Twyford Phil; Pugh Maureen; Belich Camilla; van Velden BrookeHon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): Thank you Madam Chair. The Minister and colleagues in the committee will be very aware that over the last year or so there's been a very observable uptick in cases of migrant worker exploitation. I think it's in large part associated with very high levels of inward migration as policy settings were loosened as the country came out of COVID and faced intense skills shortages and a great deal of pressure was there from industries who were desperate to get workers. There's been quite a lot of debate in and around the House about whether there are sustainable levels of inward migration—talking about temporary workers—and how the settings like the accredited employer work visa can be reformed to reduce the opportunity for migrant worker exploitation.I'm not wanting to drag immigration into this debate but the Minister is responsible for the labour inspectorate. The inspectorate plays a very important role in policing migrant worker exploitation amongst other things. I think that most would agree that migrant worker exploitation is a pretty ubiquitous risk in our economy.So the first question I have for the Minister is around the statistics that she shared with the committee earlier about the number of cases dealt with by the inspectorate. Has she got numbers for cases involving migrant worker exploitation? I think the committee would be very interested to know whether there are figures on that and whether the Minister has a view about the relative status and importance and priority of dealing with cases of migrant worker exploitation for the inspectorate in relation to all of the other priorities and demands on the inspectorate's time.We've seen unfortunately a number of cases in the media of large groups of workers finding themselves without a job. They're here they find themselves without a job they then spend weeks or even months living in extremely overcrowded and difficult conditions often dependent on charity to survive. I don't think anybody wants to see that. I'm interested in what thoughts the Minister has given to how the inspectorate can actually assist in the tightening up of the whole system to reduce or eliminate these kinds of cases.Two of the sectors that I think have been most associated with this have been the labour hire sector and also the construction sector. Also I would like to know if the Minister has given any consideration or received any advice about the policy reforms that could address this problem and putting to one side questions of visas and the immigration settings whether or not the Minister has thought for example about the implementation of standardised employment contracts in industries like construction where it's reported there are very high levels of abuse and exploitation of migrant workers.I wonder whether or not the idea of guaranteed weekly hours—currently migrant workers can be doing 30 hours a week. For many of them it's simply not enough to survive. If they're in an industry that's highly casualised and un-unionised they find themselves doing very low numbers of hours per week and they find themselves in a very challenging situation in terms of survival.The third idea that I wanted to ask the Minister about really is in relation to Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers. I'm interested to know what her view is about whether or not an opt-out unionisation clause which would give RSE workers easy and immediate access to union protection to avoid and prevent cases of exploitation—with of course a nod to the important principle of freedom of association and people would have the right to opt out. But I put it to the Minister that if that policy was in place RSE workers would have a ready source of advocates to deal with many of the exploitation problems that are currently a feature of a number of those employment situations. I'll leave it there for the moment. CHAIRPERSON (Maureen Pugh): Good timing. CAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you Madam Chair and I look forward to again hearing some of the Minister's answers to my previous question. I noted her comments on the previous Government but I also wanted to know: will she guarantee that the number of WorkSafe inspectors will not decrease under her watch? So that was my question.I want to move on to a different area though and I want to talk about modern slavery. This is a very important piece of work that was undertaken in the year in review by the previous Government and supported by a tripartite group of many different organisations who are very concerned about the lack of modern slavery regulation in New Zealand and the fact that we can't guarantee that a lot of things that arrive in New Zealand have been made without conditions that we would find absolutely intolerable and inhumane in other countries. I wanted to ask her what progress she has made on addressing modern slavery and exploitation in New Zealand's supply chain and if she does indeed agree with members of the coalition Government who have said that this was currently not being developed how then will she be ensuring that we meet New Zealand's obligations under the New Zealand - EU free-trade agreement which requires legislation on modern slavery when it calls on parties in the agreement to prioritise labour rights in the supply chain and to promote corporate and social responsibility and responsible business conduct including responsible supply chain management by providing supportive policy frameworks that encourage the uptake of relevant practices in businesses. I also wanted to ask her: if the Government is not working on implementing modern slavery legislation then how will she ensure that the New Zealand - UK free-trade agreement is adhered to. It states that each party should adopt and maintain measures to facilitate private and public sector entities to identify and address modern slavery in the global and domestic supply chains. This is extremely important work. It was under the work plan of the year in review. The statements of Government members who are not of her party have been that it is not going to be progressed. There is a large amount of disappointment not only within organisations that support and advocate for human rights but also businesses that know that New Zealand's reputation internationally will be severely damaged if modern slavery legislation is not introduced.So I want to know from the Minister how given those international commitments; given the fact that the UK Government when the justice Minister recently went overseas in order to talk about our human rights record called on New Zealand to introduce modern slavery legislation that is inclusive of entities of all sizes with international supply chains in both the private and public sectors—when allies like those are saying to us that we need to introduce legislation on modern slavery I want to know from the Minister what her Government's answer is to those countries. Hon BROOKE VAN VELDEN (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): Thank you very much. I thought I'd take two of these questions together because I think in some ways people are conflating the labour inspectorate and also the WorkSafe investigators but they are kind of similar in some of the roles that they do.So touching on the labour inspectorate as to how it is involved in migrant exploitation due to the question from Phil Twyford I can tell the member that 35 percent of all labour inspectorate investigations completed in the year that we're reviewing of 2022-23 involved migrant exploitation which shows the seriousness of the breaches that are involved in our country. I would certainly hope that all members of this Parliament take the issue of migrant exploitation very seriously and have the deep belief that all people in our country should expect that their rights are upheld—no matter where they have come from no matter how long they've been in this country—that everybody should have that same right of dignity and respect in the workplace.When it comes to Ricardo Menéndez March's question that was talking about workplace accidents which has more to do with the WorkSafe investigators and whether or not we have statistics breaking that down into the visa status. At this point I don't have that data but that is actually something I'm very interested in—so I'm very happy that he's interested in this too. I would hope that all people no matter how long they've been in the country no matter who's employing them that they know what their rights are and that the businesses that are employing them know what their obligations are to keep those people safe in the workplace. This is an area that I also look to do a little bit more work in so I thank him very much for his question.Coming to a couple of questions from Camilla Belich about why we are wanting to reform the Health and Safety at Work Act—this is going to be legislation or regulation. It's been now 10 years that we've had the Health and Safety at Work Act and businesses sector groups non-profit organisations and successive Governments have all put a lot of investment into this regulatory system.But I think it's time for us to review that and see: is it the legislation that's working? Is it the regulations that are working? That's what part of the review is. So at this stage I can't say whether or not it will be the legislation that could change or whether it's specific regulations but that's the whole purpose of our consultation—and that will be quite a fulsome consultation. If it shows that there are concerns with the underlying legislation then there will be changes to be made. But at this stage it's at consultation.I've also had that question about the content of the advice that we received on engineered stone. I firstly just want to say that my expectation with the health and safety system is that I want all workers to be able to come home safe; I want all people to come home safely to their families. I have received some advice on addressing the unsafe work practices related to engineered stone and I plan to consult on a range of options later this year—subject to approval from Cabinet—on what this Government would seek to do on engineered stone.There's currently a range of education and enforcement activities that is being led by WorkSafe to ensure businesses control the risks from working with engineered stone but at this stage I am following the evolving approach in Australia. But it's very important that we use an evidence-based approach in a New Zealand context rather than simply replicating what's happening by our neighbours.