SpeechHon MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to speak at the second reading of the Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlements Amendment Bill. It is a bill that's taken a long time to get to where it needed to go. As the previous speaker Mark Patterson has already named her—and others have mentioned her as well—Kristine Bartlett CNZM: every now and again in this House we come across legislation that has been advanced enormously through the experience and the dedication of one individual. So I would begin my short call by commending her on her tenacity. Five years three court cases two appeals and one landmark pay settlement is what that individual went through to get to the place where it was acknowledged that 55000 workers who work in an industry that Kristine Bartlett knew very well—she had been I think nearly a quarter of a century as a rest home carer. So she knew exactly the importance of legislation like this which has advanced the professionalism of the profession of aged-care workers in my view. They are not necessarily valued in a way that this society should value them and one way of doing that is to make sure the remuneration is good. So for those 55000 workers they received an advance in the first tranche of the Terranova case as it was known when the pay equity settlement bill was passed in June 2017 by the National-led Government. This is the next part of the legislation which needs to—we did give way as others have indicated and I remember those discussions very well and with my colleague and friend Matt Doocey also who said These are important issues for people who work in the mental health area and they need to be acknowledged in the same way. Where are the differences? Where are the distinctions?" So true to the undertaking and in keeping with our support of the earlier legislation that we had put through was the understanding this would come at some point. Its time has come tonight. I think that all of the parties made settlement agreements. In respect of the various work that the Health Committee did I commend the chair of the Health Committee Louisa Wall who has spoken on this and done a lot of work on it. I wasn't so much in the Health Committee at the time that this was put through but I know how much of an impact it made on the final legislation because the duties of the individually funded clients did need to be clarified. There were a lot of issues that were not properly addressed that this piece of legislation tidies up well around minimum hourly wage rates also—that's the addition of clause 11A inserting a new section 9A into the principal Act. This needs to apply widely and it will apply to any client who receives that individual funding whether it is for mental health or addiction or in the aged-care sector. So the equality if you like has been addressed by this legislation. The definition of "employer" is also something that the Health Committee refined and made into the good piece of this legislation; it has worked very well. I mean our preference would have been that the right to prescribed minimum pay was enshrined in legislation but this is what it is and it is a piece of legislation that needs to pass. I won't hold up the time of the House any further but I commend this bill to the House."