Turei Metiria: Remuneration Authority (Members of Parliament Remuneration) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Remuneration Authority (Members of Parliament Remuneration) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2335. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): The Green Party will continue to oppose this legislation. I want to thank Labour and New Zealand First for supporting Supplementary Order Paper 58—the one to restrict MPs’ pay rises so that it would have given us a chance to deal with the substantive legislation in a more timely and democratic manner. I really do appreciate that support. I also understand how difficult it is to have to deal with Supplementary Order Papers at such short notice for parties so thank you for your consideration.We are opposing this legislation because it does not do what the Government says it wants it to do. It is actually designed for an entirely different purpose. The purpose of the legislation as we have seen described by the Minister in his contributions during the Committee stage is to constrain public sector pay. That became very very obvious from the Minister’s statements. He talked about “profligate public spending”—is that right? There were comments from the National Party about “union thugs”. I think both of those comments just in such a short debate on what should otherwise have been quite a tight conversation about MPs’ pay increases just go to show that there is no intention by National to constrain MPs’ pay. It is simply using the political opportunity of this supposedly huge public outrage to attack ordinary workers—people like teachers and nurses people who are involved in the Public Service people who dedicate their lives to helping New Zealanders get through the various circumstances that they have to get through. National is clearly intent on attacking them. It follows on from other legislation that National has put forward that has taken out the tea breaks for example for New Zealand workers and that has continued the plan of National since it took Government to erode the conditions of workers in the private sector and increasingly in the public sector. This legislation has been used to do exactly that.New Zealanders should rightly feel that they have been manipulated by National through the use of this bill and that their concerns about MPs’ pay rises have been trodden on by National with this bill because this bill does not constrain MPs’ pay but is being used to attack their own people. When we are talking about New Zealanders in a context like this we are talking about people who are in the Public Service or have dedicated their lives in some form to the public sector. We are talking about family members of people who work in the Public Service. We are not that far removed from each other in this country. We are a little tiny country and we are very connected to each other. There is no real “us” and “them” and so when Government uses legislation and manipulates legitimate public concern for nefarious political purpose—that is keeping pay low for workers—every MP in this House should be seriously concerned and prepared to tell the New Zealand public what is being done to them by this Government.Our initial assessment of this legislation was that it failed to do the job that it was supposed to do. Our committed opposition to this bill continues and is strengthened because it is so clear that this was a manipulative exercise by the Prime Minister the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and the National Government and we will have no part of it. The Green Party is opposed to this bill. Thank you.