Sepuloni Carmel: Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSepuloni Carmel: Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 11 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8958. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): I have not had the privilege of being on the Health Committee and actually deliberating on this bill but I am really happy to have the opportunity to speak to the Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill. Firstly I just want to say that Labour is pleased to see the settlement of this case finally brought before the House after the Human Rights Commission ruling that travel times should be remunerated several years ago. I just want to reiterate what Kevin Hague has said in terms of the acknowledgment for Winnie Laban and I think Catherine Delahunty who actually hosted a meeting maybe 6 years ago when these issues were discussed.I think it is good that we have an understanding—a shared understanding and support—for this bill in the House but I do need to highlight that National has reluctantly bowed to pressure from unions and has adopted Labour’s fair and sensible policy to pay home support workers for the time they spend travelling between clients. That is a fact. Unfortunately it did take some convincing. We are glad that National has finally got there but it is unfortunate that it could not see sense in respect of this issue right from the start [Interruption]—Jonathan Naylor. That is indeed what happened.We do give credit to Jenny Goodman and the Public Service Association who bravely took a test case claim on behalf of hundreds of fellow home-care workers. Even with this progress this settlement is still a long way from dealing with the historical underpayment of home and community support workers. Many of these people are on wages close to the minimum wage and given the work they do they deserve to be on a pay grade similar to nurses. I think we need to acknowledge that this is a growing workforce. We have an ageing population in this country so the demand for carers and home support is only going to increase. So we cannot continue to ignore the fact that we have a workforce here that is underpaid and that needs to have further investment. I am sure all of us as we get to the point when we require this type of care want to know that we are getting the best care possible and we want to know that when we are getting the best care possible the people taking the time to look after us are in fact being looked after.That workforce that we are talking about I think we need to acknowledge is a highly feminised workforce. Before I came into Parliament I had the opportunity to manage a research project that was about the non-regulated Pacific health workforce. Many of those whom we were doing the research on actually fell into this category of home and community support workers. Again just to reiterate many of them were women. One of the biggest issues that we had was that it was an underpaid workforce. But one of the things that stood out was that when surveyed the workers in that workforce highlighted the fact that they were in it not just for the fact that it was a job but because they actually cared. They enjoyed their work and it was the work that they had chosen to undertake. So I think we need to acknowledge that and really look at ways in which we can increase the remuneration for that workforce moving forward.The wider funding of the home support services also needs to be addressed as home support remains the only service not planned and funded on a national basis. The lack of funding pushes down wages in the sector. The lack of funding also means as the Home and Community Health Association has stated that home and community support will increasingly become an option only for those who can afford it. Many people in the last year have found their home support levies cut. This is dangerous and I think we need to acknowledge it. If people require support but do not have the funding to pay for it and then they are left in their homes to try to battle their way through everyday tasks then actually we are putting them at risk. The cost down the track in terms of the health care that will be required if they have accidents because of the fact that they were not in a position to be able to undertake all the tasks that they were doing is actually going to be far more than it would have cost to provide the few hours of care that they may have needed.This Government has cut $1.6 billion out of the health system over 6 years and the workforce is bearing the brunt of this gross underfunding—and is stretched to capacity. There are still issues with this new settlement. New organisations that join up will not be covered by this deal. There are things that need to be ironed out but as I said before I express Labour’s support for this bill. It is just an area that we need to continue to work on together in this House to ensure that—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member’s time has expired.