Martin Tracey: Remuneration Authority (Members of Parliament Remuneration) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: Remuneration Authority (Members of Parliament Remuneration) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2336. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TRACEY MARTIN (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise for the final contribution of New Zealand First on the bill and I pick up on the comments made by Metiria Turei. It is unfortunate that it appears the Government has taken an opportunity to actually step on the workers of New Zealand. New Zealand First is very disappointed that Supplementary Order Paper 58 which the Green Party put up and which would have split off and therefore stopped the 3.5 percent increase for MPs here tonight—but that Supplementary Order Paper would have sent the conversation about the Remuneration Authority’s set of criteria by which it sets the pay of members of Parliamentthrough a much longer process. It would have sent that back and into another bill that would have gone through the select committee process which the New Zealand public would have had the opportunity to speak about.If the purpose here today is to say to the New Zealand public that we the members of Parliament understand that times are tough—and they are tougher for some than they are for others—and if the purpose of this moment in time is to say that we understand that that could have been done by a single piece of legislation that said: “We will not accept that.” It was not a requirement for us to actually come up with another formula here tonight. New Zealand First agrees with the Labour Party—we are concerned about the formula. The fact that it was version seven by the time we got to 10.30 today with people manipulating algebra here there and everywhere gives nobody any confidence that this is right. Not a single one of us—and actually not a single backbencher—understands that equation I guarantee it.Paul Foster-Bell: That’s not right.TRACEY MARTIN: Guarantee it—you might not be sitting on the backbench tonight Mr Foster-Bell but I will guarantee that the ones who are do not understand that equation. But that is not the point.It is really unfortunate that the conversation ended up going down to comments like “union thugs”. It is very very unfortunate. That was not the purpose that we were all here for tonight. It was unnecessary. This was supposed to be about us making sure that the New Zealand public—and Mr Bayly keeps saying it—saw leadership from us. It is very unfortunate that as it would appear through the statements made by the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and through other members this is actually not about us. This is about controlling New Zealanders as they enter into what are supposed to be negotiations. It is a great shame that that is where this Parliament has come to—that we are prepared to legislate now to stop free and frank and honest negotiations between workers and ourselves. It is an indictment upon this Parliament.The other thing that we do need to be careful of—and New Zealand First again agrees with the contribution by Mr Hipkins; it has been particularly enlightening Mr Hipkins’ contribution and it has been very worthwhile listening to—is around the word “corruption”. I know it is hard sometimes but sometimes the truth has to be said and in this moment with this contribution Mr Hipkins has been enlightening. It is around the word “corruption” and it is quite a serious thing to be frank. It is around the word “corruption”. There was a time in this Parliament when the only people who could come to it were rich white men who had independent means. They were the only people who could come here. The only reason we have the diversity we have today is that we have a system that supports a variety of representation. We must make sure that we the Parliament do not turn this thing so far back that we end up with rich white men as representatives for us all because we know how badly that works.New Zealand First is disappointed. We will support this bill. We will support it because we must stop the 3.5 percent pay rise for ourselves when we cannot share it across our nation with other people. That is true. But we also would reiterate again that we would have preferred the criteria to be set with the public not by us on the public because at the end of the day they pay us and they should have had a voice in that algebraic equation. Kia ora.