Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8277. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill 
In Committee 
Hon KATE WILKINSON (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 I seek leave for the Committee on the Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill to take the bill as one question. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Is there any objection to that course of action being taken? There is no objection. 
Parts 1 and 2 and clauses 1 to 3 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) 
: 
 Part 1 sets out the countervailing economic conditions that the Remuneration Authority will be asked to take into account while making its determination as it is required to do on an annual basis. I think it is important for the record of the House to point out that although in the current economic conditions this year members of Parliament recommended that there be no salary increase this bill is written in a way so as to not ensure that that is an annually recurring thing—that the wages of members of Parliament would be frozen. To give that effect would have had unintended consequences right across the public sector and indeed into the private sector. Rather by structuring the bill in this way the Government has ensured with the support of the Opposition parties that the economic conditions of the day are one of the many factors that the authority has to consider. So Part 1 is certainly supported by us and that provision is the bulk of that part. 
Part 2 sets out a number of other amendments to the principal Act including a change in the date of the annual report of the authority. I am not clear from the bill or the select committee report whether that alters the date that the determination is required to be made or whether the authority will continue to be required to make a 1 July determination. Often the authority misses the date for its determination and it reports maybe in October or November but for the period that we are already in. The Minister of Labour is indicating to me that that does not alter the requirement for the determination—simply the annual report. The Minister of course in her second reading speech outlined some of the other positions that are required to be adjudicated on by the authority that it is important are brought up to speed. 
It is a very small bill; there are only three debatable questions here at the Committee stage with two parts to the bill. I have referred to Part 1 the bulk of the bill and Part 2 has consequential amendments. So that is the only contribution that the Labour Opposition on behalf of all Opposition parties wishes to make at this time. 
Parts 1 and 2 and clauses 1 to 3 agreed to. 
Bill reported without amendment. 
Report adopted. 
Third Reading 
Hon KATE WILKINSON (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 I move  
That the Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. I conclude very very quickly by thanking the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee—its chair David Bennett and its members—for the prompt and efficient passage of this bill through the committee. I also thank the House for unanimously endorsing it at least to this level. 
As we have explained this bill will enable the Remuneration Authority to take into account adverse economic conditions and will allow it as a result to set remuneration at a rate lower than it would have otherwise determined. The bill aligns the Remuneration Authority’s reporting requirements and makes some minor and technical amendments. I commend this bill to the House. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) 
: 
 I see that the only omission members made tonight in the Committee stage was not inserting a Supplementary Order Paper to ensure that temporary Speakers and temporary Chairs of Committee could be recompensed for the very hard work they have been required to do this evening. I think that is an oversight on behalf of the Government and the Opposition in that particular respect. 
I join with the Minister of Labour the Hon Kate Wilkinson in thanking the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee for its work. The truth is that these are never easy issues to deal with. Parliament is required to make a decision on these things and the truth is we are on a hiding to nothing whenever we try to move in this area. But the intention of members in this particular case has been to do the right thing. The motion that the House moved earlier this year was taken up by the Remuneration Authority and we are now passing a law to ensure that the conditions of the country in terms of the economy will be one of the factors considered by the authority in determining the remuneration of a small group of New Zealanders who are paid a lot more than the ordinary person. 
I think that the privilege we have in serving in this House and being servants of the public means that we have to be mindful that many of the people who send us here to advance their views and values regardless of how they may vote are paid a lot less than we are and work equally as hard. Those values will now be reflected in the Remuneration Authority Act and that can only be a good thing. The non-partisan nature of the passage of this bill shows how serious parliamentarians are about serving all of the communities that we represent. The Opposition commends the bill for its third reading. 
Bill read a third time.