Lees-Galloway IainVALEDICTORY STATEMENTSIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): Thank you Mr Speaker. I suspect that when I look back on my life it will divide into two periods: before 2020 and after 2020. The year 2020 has been an extraordinary year for all of us. Can anyone really believe that it is still only August and not in fact 2025? For my family and me it hasn't just been about the incredible effort of responding to COVID-19 and the lockdown; there was the near end of our marriage the death of my father and now the end of my political career. We even had to put the dog to sleep a few weeks ago. It's been a rough year. Just two weeks ago I was not preparing to deliver my valedictory speech but here I am ready and happy to say goodbye.I am leaving Parliament because I can no longer serve as a Minister and I can no longer serve as a Minister because some of my actions have not been congruent with the expectations we should all have of Ministers or anyone in a position of power or leadership. As Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and as a leader in my office it was not appropriate to have a private relationship with a staff member in a department that reported to me and who worked directly with my office. We must recognise not only the imbalance of power involved but also the impact such a relationship can have on a workplace. That's why I have to go. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't been paying attention. Just because it was tolerated in the past doesn't mean it ought to be in 2020.I apologise to my family. The trauma they have experienced has been excruciating. First there was the trauma of our own private business. Then there was the dehumanising trauma of being used for headlines and clickbait by an industry that somehow thought it was appropriate to publish images of their house when they were at their most vulnerable. Every attack every thoughtless and uninformed commentary cuts at the hearts of political families. We at least get to put our case; our families don't.I am sorry for the hurt and humiliation I have inflicted on my family and for the direct impact of my actions on so many others. My family is incredible. They are tough cookies overflowing with resilience and we will come out of this stronger together. My pride in each of them is boundless. Clare is a profoundly impressive schoolteacher taking to her new career with gusto while exuding all the skills and knowledge of a seasoned pro. Laila is smashing NCEA level 1 with a string of merits and excellences. Last week she won her school singing competition. Flynn is a leader at his school and his football team is in an arm-wrestle to be the top junior team in Palmerston North. Scarlett is excelling at her new school and working hard to prepare for her upcoming dance competition.A politician's loved ones are vital to their career and I thank them deeply for the many sacrifices they have made over the years. Also vital is an army of supporters and volunteers. I can't name all the people who have contributed to my political work but I do want to place on record the names of those who have committed considerable time and energy over the years. From the Labour Party in Palmerston North: Lorna and Craig Johnson Mark Andrew John Shennan Liam Rutherford Shane Field Finda Hope Therese McCrea David and Katherine Chisholm Ros and Russell Hallam Zulfiqar Butt and Frank Bolton. My parliamentary staff both in Palmerston North and here: the late Graham Keenan Joyce Squire Helen Toner Mark Johnson Kerry Holden Robyn Barnett and Sonya Holm. And in my ministerial office: Jeff Sissons Haidee Hemsley Joy Gribben Marie McCafferty Lisa Kinloch Phil Reed and Semi Kuresa.Thanks also to the stakeholders in my portfolios—in particular the Council of Trade Unions and Business New Zealand. We have had a very constructive and genuinely tripartite relationship that has served us well as we navigated an abundance of unexpected challenges during this term. Of course we didn't always agree but agree or not it was always a friendly respectful relationship that helped us get a lot done.This term of Parliament will be remembered for the strength kindness and compassion of New Zealanders and the leadership of Jacinda Ardern in the face of three extraordinary events: the horrific terrorist attack in Christchurch the eruption of Whakaari / White Island and the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of those events demanded an extraordinary response in my portfolios. I pay tribute to Immigration New Zealand WorkSafe ACC and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment for the exceptional way they responded to those events for supporting and caring for people directly affected and for the support they provided me as we made difficult decisions that had a profound impact on people's lives at a speed that would ordinarily terrify public servants. At the beginning of the term I would never have guessed that I would be the immigration Minister who closed the border. I mean I knew we were going into coalition with New Zealand First but it still never crossed my mind.Even with those tragedies we were able to achieve a lot this term. I was lucky enough to introduce this Government's first piece of legislation: the extension of paid parental leave to 26 weeks. [Members applaud] Thanks to Sue Moroney who should be getting the applause for a ready-made bill and because of that it was a relatively straightforward exercise.The Equal Pay Amendment Bill was a different story. We inherited legislation that did not have the support of the working women it was meant to help so we went back to the drawing board gained a new consensus and introduced fresh legislation. That bill went to select committee and came back with sensible amendments. At that point key stakeholders who had submitted at select committee threw out the drawing board and demanded significant changes. I'm not going to follow the Hon Nikki Kaye's lead and repeat my response word for word but let's just say it was brought to you by the letters W" "T" and "F". But given the importance of getting the framework right we got to work. It took over a year of pain and patience on all sides to get the bill passed. The fact that the phrase "Minister we'd just like to raise one more thing." causes me to break out in a cold sweat is just an amusing side effect. More importantly we now have a bargaining framework that should see thousands of working women get the pay they deserve.If stakeholder relationships can be hard to manage they've got nothing on coalition relationships. My first foray into coalition territory was the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. Labour and New Zealand First agree that the lowest-paid and most vulnerable workers need to get greater protection but we clearly have distinct views on how to achieve that. Even so we have restored workers' rights to rest and meal breaks. Vulnerable workforces are better protected by Part 6A of the Act. Workers are now in a stronger bargaining position when negotiating employment agreements and the fire-at-will 90-day trials now only apply to 29 percent of workers.It's no secret that immigration has been a point of difference across all three parties in Government. Despite that