Lees-Galloway IainIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): Many members this evening and in the first reading debate have acknowledged the whakapapa—the history—of this settlement but I think it bears repeating as much as possible. I want to also acknowledge the thousands of unionised care and support workers who have fought for so many years for this settlement. I remember the days of the A Fair Share for Aged Care campaign. I remember attempts to form multi-employer collective agreements with different employers in the sector. I remember coming to this place with nurses and caregivers to appear before the Health Committee to discuss the issue. Then the unions—the unionised workers—decided to pursue legal action. That as we know resulted in a favourable decision for them and finally at that point the Government decided to come to the table. What happened was we got that classic tripartite arrangement of Government workers and employers sitting round the table together and thrashing out a settlement which today we are in another phase of legislating for and putting into place.I think that history all needs to be acknowledged. This has not happened by magic. It has not just appeared out of thin air. It has not happened over the last 20 months it has not happened over the last 5 years; it is the result of years and years and decades of struggle by some of the lowest-paid and most vulnerable people in the New Zealand workforce. That should be acknowledged and should be congratulated. It could not have been achieved without unions—let us just be honest about that. Those mostly women working in the care and support workforce would not have got to where they have if they had not unionised worked together and worked collectively to achieve this outcome.I also want to acknowledge everybody who has worked over the last couple of weeks in the select committee process. I am not normally a fan of truncated select committee processes. I have seen them go badly in this House. I have seen the results of them be less than ideal and I have seen this House have to come back and rectify the errors that have occurred during truncated select committee processes.But I have a great deal of confidence in this one for a number of reasons. One is that the legislation that the select committee was considering was the result of that negotiated settlement so an awful lot of hard work and consultation had gone into getting the legislation right before it was taken to the select committee. The other is the astonishingly hard work that members of the select committee and officials for the select committee and support staff of the select committee have put into the select committee process and also the quality of the submissions made by unions and made by employers to support the select committee in its work. So I want to thank them for that. I am not a member of the select committee but I want to thank those very hard-working members of Parliament and very hard-working officials and submitters who have played their part in making sure that this bill proceeds well.The point of the select committee process of course is to make sure that the bill is fit for purpose and that it achieves its policy intent and for submitters to raise any issues with it. I think we do need to acknowledge in this second reading the concerns that were raised by employers around the quantum of taxpayer money that is going towards this settlement because I think employers did feel a little bit hoodwinked in a way. They raised concerns about how they are going to pay for holiday pay. They raised concerns about how they are going to pay for backfilling training days when staff are away training and KiwiSaver and also concerns about issues around relativity—other staff members and other people working in this sector who are not covered by this agreement and the impact this agreement might have on their pay. Those are legitimate concerns that I have not heard one Government member address. The Minister of Health did not address them and not one of the National Government speakers in this debate this evening has addressed those entirely legitimate concerns from employers.We as legislators have the job of passing this legislation to bring this settlement into force. The Government has the job of appropriating sufficient funding to make sure that employers can pay these wages and address all the other costs that come with this settlement. That was something the Government guaranteed to the employers when they were bargaining in good faith to reach this settlement.I am saddened and I feel a little bit let down actually—not nearly as let down as the employers feel I am sure—by a Government that has celebrated this. It has been a good process. We all feel very very fond of this outcome. We feel very positive about this outcome. We all know it is the right thing to do and yet the Government has kind of let the side down by failing to adequately fund this settlement. And not one Government member has spoken to address that issue to allay the concerns or even to acknowledge the concerns. That is a failure on the part of the Government members and it kind of takes the shine off the settlement which is a bit sad but I hope that that is an issue that can be addressed either in the remaining stages of this bill or in future appropriations. Maybe after the election when we have got a different Government we can sort that one out.I just want to finish by acknowledging what other members have acknowledged: this is not the pay equity legislation. This is legislation to bring into force a negotiated settlement between unions that have the legitimate right to represent people working in the care and support sector—E tū the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and the Public Service Association—the peak bodies representing the employers in that sector and the Government. They were tripartite negotiations and look at what that has done. It has achieved a settlement that will significantly increase the pay for I think the most undervalued and the most seriously low-paid and vulnerable workforce in New Zealand. That is something to be celebrated but it is something that should not be cut off in its prime. This is an industry standard agreement backed by legislation and it is improving wages for vulnerable and low-paid workers. Let us celebrate that and let us talk about how we can extend the benefits of such an approach to wage and pay and conditions bargaining to a much wider sector of the New Zealand workforce.I am pleased that this National Government has seen fit to participate in this process. That bodes well for the future of New Zealand's employment relations landscape because for too long working people have not received the benefits of productivity improvements in New Zealand. I hear the argument being made—and I actually agree with the argument—that the way to improve wages is to improve productivity but we have to make sure that productivity benefits are properly shared. Without a robust industrial relations framework it simply does not happen and the evidence for that is the last 35 years of New Zealand industrial relations—the Employment Contracts Act and all the efforts that have been made by Governments of that party over there to weaken the bargaining position of working people—which has meant that the productivity gains that the New Zealand economy has enjoyed have not been shared with working people.Well tonight we celebrate a model of industrial relations that does share the benefits of a growing economy and a more productive economy with working people. Let us not stop here. Let us make sure that all working people get the rewards from that.Let us celebrate this. It has not been done perfectly by the Government but nothing ever will be by a National Government. But let us celebrate what progress has been made. Let us celebrate the incredible victory for unionised people in the care and support workforce and let us look forward to a future where more and more low-paid workers can enjoy the rewards of a growing economy through a strong industrial relations framework.Bill read a second time.