Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment (No 2) Bill, Regulatory Systems (Workforce) Amendment Bill (No 2), Regulatory Systems (Housing) Amendment Bill (No 2)

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare, and fakaalofa atu. I’m absolutely excited to be picking up this riveting debate on the regulatory bills tonight, but before we start getting into the real substance of this matter, I would like to reflect on some of the comments that were made during the debate last night. In fact, in particular, I would like to set the record straight on some of the comments made by the Opposition member Nicola Willis.

The member at the time, last night, made the comment about some changes that were made with regards to the retirement villages, and Nicola Willis mentioned that the previous National Government did bring in increased wages for aged-care workers. But what that member conveniently left out of her speech was that the National Government didn’t just bring in increased wages for these care and support workers. The fight for pay equity for care and support workers was a very long and protracted process over many years, and, in fact, the National Government dragged Kristine Bartlett and her union, E tū, through several levels of court before finally settling, after a three-year negotiation process, for the sum of just over $2 billion.

That’s also something to keep in mind. Any time that the previous National Government—now Opposition—mentions the $5 billion of investments that they made in health, subtract this $2 billion out of that investment that they made, because that $2 billion was not part of the $5 billion that they supposedly invested into health.

Now, that settlement was not possible without the backing of the unions, and, Mr Speaker, if you’ll indulge me for just another half a minute, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to two extremely decent and absolutely brilliant stalwarts of our union movement that we said goodbye to last night: Bill Rosenberg, the Council of Trade Unions’ economist, who retired and who has tirelessly worked to improve the lives of working people, as well as Sam Huggard, who said goodbye to his role as secretary of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. Both are really decent people, hard-working people, who have done an enormous amount of good for the people of New Zealand.

So I’d like to get back to the bill. I don’t know how long I’ll have to get through it, but these regulatory systems bills—I mentioned last night that they are very technical bills. In fact, they’re amending 14 different pieces of legislation, so it would have been a very complex piece of work, and I commend the select committees who have worked on it. The bills, basically, make sure that they address anything that needs to be tidied up in those areas. They are avoiding duplication, avoiding unnecessary compliance costs, and also—very importantly—making sure that any possibly unintended consequences and gaps in this legislation are being amended.

There are three bills that this omnibus bill contains. I won’t mention all three names because I’ll probably run out of time, but, in particular, the Regulatory Systems (Workforce) Amendment Bill (No 2) is the one that I would like to speak a little bit more about in detail. This bill contains amendments to four Acts: the Holidays Act 2003, the Employment Relations Act 2000, the Remuneration Authority Act 1977, and the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987. It’s with regard to the amendment of that last Act—and I remember that Minister Phil Twyford mentioned that in his speech last night, when he started this debate off—that it’s about addressing a particular gap in the legislation. This bill improves the fairness of paid parental leave and ensures that all parents and caregivers are able to claim their maximum entitlements that are entitled to.

Debate interrupted.

The House adjourned at 10 p.m.