Simmonds PennyPENNY SIMMONDS (National—Invercargill): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well here we are again. It's a bit of a quick turnaround isn't it? I neglected to welcome Dr Anae Leavasa back from his paternity time and I hope he's had an enjoyable time with the new baby. The National Government back in 2017 took a very pragmatic response and we see the hand of the Rt Hon Bill English in this. He was a very pragmatic man a good friend of mine and he clearly knew that something had to be done and negotiations had to occur. So a very pragmatic approach was taken which ended up in $2 billion being spent on seeking and getting equity—pay equity—for these workers. Now I suspect his good wife a GP might well have been in his ear a bit over this helping with his pragmatism on it. But it was good to see that approach being taken and that was a huge amount of money that was put up for this pay equity legislation. But it was there for five years to give time for normalised bargaining to occur. And that is what is so astonishing that those five years have been when there has been a Labour Government. Now they could have blamed the first three years on a handbrake from New Zealand First but they have nothing to blame for the last few years when they are a Labour Government—so closely aligned to the unions—and here they did not normalise bargaining with these unions and these workers. Minister Little said that what they've done is given a 4.6 percent increase. Well what they've actually done is imposed not given. They've imposed a settlement—a 4.6 percent settlement. They might as well have given these women a wee pat on the head and said There you are dear; you be grateful for that". Nicola Grigg: How patronising.PENNY SIMMONDS: Terribly patronising and by golly the Minister might have done some desk thumping and some yelling and some righteous indignation in his speech before but I spent 23 years negotiating with the unions and I bet there's a back room where there's a bit of table thumping and voices being raised and a Minister having his pedigree read to him by these unions on what hasn't been done in the last five years. And those unions have got every right to be doing this—absolutely every right—because they are the unions that represent some of the lowest paid some of the most vulnerable workers looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our society. So I hope that that back room is getting a fair airing with the Minister if not now very shortly. So let's have a look at some examples of workplaces of these workers that are being given—being given. Isn't that good of them? "Being given". I'm reminded of one of the Government's spokespersons the other day who said "We're here for the little people". That's what she said. "We're here for the little people and we give settlements."—isn't that lovely?Hon Scott Simpson: Arrogant and condescending. PENNY SIMMONDS: Arrogant and condescending—exactly—my colleagues are saying. So an example of an employer: the Presbyterian Support down in Otago and Southland are an employer of a number of aged-care facilities and they provide a number of social services programmes. They are one of the aged-care facilities that has been to visit me on numerous occasions. They are absolutely screaming out for what's happening to their sector at the moment. So they've been given—I think it is—a 1.2 percent increase in their funding for this year. And they are supposed to somehow be recruiting and maintaining their registered nurses to allow them to continue. They are relying on these workers these care and support workers that are being treated so badly by this Labour Government. As my colleague the Hon Michael Woodhouse has said we're going to need to tease out how this 4.6 percent increase to these workers is going to be funded. Because my fear is that this Government's just saying "Oh well sort it out—you employers—even though we've only given you a 1.2 percent increase nowhere near the inflation rate the extra spending you're having to do on the power and food and everything else associated with running an aged-care facility. Now you'll look after this 4.6 percent increase with no additional funding." Well I can tell you that this extremely well-run Presbyterian Support that has been operating for over 100 years is going to run a million dollar deficit this year.Hon Michael Woodhouse: How much?PENNY SIMMONDS: A million dollar deficit this year. So when I asked them "Well what are you going to do? You can't do this for ever." they're going to do it for this year—to try and get the Government to see sense—because they have some reserves. But they can't do it for ever. So what they have said is they'll have to look at cuts to the areas that are most resource hungry. Now where does this Government think the most resource-hungry areas might be in an aged-care facility? I'm sure my colleague Dr Anae knows. It'll be the hospital care residents. It will be those with high-needs dementia care. They will be the highest-resourced areas. They will be the areas that will have to be looked at if an organisation such as Presbyterian Support continues to run a deficit of a million dollars a year. I said it in my first speech: a society is judged by how well we look after the most vulnerable. And this Government will be judged. You will be judged in 14 months' time. My apologies Madam Speaker I didn't mean you would be judged; I meant this Government will be judged. In 14 months' time when the unions and the workers look back and think "How well did this Labour Government look after us? How well did this Labour Government—that relies on us for so much support—look after us?" they'll be thinking "Well actually not all that well. Not all that well at all". And the employers will be thinking "How well did this Government look after us?" And they won't take quite as long to think about it; they'll say straight away "Not very well at all". So there's going to be an awful lot of people assessing and reviewing the actions of this Government to the people that are most vulnerable in our society. I look—even as recently as during COVID—and it's been well documented in the media how badly our disabled community were treated in COVID: how little money how little time and how little interest this Government showed in our disabled community during COVID. And now we're getting to look at this amendment and we are saying again how little this Government has cared about the most vulnerable workers how little this Government has cared about the most vulnerable people in our society. So I believe this Government will be judged very very harshly in 14 months' time. Madam Speaker thank you."