we got a lot done. We increased the refugee quota to 1500 and we got rid of the unjustifiable discrimination that meant almost no refugees from Africa and the Middle East were able to resettle in New Zealand. We also made significant changes to the way temporary work visas will be issued in the future. A poorly functioning system created too many opportunities for exploitation and undermined efforts to improve wages domestic skill levels and working conditions. Over the next 18 months our changes mean the temporary visa system will become easier to navigate for both migrants and employers will reduce the risk of exploitation and will assist in Labour's ambition to build a more productive more sustainable and more inclusive economy—Grant Robertson.We have also just invested $50 million to prevent exploitation protect migrants and strengthen enforcement action against exploiters. We must not tolerate the abuse of workers. The recent conviction for slavery in Hawke's Bay demonstrates that the most extreme exploitation does occur in New Zealand and that we were right to prioritise tackling it. That work must continue. I agree with the call last week from Walk Free that New Zealand should pass modern slavery legislation akin to that in the UK and Australia. Immigration sector agreements will play a part in building good workplaces. They will allow bespoke immigration settings in return for agreed improvements to wages training opportunities and workforce planning so that migrant workers and New Zealanders will benefit. When we are able to reopen the border these changes will serve us well. One thing I was determined to do as immigration Minister was reopen the parent category. It took time to get consensus and the income thresholds are far too high but we got the category reopened and that is a good start.Twelve years of advocating for Palmerston North constituents has been one of the most rewarding parts of the job. There are literally thousands of stories of the people who have come to us for help. I would like to relay just one.Early in my first term a woman came to see us because the medication on which she relied was no longer funded. It was an unusual case where the medication was being used outside its normal purpose and therefore not funded by Pharmac but because it was working for her the DHB had provided it. But under pressure from the new health Minister to cut costs the DHB decided to stop. To protect her privacy I won't go into the details but the effect of losing that medication had a disastrous physical and psychological impact on my constituent. Her first disclosure of contemplating suicide was to be—long story short we got the DHB to see sense and the funding for her medication was restored. When she came in to thank us she wept on my shoulder for a full five minutes. We had changed and possibly saved her life. That's why we all do this job.Serving just one term as a Minister there is naturally a little bit of unfinished business. Top of the list is fair pay agreements. While our labour market works well for many people far too many people continue to miss out on the benefits of a well-managed economy. We are unusual amongst OECD nations for not having some form of sector level collective bargaining and that contributes to unnecessary inequality. I had the privilege of meeting some of our lowest paid workers while we were consulting on fair pay agreements people working two or three jobs or working 60 hours a week who still couldn't always pay the basic bills to keep a roof over their heads food on the table and clothes on their kids. These are our supermarket workers our cleaners our security guards—the very people who were looking after us as essential workers during the COVID-19 lockdown the very people we relied on every day. This must change and I challenge this House to take every opportunity to build a society where we value everyone's work pay them enough to live on and treat them with respect. We have worked hard to get the fair pay agreements policy in good shape and with a little more work early next term and a Government made up of parties unequivocally in favour it can be turned into legislation and implemented. We all know the Holidays Act needs reform. Previous Ministers shied away from what is an exceptionally difficult policy area but with the support of both Business New Zealand and the Combined Trade Unions we decided to tackle it and we now have a good plan that's ready to implement next term.One of my great disappointments is that it was not possible to get consensus around a coherent and fair way forward on issues relating to residency visas during this term of Government. However I am confident that this can be addressed in the near future with a plan that will satisfy our migrant and business communities.Some thoughts from someone with the luxury of not seeking re-election: ACC is a taonga and we don't know how lucky we are to have it. But we politicians have decided that ACC should be limited to covering injury whereas illness is covered by the health system. I will never forget meeting a constituent—the Hon Ruth Dyson may have more to say about this shortly. I will never forget meeting with a constituent who lost three limbs to meningitis who rightly pointed out that if she had lost those same limbs in a car accident she would have been considerably better off financially and would have received superior treatment and support. That is impossible to justify. Health should also be run as a social insurance scheme and New Zealanders should expect the same support whether they are injured or they fall ill. Speaking of social insurance schemes we should have one for unemployment insurance a proper one not the miserly scheme offered up by the ACT Party.And finally—colleagues hold on—our universal superannuation entitlement is unsustainable. People just live longer. It's true though that abandoning universality or just increasing the age of entitlement are both likely to hit the people who need the most support the hardest. So here's a thought: a means-tested entitlement from age 60 and a universal entitlement from age 70. As I said I don't have to get re-elected but I'll leave that one with you. A lot has been said recently about the culture of this place. It is a hard place to work and not somewhere that I actually plan to stay much longer. But the work is incredibly rewarding. Making a real difference in people's lives whether it's at an individual level or as a local MP or for thousands of people as a Minister implementing policy that's what drives us all no matter what party we're from and that's why we keep coming back even though it often feels like madness. So while I'm happy to be going I'm also incredibly happy to have been here. And whatever the future holds I wish every member of this House happiness and success.The last two weeks have shown me who my true friends are and a lot of them are here in this Chamber. I will miss working with you especially my good mates Carmel Sepuloni and Deborah Russell. I look forward to spending more time with you away from here far away from here with my other friends as well and with my family who I have definitely not prioritised enough over the last 12 years. And on that note I've got to get home. See you.[Applause]"