Stewart Barbara: Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStewart Barbara: Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 18 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:9166. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA STEWART (NZ First): I am very pleased to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on the third reading of the Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill. New Zealand First definitely supports this bill just like other parties in the House. It is sound legislation and it should have happened years and years ago.As others have said this legislation is the result of a settlement on behalf of the Public Service Association (PSA) and home support worker Jenny Goodman. The proceedings were lodged with the Employment Relations Authority in 2013 claiming that the time a community support worker spends travelling between clients is work for the purposes of section 6 of the Minimum Wage Act. We know that when tradespeople and sales reps are travelling between clients that is considered to be their work so it was only logical that this had to be related to the home support area.We in New Zealand First are disappointed that it took a claim like this to get the Government to act on such an important issue. It is an issue that in this House we have all been aware of for a long time. We have received numerous petitions. There have been protest meetings and demonstrations on the steps of Parliament. So it is no surprise that this was an issue that did need to be solved. It really should have been solved proactively rather than having to wait for a court case like this because we all know that this settlement comes mainly from a desire to prevent court action and the payout of costly back-pay for travel.This legislation is a start but it needs to go further. In New Zealand First we are quite disappointed that the mileage rate remains at 50c per kilometre and has not increased in line with the Inland Revenue Department recommendations of 74c per kilometre but it is a start. And we know that it is an area that does need revisiting. We are in support of this bill as I said. However we see this as only the start of a complete overhaul of the home-care and home support sector. We would really like to see staff properly recognised for the valuable work that they do including receiving appropriate pay. We do remain concerned at the working conditions of care workers and we know that looking forward a stable workforce is absolutely required.We were very pleased to read that there will be an investigation into guaranteed hours of work. There needs to be that. It is not the support workers’ fault if one of the people whom they are caring for goes into hospital for some time but it comes off their salary. There needs to be some recognition of training and qualifications and of course as others have said the rates of pay need to be looked at. We know of many workers who have worked in this sector for years and they have received very little in the way of pay increases. We are really hoping that this is going to be addressed within Part B of the settlement agreement. We know that this is an area that is going to be vital in the future because the number of people who are coming through who are going to require care is enormous.We were pleased that all of the parties agreed to investigate the impact of a regularised workforce to ensure the sustainability and the stability of the sector. In its submission the PSA made some suggestions as to what would constitute a regularised workforce: firstly guaranteed hours for the majority of the workforce; secondly paid training to enable support workers to gain level 3 New Zealand certificate qualifications; thirdly wages paid on the required level of training for support workers; and lastly a case load and casemix workload mechanism to ensure a fair and safe allocation of clients to support workers. As every other party in this House has done we in New Zealand First support those recommendations. We will see that more and more people are going to rely on the support of home and community-based care and support workers.New Zealand First would also like to thank those thousands of home and community-based care and support workers who work tirelessly every day to make their clients’ days just a little bit brighter a little bit better. We know it can be really challenging work—it is not easy—but I know for a fact that these people are passionate about making a difference and they are highly skilled and we should appreciate the very important job that they do. Their dedication in their work keeps many of our elderly—many of our seniors—out of rest homes. We all know that people want to live independently for as long as they possibly can and this group of workers is absolutely essential to ensuring that this happens. So we acknowledge the fantastic work that they do—absolutely important. We were so pleased to see that ACC has actually been included in this settlement because we know that those people who are looked after through ACC need the support too—absolutely essential.In New Zealand First we are very happy to support this bill but we say that this should not be the end of the debate on the working conditions of our home and community-based care and support workers and we will be looking to see that this is only the start of that journey. Thank you.