Coffey TāmatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. Can I encourage that previous member to actually dip into his pocket and pull out money for an actual chocolate fish for the ACT member of Parliament Nicole McKee. Virtual chocolate fishes—people that give those are called cheapskates where we come from. However this is about the bill and I'm very excited to be speaking about this bill tonight. Let's get the name of it right because my colleague over here to my left was a little bit [Hums] about it but it is the Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill and it is going to the Justice Committee. I wish them all the best as they traverse through this one.We've heard debate after debate people talk about the checks and the balances the belts and the braces the trust and the confidence that we need to uphold at every level in this Parliament to ensure that the public of New Zealand have complete faith and confidence in what's going on here. It's pretty technical though and for those people that are sitting at home all they really need to know and understand is that what we're putting in here is an ability to create some independence from the way that remuneration is currently set. So that is an important measure.Currently the Cabinet Fees Framework sets a lot of that. A lot of that is going to be transferred over as you've heard in previous speeches to the Remuneration Authority. Namely I just wanted to talk out just this little bit in the detail of this bill here which talks about the different Acts that are going to be affected as that responsibility is transferred from the Cabinet Fees Framework to the authority. So we're talking about the chairperson and the deputy chairperson of the Human Rights Review Tribunal. You're talking about the community magistrates of the District Courts. We're talking about environment commissioners and deputy environment commissioners of the Environment Court—also members and deputy chairs of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal referees of the disputes tribunal and tenancy adjudicators of the Tenancy Tribunal.Again the bureaucracy here is what you'd expect from a bill that sets pay rates for some of our senior officials and those members that have statutory and judicial obligations to our country. The people at home should know that this is a good piece of legislation. It's getting support from around the House. It is one way that we can ensure that we have trust and faith belts and braces checks and balances—however you want to put it—that arm's length of responsibility from the work that Government does as the executive the work that they do compared to outside of that. Creating that independence is incredibly important for ensuring that we have independence in our system.So for that reason this is a good piece of legislation. It is going to make sure that we've got trust and confidence in our system. It is one of the core pillars of any democracy that whole idea of the independent judiciary protecting citizens from the arbitrary use of unbridled power that the executive have—Hon Member: Tell us more!TĀMATI COFFEY: I will—I will! I'll give you about a minute 37 more. We've got to make sure that that is protected so making sure that we've got security of remuneration as one of the measures that enable officers to be able to discharge their duties without fear or favour or even undue influence as well.This is a very good piece of legislation. It is going to no doubt get submissions from people that are heavily involved in this which I'd guess aren't the majority of New Zealanders out there. But there will be people that do have a point of view on this and I think that they should feel free to make sure that their submission is heard which will be open very shortly. They can be heard on any part of the bill that they like. They can go to the Parliament website. They can download it. They can have a look at the different pieces of submissions and advice that have come in around this. But this is a good piece of legislation.I want to tell you a story actually. This is a story that has everything to do with remuneration—my first job actually. I was packing bags at The Warehouse. My first job was actually around making sure that there were people at the checkouts packing stuff into bags at The Warehouse in Lower Hutt at the grand age of 15. I got paid $5.25 for the pleasure of packing other people's bags. But actually it just goes to show that remuneration is incredibly important and for that reason I commend this to the House.