Belich CamillaCRIMES (THEFT BY EMPLOYER) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 2 August.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Poto Williams): Members when the Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill was last read we were up to call No. 5.CAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's an absolute pleasure to take a call on this excellent piece of legislation the Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill and quite fitting I dare say: from one bill by the current member for Wellington Central to another bill by the future member for Wellington Central.Now this bill is not only brought by an excellent MP but contains changes that will make a real difference for workers in New Zealand and can I just say I am so proud of Ibrahim Omer. I cannot imagine the extreme bravery and tenacity and intelligence and strength of personality that it would take to be a refugee from a different country to come to New Zealand; to suffer the injustice of wage theft in your work; to then become active in your community organising other workers; to be elected to Parliament; and then to successfully bring a piece of law in order to remedy the injustice that you yourself suffered. What an incredible achievement my friend.Quite aside from that achievement this bill is extremely necessary to right a wrong really within our system. At the moment if you are employed by someone and that employer doesn't pay you money intentionally—what would commonly be understood as theft—then there are no repercussions for that employer apart from civil remedies. That is not acceptable. If employees steal from their employer—and that's what we're talking about—the first thing that employers do is go to the police and that employee suffers the full force of the law if they are found guilty for that offence. There is no justification for having a different rule apply to employers than it does to employees. It's not right and this bill will make it right.It's not also a bill which is without precedent. We've got cases of other countries adopting wage theft bills to indicate fairness between employers and employees. We've had similar legislation introduced in Norway and also much closer to us in Victoria. So I was shocked and surprised when reading the earlier speeches in the first reading debate that this bill is not being supported by National and ACT members parties that purport to be tough on crime. As the member bringing this bill said in first reading this bill is a bill which is tough on crime. When you steal you should suffer the consequences of those actions if you're found guilty and this bill does just that.Now some members opposite have said in previous readings that there are already mechanisms to allow those employers who don't pay their employees to be held to account. I do not agree. The way that employees would have to do this is through civil claims through taking claims for unlawful deductions of wages having enforcement through the civil court. This is a difficult process has to be self-initiated and is often outside the reach of many of the workers that suffer wage theft.This should be bread and butter work for the New Zealand Police. When you steal from someone who works for you you should be held to account by the New Zealand Police and this is what this bill would do. It's extremely important that we seek to remedy injustices when we see them in our society and the different treatment of employers and employees in relation to payment is one of those areas which we must address. This is so we have equitable consequences within employment and seek to remedy what has been established over a very long period of time as the power difference between employees and employers. People must be able to work and be paid what they are owed and this very good bill seeks to achieve that.So I once again want to commend my colleague and my friend Ibrahim Omer for bringing this excellent bill to the House. This bill will make our laws better it will make them fairer and it will make them more equitable for New Zealand workers. I commend it to the House.