Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): It is a great opportunity for me to stand in support of this bill and I would like to just say congratulations. I acknowledge Kristine Bartlett and everyone who has actually been involved in this process. What a day to actually rise to speak. The first Budget of the Hon Steven Joyce was delivered and it is going to be delivering for New Zealand families delivering for New Zealand businesses and most importantly supporting New Zealand's aspirations.The care and support worker bill will be a historic $2 billion settlement for healthcare workers of New Zealand and will ensure thousands of hard-working people will be recognised for the work that they do in our care facilities and disabled and special needs communities. They will be paid fairly as other members have actually said—and deservedly so—for the amazing job that they do. Pay rates will rise for full-time workers and will reach up to around $100 extra per week. That is more than $5000 a year making a tangible difference to those workers' lives and their families' lives.This settlement reached by the funders of care and support such as the Crown ACC and local district health boards as well as by unions representing care and support workers and health and care workers is an important acknowledgment of the role those workers play and will no doubt reduce the high turnover that comes with our care and support workers job sector. I also want to acknowledge the work of the New Zealand Aged Care Association the Home and Community Health Association and the New Zealand Disability Support Network which all played a vital role in reaching this agreement over the past 20 months—apart from those that were already actually mentioned by other members. The work involves long hours and hard effort and I am pleased that we as a National-led Government were able to provide this excellent outcome for the industry.The settlement of course is also an important milestone for pay equity as the workforce in this sector is made up of mostly female employees and as other members have actually said we celebrate the pay equity that is finally reached for those women workers who are in this sector. More than half of them have been working part time at an average wage of $16 to $18 per hour. Providing a real practical way of recognising their service and supporting their aspirations is important to me and ensuring that we acknowledge that work that involves similar skills responsibility conditions and degrees of effort is able to be paid in kind to similar work performed by the opposite gender. So maybe one day we will actually get to an era when women's work is recognised and we will all be celebrating that I am sure.This bill will also allow for the Government to help providers invest in training their staff providing incentives of real qualifications to expand their industry knowledge and formal skill sets. This will include access to relevant New Zealand Qualifications Authority health and well-being certificate study or its equivalent for employees working long term in the field and will make a difference to their ability to do the job professionally.National and this Government are working for aspirational New Zealanders. We are there for the lowest-paid workers and you can actually tell that by looking at the Budget that has been delivered today. There have been tax change announcements putting more money in the pockets of New Zealand households and providing more support for growing families.I would like to commend the Care and Support Worker (Pay Equity) Settlement Bill to the House and like the $3.9 billion spending and the increase to Vote Health and ACC and to New Zealand's health sector announced today it will be delivering to New Zealand. I commend the bill to the House.