Grigg Nicola; Dean JacquiNICOLA GRIGG (National—Selwyn): Thank you Madam Speaker. I will say with some conviction that it is a pleasure to take a call on the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlements Amendment Bill but isn't it a shame we've found ourselves here?I would just like to correct for the record this evening that there's been a number of assertions from the Government benches that this was a dreadful bill from the outset designed by the former National Government. Actually our piece of legislation was a significant correction to decades of underpayment of a female dominated workforce. But then you have to ask yourself the question: why have these women had to come to the table again? Where was the Government? It has had five long years to get this sorted and at the eleventh hour they finally come to the table have a pseudo discussion from what I understand with the unions and couldn't reach an agreement so they slam it through the House this evening under urgency.When a cost of living crisis is biting as hard as it is at the moment I would contend that the 2017 settlement that meant about $100 extra a week for so many and about $5000 a year made a real difference. Fast forward five years at a time when we've got inflation running at 6.9 percent petrol $3 a litre rents up 150 bucks a week—back then that settlement actually meant a lot. It was significant. But here we are eight days out from the original piece of legislation expiring and we are coming to the realisation that the appropriation set aside for this 4.6 percent might not quite cover that. I think it was about seven times the Minister was questioned this evening as to what that fiscal envelope actually looked like and we eventually after seven questions got a roundabout figure of about $358 million. But the very clever colleagues of mine—you know those who have been chief executive officers of major institutions and those who have been chief financial officers of major institutions and the Hon Michael Woodhouse who was a part of the negotiation team of the original settlement—came to the conclusion that it ain't going to be enough. It ain't going to cut the mustard which once again raises the question: instead of keeping its eye on the ball instead of staying abreast of the legislative agenda ensuring everything was functioning as it should be the Government contents itself with making hollow empty promises about how much they care and how much we should all be kind when actually when it comes to the tangible work when it comes to the effort of creating an amendment bill that will make a meaningful difference it has fallen short.As a number of people have mentioned this evening while it is the care workers themselves who are deeply gravely impacted by this and it is them and their needs and their welfare that we must hold to the fore as the most important issues that we must deal with they in turn also impact the public those who need to be cared for. Everybody's got a personal story. Myself I have a 91-year-old grandmother who just recently suffered one too many falls. She can no longer live independently. So whilst the family waits to get her into a cared-living arrangement she's sitting in the Hastings hospital. She's been there for three weeks. She's taking up a bed that someone from the public who's really sick could use all because the aged residential care cannot provide the staffing to care for her. That is just one example. I'm just one person of the 5 million in this country who can relate a story like that. In my own patch in Selwyn there are two aged-care facilities who have been shut since the Omicron outbreak. In Leeston the Ellesmere Hospital had 12 beds for aged care. The Darfield Hospital had 10 for aged care. They have been shut because the Canterbury District Health Board cannot staff them.Now we've seen Andrew Little roaring across the Chamber this evening claiming that Labour is the party of the worker and Labour is passing laws to look after the worker but actually it was National's law in 2017 that set this motion in train. Anything that that Minister has said to degrade and diminish the National Party's legislation is just a diversionary tactic. The Labour Government has dragged the chain on this. They've had five years to negotiate whatever agreement they wanted. It has taken until today eight days out to drag it through the House under urgency to come up with a substandard deal.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): I call Glen Bennett—five minutes.