Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise to take a short call on behalf of the Green Party on Harete Hipango's member's bill for the Health and Safety at Work (Volunteer Associations) Amendment Bill and firstly to congratulate the member for her good luck in getting this drawn. It's not something that happens for everyone in this House and you've got to relish those moments. I understand that it will be going through to select committee so congratulations on that as well.Unfortunately with that said the Green Party will not be voting in support of this legislation. For people listening what this legislation is doing is it will make an amendment to the Health and Safety at Work Act that was just passed in 2015 so actually not that long ago. It was a very robust select committee process and debate to get to that conclusion. The Green Party—we weren't happy on where it landed finally. We thought too many of the vitally important protections for working people in New Zealand had been eroded at the end though it was a step forward. But it was a shame to see some of the really important things lost in the process. So it's not as if we haven't had the opportunity to do this or that the previous Government hadn't had the opportunity to consider whether this policy amendment would be beneficial. That opportunity has been there. It's happened and it did not get put into legislation.So what it's wanting to do is so that volunteer associations that employ a person or people for less than 100 hours a week are able to be exempt from the definition of a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU). The consequence of that—because not everyone's familiar with the health and safety language—is that it will mean employers won't have to cover the costs of protective equipment as an example because the health and safety legislation as it stands at the moment is if you are included in the definition of a PCBU then you cannot pass on the cost of protective equipment to employees or ask them to provide it themselves.So this will mean those agencies can do that and it will also mean that they don't have a duty to engage working people in the health and safety plans in their workplace and that they won't have the same duty to ensure as far as reasonably possible a safe work environment free of health and safety risks. So they won't have to go through those things. We've heard from previous speakers saying this is about administration and burden and getting rid of that from organisations but actually if you unpack those three examples it's not about administration; it's about ensuring and creating a good health and safety culture in all organisations in our country and including our volunteer associations in that.There was a hot debate on the legislation in 2015 about the erosion of the initial attempts to ensure the voice of working people in the health and safety plans because all of the best evidence around what makes a safe workplace is that the engagement of everyone and the knowledge that they have from the different places in the workplace is essential to getting rid of risks and ensuring everyone is safe. So we cannot support legislation that lessens or removes that requirement for any organisation in this country. If it's about cost pressures then I think the Government should look at their loss and lack of funding for our voluntary associations for the last nine years. I think you're seeking to solve a problem that was created by another policy of the previous Government.