Lee DeniseDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Thank you so much Madam Assistant Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this particular bill in its first reading. Talofa lava—it is Samoan Language Week—but I'd also like to say magandang gabi to all those who are gathering up in the gallery here as we debate this particular bill. They're not here to listen to this bill particularly I would say but they certainly are here to listen to Paulo Garcia. I don't get to speak—he's the one who will get to speak very soon and we are very much looking forward to New Zealand Parliament's first Filipino representative. We are very proud of him. I will be speaking to the bill any moment now.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Thank you. I would appreciate that.DENISE LEE: So you can see what we're about to have at 5.45. Magandang gabi.This bill rounds out and gives effect to the historic agreements that were signed in regards to vocational and disability support workers back on 17 July 2017 and also mental health and addiction support workers in 2018. Those both were very historic and we've had some very eloquent speakers prior to myself talking about the nature and the size of those agreements and again how historic they were. We are looking at this topic tonight of course because we have had historically an issue in New Zealand with systemically underpaying some work that is predominantly performed by women in this country.If you look at the general policy statement (GPS) in regards to this bill we can see that it was agreed by parties in settlement agreements that mental health and addiction support workers and vocational and disability support workers should form workforces that are analogous—that are similar to each other; and it's off the back of of course the Terranova settlement—and that they should be joining up and that the principal Act should apply. So these workers—and this is what the bill is trying to do—are to be treated in a manner consistent with that Terranova settlement and also the principal Act.So I'd just like to highlight a few items that the bill provides for. First is pay and training—can't get anything too more fundamental than that in an industry right? So mental health and addiction support workers and vocational and disability support workers will receive the agreed pay rates as a result of what happened and training that will be facilitated in a very similar manner between the two. That's fantastic.The bill also provides for enforcement and that means that enforcement provisions in the case of a dispute or an employer's failure to comply with the requirements of the principal Act will of course be able to be enforced amongst the two groups—another important and really helpful point for this particular piece of legislation.There's also of course extra funding. You can't do this—you can't pass this into legislation—without providing for the extra funding and support resources that are required. So the bill then goes on to ensure that Department of Corrections Ministry of Social Development and Oranga Tamariki are prepared to or have the resources to offset the additional costs imposed by the bill in regard to the workers. Then another point is that everyone receives these benefits—not just those who are unionised. It's in regards to all workers. The support goes to everyone. One other section in the bill is in regard to different definitions. Now I expect that this will pass because we're supporting it. The House seems to be unanimous so far in this debate that there will be some discussions around this in select committee. There have of course been outlined in the bill different definitions—those for care and support services" in clause 7. For instance it specifies the funders for care and support workers as being Ministry of Health a district health board or ACC. There's also a change to paragraph (b) of the definition which replaces "mental health services" with "mental health and addiction support services vocational and disability support services or services provided by a health practitioner". So that's again widening making sure that these two groups are similar in the way that they're being treated and it's adding clarity. That particular clause is adding clarity to what is not covered by the definition of care and support services.My final point that I'd like to raise in terms of some of the elements that the bill is providing for is that there are straight-out new definitions for mental health and addiction support services mental health and addiction support workers support services support workers vocational and disability support services and vocational and disability support workers. Now that sounds like a whole lot of words and it sounds almost repetitive but you can imagine that in a select committee process this will be a topic for discussion and something that either submitters can agree with tweak or have their opinion on. That's the democratic process that we have here in New Zealand which we appreciate care about and enjoy.When you come to what was the beginning—the GPS—for the bill it does outline significant legislative features and there's one there that is in regard to—I guess you could just call it—the topic of back-pay. I found that quite interesting because we have another strand that we've been working on and we will debate possibly in the next few weeks and that is the Equal Pay Amendment Bill that we've been dealing with in the select committee that I'm housed in which is the Education and Workforce Committee. So back-pay and transitional provisions are a key topic here in this bill but also of course a key topic in that bill.In that particular bill that I refer to the Equal Pay Amendment Bill I think that it's worth—especially since the Hon Michael Woodhouse referred to how some on the other side of the House have adopted a rather revisionist approach—talking about how we have come to this place to even be talking about pay equity and major settlements in New Zealand's history.We passed legislation—signed legislation—for the Terranova case back in 2017. We then went on in November to ask for a bill to be reintroduced in this new term of Government. It was not. It did not get transferred from our Government to this Government here. I had a member's bill on pay equity that was drawn and then voted down for which the Government could have supported in a select committee process and amended. And then much to our surprise six months later the Government reintroduced something to the House which was 99 percent of the same thing that they'd voted down earlier.I know that that's not this bill; it was that bill. But they are a concurrent process. We're supporting both of them because it's high time that we get to this point. It's high time that there is a bargaining process that women in this country can utilise that allows them to stay away from a lengthy protracted drawn-out and expensive court process when it comes to the all-important topic of receiving equal pay for the work that they are doing.We support this particular bill and we would like to thank the tireless service of women who are forerunners for this particular legislation which recognises their true worth for the work that they are doing on behalf of New Zealand. Thank you."