectors in the future. Workers should not have to go to court to get that. Actually it is something—Hon Michael Woodhouse: We agree with that. We agree.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: —that should be available to working people and the Minister agrees. I am very pleased to hear that—that the Minister agrees that this sort of industry-standard bargaining should happen and should be available to every worker in New Zealand. It is important to get that on the record. That is something that we look forward to in the future—that this type of industry-standard bargaining should be available to everybody.This is a fantastic outcome. It is going to make a very very real difference to the lives of tens of thousands of mostly women—but not just women; men and women—working in the care and support sector. It not only recognises their contribution; it also recognises that caring for our elderly is a skilled job is an important job and is a job that we should be attracting the most talented people to.For too long we have relied on people forgoing the better wages that they could be earning in other sectors because they love the work they do and they love the people whom they care for. We have taken advantage of that love. Today we recognise that that was wrong and it is not what is going to happen in the future. I want to say thank you for the work that our carers do. I want to say a particular thankyou to those who have held the line over the years—those who have stayed in the union who have paid their membership fee who have been part of the campaign who have strategised in the campaign and who have talked with their workmates and their family and the people in their communities about the importance of this campaign the importance of pay equity and the importance of paying care and support workers properly.It has been tough. There have been times when it looked like the campaign would not come to an end—that the solution would not be found. But people have held the line they have stuck to it and we have finally got here. Now that we have got here the rewards of that effort are being shared with carers whether they have been unionised or not. That is also something that should be acknowledged—that those people who have fought so hard are now sharing their victory with everybody else in their sector.This is a good day. This is a very good day. It is the result of a lot of hard work from a lot of different people. It is the result of Government and employers and workers coming together and finding a solution. I have acknowledged the workers I have acknowledged the unions I have acknowledged the legal battle; I also want to acknowledge the Government officials who have supported the bargaining and the officials who have supported the processing—the fine-tuning—of this legislation over a fairly shortened period. I want to acknowledge that we in this House have put all our effort into ensuring that this legislation passes so that that money can get into the pockets of those workers as soon as possible.This is good. Let us ensure that when we come to address issues of pay equity in the future we get it right—that we do not withhold this type of win from any other groups who seek a settlement under the Equal Pay Act. Let us also look at this model of industry-standard bargaining and use it to solve the chronic low pay that exists in New Zealand. I commend this bill to the House."