Roche Denise: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 10 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9615. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): I rise to take the first call for the Greens on the final reading of the legislation arising from the Employment Standards Legislation Bill—it has now been split into five different separate pieces of legislation. Today is a very rare day in politics. For a lot of the time in this House we focus on worthwhile but actually quite mundane work. We make incremental changes. We change things bit by bit shift things and try to make things better. But today is the day where we actually stand united in the House to introduce real change that will make a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers across New Zealand. But make no mistake—this is only the start of a campaign for fair pay and decent conditions across New Zealand. Yes we have dragged National kicking and screaming into outlawing zero-hour contracts but there are more battles to fight.This victory to end zero-hour contracts was won by three main factors—the leadership shown by ordinary people through the union movement; the democratic dividend caused by MMP and through the select committee process; and last but not least the fundamental decency of New Zealand people and the fact that we all believe in a fair go. I salute the coalition of people who got us here—a coalition led by ordinary working people through the union movement that has led to this point where we are banning zero-hour contracts.I would like to acknowledge the Unite union for leading the campaign and making those massive changes through bargaining in the restaurant sector. I would like to acknowledge the other unions that participated as well—FIRST Union E tū the New Zealand Nurses Organisation the Public Service Association and of course the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions as well as countless other people who had the bravery to stand up tell their stories and lobby for change. The struggle is never easy but when we get a day like today it is definitely worth it.The story here is a story typical of New Zealand politics. It is the story of the community driving change. There has always been power in the union movement since the inception of the union movement with the Tolpuddle martyrs through to this campaign against zero-hour contracts. People have mobilised in this country to make change whether it was to introduce the 8-hour working day to abolish child labour or to make New Zealand nuclear-free. Ordinary men and women have made those changes and fought for a better place and we have been proud as Greens to stand alongside and support the union movement in the struggle for social justice. We have supported unions and our MPs have sponsored legislation like that abolishing youth rates under the last Labour Government and we will continue to support unions today in the fight for dignity at work and fair pay.Although unions are responsible for creating the public pressure in this victory it is MMP that saved us from the Government’s legislation which would have seen the sanctioning of zero-hour contracts. I have had my fair share of disagreements with Mr Dunne but I applaud him for digging in. I also praise the Māori Party for standing up for its principles and forcing National to accept many of the changes that we proposed along with Labour’s Iain Lees-Galloway and New Zealand First during the select committee process and outlined in the minority report. And although we celebrate the success we have all won today we still have a long way to go.We have outlawed zero-hour contracts but the reality is that there is still a lot that we have to do around insecure work. The 2013 New Zealand Council of Trade Unions report Under Pressure: A Detailed Report into Insecure Work in New Zealand outlined the sad reality that we have over 635000 people in insecure work 95000 workers with no usual work time 61000 with no written employment agreement 573000 workers earning less than the living wage and almost a quarter of a million Kiwi people saying that they have experienced discrimination harassment or bullying at work. That same report outlined five recommendations to fix it: stronger legal protections to prevent insecure work improved income support mechanisms for insecure workers support for the living wage Government procurement to promote decent work and union campaigns and bargaining to get secure work.We have made some progress on the first one but there are lots and lots that we have to do and in fact we have gone backwards in the last 7 years in some of the other areas. Yes we applaud National’s backdown on this legislation but let us not kid ourselves about the nature of this Government. Under the Key Government National has passed legislation that has made it harder for unions to organise. It has made it harder for working people. And let us not forget the Hobbit bill written for Hollywood executives to target unionising in the film industry; the Health and Safety Reform Bill which classified worm farms as higher risk than dairy farms; and of course the Employment Relations Amendment Bill which took away tea breaks and weakened—absolutely weakened—the ability for working people to organise and for their unions to bargain.This combined with the fact that the highest third of our population have seen their pay rates increase by eight times as much as the lowest third makes me cynical about where National’s heart truly lies when it comes to ordinary working people. But I am always willing to keep an open mind. I hope that the passage of these bills is the start of a genuine programme of engagement by National to actually serve the interests the best interests of New Zealanders—all New Zealanders not just their rich mates.I think I will start to close off now by again paying tribute to the courage and the conviction and the hard work of the hundreds and thousands of ordinary people who have made this success possible. I think we need to remember that whatever law we pass even this one is not a panacea. Exploitative bosses will continue to exploit. Yes in this legislation we have increased fines—in the Wages Protection Amendment Bill. However those fines depend on firstly investigation and secondly on court action and individual working people will find that very hard to pursue. Vulnerable working people on their own in their workplaces find it hard to access that.The only protection that working people can rely on consistently is their unions. If we want to build fairness in the workplace we need them. If we do believe in fairness we need them. I encourage every New Zealander to get behind the unions in their workplaces because it does and it will make a difference. We can celebrate today but we have got a lot more to do. But I commend this legislation to the House.