Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in support of the Employment (Pay Equity and Equal Pay) Bill. Let me reflect on some of the contributions to this debate so far. People watching at home on the TV or listening on their crystal set may not be aware that Denise Roche who has just resumed her seat had been merrily celebrating the valedictory speech of Catherine Delahunty earlier in the evening. That explains the coherency of her speech but what a disgraceful speech—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! That is unacceptable. I ask the member to withdraw that comment.DAVID SEYMOUR: I withdraw that comment. But what a disgraceful speech that was from Tracey Martin. I have been asked whether I am a feminist and I say: Yes. I am the kind of feminist who believes in pushing women up not pulling men down." And to hear Tracey Martin hurling across the House "male" and "white" as epithets as if these people's opinions are invalidated by their identity—well I thought we were here to fight discrimination based on sex and gender not to perpetrate it as people elected to lead this country.We find ourselves here debating a bill that has come about because of a court case that is completely opposite to the principles of the New Zealand economy that underlie our prosperity. I think it is absolutely true that care workers were underpaid and I would say that I think our teaching profession is probably underpaid. But the interesting thing about that is that those are professions where the Government is the monopsony employer where the Government sets through its budgeting decisions what those people get paid.And for all the people on the other side of the House from the Labour Party and New Zealand First and the Green Party who have been saying that somehow it is the fault of this Government that these professions are paid less by the Government well just remember it was exactly the same when they were in power. So if this Government is sexist in its pay of female-dominated professions well what is it when they do it? It seems that the Government has been sexist no matter who has had the Treasury benches in this House.But what is wrong—what is absolutely wrong—about the TerraNova Homes and Care case and what is wrong about this bill is that no longer under this bill or under the TerraNova case is the amount paid to the worker the result of a negotiation between a willing employer and a willing employee negotiated by them or their union representatives. Suddenly we introduce the idea that a court—that does not have the full information that does not know the conditions of the business and that does not know the conditions of the work—is able to determine what the value of work should be. And this country has been there before. When we lived in the Polish shipyard prior to 1984 that is how it used to work—national awards. People used to sit in Wellington with bugger all clue about what was going on in the rest of the country and they used to decide how much work was worth.Well I would say to you tonight that the people out there who actually generate the wealth—the people who actually get up early the people who actually up skill themselves and the people who are there to get up make the kids' lunches get them to school get to the workplace and do productive things—those people know what the value of work is. Those people know what their aspirations are. The courts setting wages is a step backwards to the 1970s.So why am I supporting this bill? I am supporting it because it is the best on offer right now. At least it limits the scope of this court-appointed wage setting to a narrower scope than it could have been under some other versions of the bill. But as members are all keenly aware after 23 September Parliament may be different and a stronger ACT Party will be pushing whoever is in Government to return wages in New Zealand to the way they should be: negotiated between a willing employer and a willing employee not set like national awards by courts—the way that they were so long ago when our country was a much more dismal place. Thank you."