Smith Lockwood: Holidays Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Smith Lockwood: Holidays Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:620;Page:15981] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I am horrified to be speaking in this Parliament on such junk legislation as this Holidays Amendment Bill. It just makes me so damn angry to look across the House at people like Darren Hughes who has just popped his golden head up. He has never employed anyone at his own risk in his life. He has no damned idea what is involved in actually employing people. Has he sat down and tried to work out the full cost implications of the Holidays Act which this bill amends—and fails to address? Has he ever sat down and tried to work out the costs for a business of relevant daily pay? I bet he has never even filled in the Inland Revenue Department forms for registered employers. Is he even an employer? 
Opposition Members 
: No. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: No. Does he know what an IR330 is? Has he ever had an employee fill in his or her tax code? Does he fill in PAYE forms every month? Do any of the members sitting on the Government side of the House do that? Are any of them registered employers? I do not know whether any of the Labour members in this Chamber today are employers. I see the Minister of Police and Paul Swain. Let us hear from either of them. Are any of the Labour members registered employers today? Will any of them have to implement this junk? 
I am a registered employer and every month I have to comply with the crazy legislation of this Labour Government. One of the reasons why we have a House of Representatives is to have people from a range of walks of life—with experience in life—who can bring to this place the wisdom of knowing what it is like to do the things that a Government expects the people of this country to do. What do we have in the Labour bunch on the opposite side of the House? They are mostly former union members have never employed anyone and certainly do not employ anyone under the legislation that they seek to amend in this House today. 
The Labour members may say Lockwood Smith does not know what he is talking about but the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee heard successive representations from significant employers in this country who told the committee that this amendment bill would not fix the problems associated with the principal Act. When a business as important to New Zealand as Air New Zealand comes to the committee and says that the Act has cost it so far $17.5 million more than previously one would think the Government would take some notice. The amendments in this bill which simply makes changes in respect of how the Act affects sick leave will not fix the problem. The amendments contained in this bill do not fix the problem at all. 
I guess one could say that Air New Zealand is a bit special because it flies at all hours of the day and night and flies all days of the week. Therefore maybe one could argue the Act may affect Air New Zealand more than it does other businesses. But it was not that way. The select committee heard submissions from other businesses where they identified the costs of this Act that Labour has imposed on the businesses of this country. The meat industry is right at the heart of this country’s success and I am told the select committee heard from one meat company Riverlands. The committee was told that the cost of the Act to that company had been $6.5 million so far. Now Riverlands is not exactly—if my advice is correct that it is Riverlands that told the committee that—like AFFCO or Richmond Ltd. What on earth is the Act costing our really big meat companies? What is it costing Auckland Meat Processors to implement the dopey legislation that this inadequate bill seeks to change? 
I think this is a very very serious issue for New Zealand and what troubles me so much is we hear Michael Cullen the Minister of Finance come into this Chamber and pout and preen about the wonderful way that the economy is going under this Labour Government’s policies. What the Labour members do not seem to realise is that the economy is going quite well despite what they are doing to it. They inherited an economy that was growing at 5 percent back in 1999. They have slowed it down since then but they have not destroyed it totally—the growth has carried on. But what the Labour members do not seem to acknowledge is that the growth is not because of what they have done. It is not the employment law they introduced nor the Employment Relations Act nor the Holidays Act that have helped the economy to grow on. 
When the Labour members came into office they so scared foreign investment as we heard today in question time that investors’ dollars fled—billions of dollars fled the country and the exchange rate collapsed down to 39c against the US dollar. The export sector got a huge boost from that and it sure did lift the economy’s performance—for a short period. Then just as that boost was starting to die off as the exchange rate slowly recovered some crazed Arabs flew some aeroplanes carrying real human beings into the World Trade Center. As a consequence of that tragedy thousands more immigrants—thousands more people—came back to New Zealand and so boosted the domestic economy. That was nothing to do with this Labour Government unless it claims it is related to those crazed Arab bastards. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member knows that he cannot use that last word. I ask him to withdraw. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: I withdraw. I am sure you will find it in the  
Oxford Dictionary 
 though. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I do not like that word to be used in this House. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: OK. Unless the Government claims that it somehow had influence over those mad so-and-so’s it cannot claim that it was responsible for that boost to our economy. Now just as the domestic bubble is bursting and the number of people flowing into this country has reduced by thousands in the last few months we have world record commodity prices. I guess Darren Hughes will claim that he and Labour are responsible for the 20-year highs in our beef commodity prices. So OK the Government preens itself about how well the economy is going but that is nothing to do with what it has done. The economy is going well despite what the Government has done and the Act that this bill seeks to amend is simply one more nail in the coffin of the New Zealand economy. The economy cannot stand all these impediments to growth. One item on its own would not destroy it but the successively mounting impediments to growth that Labour has imposed on our economy will stifle it. 
If this Government had any experience at all in employing people this bill would contain far greater amendment to the Act than these trifling changes to how public holiday pay is determined and in respect of sick leave. It is totally inadequate. The National Party members on the select committee gave an excellent minority view following the select committee’s consideration of this bill. They pointed out the problems caused by the new definition of “relevant daily pay” and the problems that the way that sick leave is now being used under the Act are causing for whole hunks of the New Zealand economy. The National Party cannot more strongly oppose this totally inadequate type of legislation. The Act remains an absolute mill wheel around the necks of many businesses in New Zealand. All I can say is rest assured rescue is on its way. A future National Government will properly amend the Act so it no longer stifles the excellent businesses around this country.