Fox Marama: Health and Safety Reform Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Health and Safety Reform Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 20 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:6053. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tuatahi kei te hiahia au ki te kōrero i roto i Te Reo Māori ā tēnā koe. E tika tēnei te wā tuatahi e tū ake au ki te mihi ki tēnei o ngā kaupapa i runga i te taumahatanga o ngā mate kua haere nā reira ki a au nei i roto i tēnei Whāre e tika me mihi atu ki a rātau i runga i te mea kai konei te whānau kai konei te whānau ki te whakarongo ki ngā taupatupatu ngā tautohetohe i roto i Te Whare. Koirā te take e taumaha ki a au te tiro atu ki te pouaka te taonga me kī nei. Ēhara i te mea he kino te taonga ēngari i runga i te mate he taumaha ki a au te taupatupatu ki runga i tētahi tohu mate. Nā reira he pai ki a au he pai ake i nāianei te karawhiu i ngā kōrero nā reira ki a koutou te whānau e noho nei nei te mihi atu ki a koutou i runga i ngā taumahatanga. Kua tau te wairua mō tēnei mate ki runga i a koutou. Kia ora mai tātau.[Firstly I want to speak in the Māori language; thank you. To be proper this is the first time I have stood to acknowledge this one of the matters in regard to the seriousness of the deaths that have occurred and so to me in this House it is apt that I pay a tribute to them because the family is here. They are here in the House to listen to the debates and arguments. And that is why it is difficult for me to look at the container—the treasured container shall we say. It is not as though the treasured item is bad but if the reason is based on death it is difficult for me to argue on a symbolism of death. However I am at ease and fine now to express sentiments and so to you the family seated there I acknowledge you in regard to the difficulties; spiritually I am at ease with this death upon you; my appreciation to us all.]Thank you for the opportunity to take my first call. The reason I wanted to take a call on Part 3 is that I want to assure New Zealanders and those who are watching and our families that we care. Because we support the changes in the Health and Safety Reform Bill does not mean we do not care about workers. People have presumed that if we are supporting this piece of legislation then we are disrespecting those who have passed that we are disrespecting those who work hard and that is not the case. It is not the case because I firmly believe that despite the fact that we do have issues with parts of this part specifically and the next part as well we are struggling with trying to challenge and working with the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety to try to make some changes to strengthen it as much as we are able. We know that without our vote the bill will still go through but we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the issues of concern and to work with the Minister. We are grateful for the opportunity to do that.The concern we have is about workers workers’ rights and workers’ safety—the things that are talked about here—hence the reason we have put Supplementary Order Paper 107 forward. When we spoke with the Minister about that it was about “How do you know what you do not know? If you are a worker from another country working here in New Zealand or even if you are just a worker who is young and coming into the workforce very new how do you know what you do not know about safety regulations? If nobody has told you how do you know that you can challenge? How do you know that you can ask to have a safety officer? How do you know those things?” One of our concerns which is not even in this bill is about ensuring that there is multi-language advertising and that multi-language workers’ facilitators can go out and speak with people. If there was a health and safety officer in a workplace they would have the ability to do that. So part of our conversation was to ensure that despite what is said in the bill workers’ rights are articulated and that people know they can ask. That is one of the things we were concerned about.The other was the ability for a worker to engage in the process of forming a work group. We have put a Supplementary Order Paper forward to try to strengthen that so that workers’ issues can be discussed. If an employer goes against that then what are they thinking? We have heard all the cases of where that happens and unfortunately as Catherine Delahunty has pointed out the worst-case scenario is always the case that comes up. In my heart I believe in people. I believe that their intent is to do good by other people but systems need to be put in place that support people when others do not know what is going on when they are not sure about their safety when they do not know who it is they are supposed to go to. So the system is what we are putting in place. We are trying to put in place a system that will protect their rights. We are trying to ensure that through this legislation they will be safe and we will not have family members never coming home at the end of the day.In my own family my extended family we have suffered the deaths of family members who have not come home at the end of the working day. We know death far too much. We are too familiar with the tangi and that is why in debating this bill it feels like a tangi. I find that difficult to work with. But we want to assure whānau that our position is a unique position. We do have this independent voice and we have challenged the Minister. To his credit he has released a list of high-risk industries. It does not go far enough but it is still up for consultation. We would like to see those areas of agriculture put in there. I accept that yes we are going to have a look at the quad bike farming accidents. But most of my family members work in labouring industries on farms and in agriculture. I am concerned for them just like everybody else is concerned for their family members. Sometimes it is not even the fact of accidents while they are at work. What about when they are getting to work? They are picking up the gang at 4.30 in the morning and driving for 2 hours before they even start work. They shear 400 sheep in a day and then drive for 2 hours home again. They then spend 2 hours cleaning their gear. That happens day in day in and day in. What about when they are driving? Who is looking after their health and safety? Are they at work while they are driving and dropping people off?People in this country are burdening themselves with long hours at work to try to make a dollar to try to earn enough coin to put bread on the table. That is why things happen and slip-ups happen. The Supplementary Order Paper that we have put forward gives the ability to try to strengthen that area so that workers can have more say and the employer must take note of that. It may not go far enough but it is a concession and we are grateful for that concession. We think there should be more. We anticipate the ability to have a greater conversation around those high-risk industries. This is not the end of the process but the beginning of it and we have been given an assurance by the Minister that that will happen. Yes we will be supporting these things through because we have had the opportunity and because I actually fundamentally believe that to not support this piece of legislation will mean we go back to the old one and that did nothing to save our family members. That old piece of legislation did not save people from dying. That old piece of legislation did not save people from those harmful accidents. We can do more we should do more but I am going to be supporting this bill through today. Hopefully these amendments some more of the amendments that we will talk about and some more pressure going forward from this point will strengthen the bill even further in the coming times. Thank you.