Williams PotoPOTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): I am really disappointed by the calls that I have heard from the Government benches tonight. This bill at the very essence is about the status of women in this country. That is what it is at the very essence—how we regard our wahine. We have been fighting this battle in this country for a long long time. This bill is not about female-dominated industries; it is about industries where there is a lack of men. If those industries had men in them they would be paid a lot better than they are currently.Tonight I heard my friend Sue Moroney deliver her valedictory speech. Sue Moroney is an MP and a woman whom everyone would describe—and she was described tonight—as staunch. About the issue of pay equity she is indeed staunch. She cannot be with us this evening to participate in this particular debate—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! You cannot refer to the absence of a member.POTO WILLIAMS: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. But Sue I want to say to you: I have got your back because that is what women do. We support each other when the issues are big and when they concern us. So Sue Maroney I have got your back. Women stick together. We fight together. We do this together. However of the National Government I have to say that I think that the women who have spoken on this bill on behalf of the National Government have had to swallow some dead rats. I think at the core of it particularly the last two women speakers for the National Government—women who are involved in cross-party women's organisations and who look to increase the representation and status of women—have had to swallow dead rats on behalf of the National Government tonight because they in discussions with Labour Green and New Zealand First members would be talking about wanting to ensure that legislation raised issues of inequality and addressed them fairly.What does this piece of legislation do? Well there are four nasty provisions in this. The first one I want to deal with is the transitional provisions: the fact that claims that are currently in process are not going to be processed under the current legislation but are going to be processed under the new legislation and the fact that the possibility of back-pay has been extinguished—the right to ask for back-pay has been extinguished.The fact that we have to look at comparatives within an industry: the whole notion of comparatives is to say that we value the work equally where there are skills where there is education where there is risk where there are the types of competencies that are similar to the types of competencies required for the work that women-dominated work does—that that is the comparator—whereas in this piece of legislation there are four ever-decreasing circles that you need to negotiate to actually come to a comparator.Then the last issue the key point—and the most difficult one for me—is the one of establishing merit. Women have been arguing the case of establishing merit since the time the world began and we are in a situation yet again where we have to defend our ability to do a job. If it is not women who are defending the whole notion of merit it is Māori or other ethnicities or other marginalised groups that have to fight every single day to say: Yes we are as good—probably better—than you. But we have to go through these hoops which you put in place for us to prove it." We have to allow the employer to tell us whether a case that we bring has merit!As a member of Parliament who supports the joyous notion that we could be seen as equal to any man in this Parliament or any man in any Parliament or any man anywhere I find the notion that I give my power to decide my merit to someone else as complete hypocrisy. In a few weeks' time this country will have a choice. Today they might be headline news—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. The time has come for me to leave the Chair. Members this debate is interrupted and is set down for resumption on the next sitting day. Members the House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. tomorrow. Good evening.Debate interrupted.The House adjourned at 10 p.m."