Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. Mānawatia a Matariki to all the workers out there. You were essential workers before the pandemic you were definitely essential workers during the pandemic and to the Greens you will continue to be essential workers.I want to start today by acknowledging Jan Logie who could not be here today because she's unwell but she has been at the picket lines with these workers. She has consistently stood by the side of care workers and support workers and nurses and teacher aides and every other underpaid sector pushing for better pay and conditions. Support and care workers deserve better. They work long hours often without breaks. They do some of the hardest work there is dealing with complex needs complex behavioural issues hazardous waste always on their feet caring for some of our most vulnerable New Zealanders and I want to acknowledge those workers. Kia kaha kia toa kia manawanui. We need to start valuing care work and the workers that prop up our whole healthcare system. It's not OK to keep their wages low and keep our support workers from achieving fair pay because it's work predominantly done by women.Wāhine Māori and Pasifika women are far more likely to engage in undervalued care and support work and therefore will be disproportionately impacted by continued low wages in the sector. For every dollar a Pākehā man makes—listen in Pākehā men—wāhine Māori earn 81c and Pasifika women earn 73c. And here we are at the eleventh hour and the Government is offering with this amendment bill an extension of the settlement deal with a 3 percent pay rise or an extra 70c per hour for support workers—70c. Times are tough the cost of living is sky high and they're only getting 70c extra in an hour. That's not even enough for an extra litre of petrol not enough for a $1 bag of lollies at the dairy or it's one-twentieth of a block of cheese. At their protest they were giving away Chupa Chups which are about 70c just to highlight the point. That is the reason why we will not be supporting this bill in the House today and we will not be supporting urgency as well. We are practical and we are generally supportive of things that take a step in the right direction even if it's a small step but we cannot in good conscience vote for a pay increase of less than a dollar an hour and call it progress. We cannot in good conscience support this going through all stages under urgency when the Government had years—years—to sort this out properly and instead is rushing it through with an inadequate patch up.I also wanted to recognise the history of the bill and I know members on both sides of the House have done that. The Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act 2017 got to the Parliament because of the determination of one woman Kristine Bartlett and her supportive unions. She was a residential aged care worker. She lodged an application with the Employment Relations Authority against the then National-led Government that she was not receiving equal pay under the Equal Pay Act of 1972. She argued on behalf of care and support workers on poverty wages between 2009 and 2012 saying that their work was undervalued because it was done by women. She won her case and when it was appealed she won again in the Court of Appeal. They found that support workers had been historically underpaid because they were women. Rather than have the courts dictate the wages of care and support workers which they had done had the Government not come to the table the ex-finance Minister Bill English began negotiating support workers' wages with Bartlett's union the Service and Food Workers Union now part of E tū.After two years of negotiations punctuated with threats of protest by the unions to go back to court to have the matter adjudicated a deal was struck with the National Government to pass the Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act of 2017 to give effect to the agreement. It delivered $2 billion in wage rises to care workers brought in over five years. After that point the pay equity deal and the legislation will be set to expire and self-repeal on 1 July 2022—just around the corner.The Green Party has always been clear that the initial settlement was not a full equity settlement and we do welcome the ability for the sector to begin negotiations to resolve their pay claims fairly through the process now being used by other sectors. I'd also like to acknowledge the work of the Hon Julie Anne Genter when she was Minister for Women when she introduced and championed the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan because one of the ways the Government is aiming to achieve this plan in 2021 and 2022 is through equal pay regardless of gender or ethnicity. This is not equal pay. It's not fair. It's not fair pay.This Government must do better because here we are nine days out from 1 July 2022 when the 2017 settlement will expire and despite the union's efforts to initiate discussions with the Government last year over a replacement or an extension of the 2017 Act nothing was achieved either because the Government forgot or didn't consider fair pay for support workers to be a priority. This offer is a 3 percent pay rise or an extra 70c per hour for support workers. In these times 70c is a slap in the face for someone who has been a support worker for 12 years. That's a huge devaluation of the skill and expertise needed to do this work. That's less than half the rate of inflation and nowhere near the union's calculation for what is required to maintain the pay equity in the previous settlement. The starting rate the Government is offering for support wages is $22.49. That's not even the Living Wage. In Australia they're offering their care workers an average of $35.86 in New Zealand dollars. That's miles ahead of us. The Government has known that this legislation would lapse and has failed to put in place a transitional process to protect the pay of these essential workers while negotiating their pay equity claims. It is beyond disappointing that a Labour Government with an outright majority isn't willing to go further for support workers and for all underpaid sectors. The Green Party has always been clear that care work needs to be valued properly. It does. We have always been clear that the work done by women particularly by Māori and Pasifika wāhine in caring for our communities is the bedrock of our society. It is the bedrock of our community. We also acknowledge that there is a massive staffing crisis in care work because of the terrible pay and conditions. That could have been addressed if the Government had done their homework and got pay equity sorted in time.So this is an issue for everyone with care needs and everybody with family with care needs as well as the workers and their direct families. Every single Green Party MP understands that pay equity is more than just about money; it's about the values that we have in society. It is about the values that we have as communities living here in Aotearoa acknowledging care work for the essential work that it is and showing that we value the important things.My message to the workers who are feeling betrayed by the Government because of this deal the Government offering crumbs is that we hear you loud and clear and we will continue to advocate for you. We're not going to let Labour off the hook and say it's better than nothing and good things take time. Kāo. Pay equity is long overdue—it is long overdue—and it's simply not good enough to let past agreements erode it in real time while our essential workers face unprecedented increases in the cost of living. Nō reira e te Pīka the Greens will not be supporting this bill.