Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. The National Party will not be supporting this bill the misnamed Fair Pay Agreements Bill. Indeed if we are lucky enough to win the next election this time next year we will repeal it forthwith because this is not about fair pay; it's about imposing mandatory union deals on New Zealand workforces and making them less agile less flexible at a time when they need to be both of those. It's bringing back nationwide agreements across occupations and across industries making it more difficult for New Zealand businesses to have the agility and flexibility that they need. When we're talking about the context—and the Minister talked about the context—this is the day where we've announced that inflation has hit 7.2 percent. Inflation and the cost of living facing New Zealanders is out of control—over 3 percent for the sixth quarter in a row. National's plan to eliminate or to fight back against that inflation is about getting the Reserve Bank focused on its single mandate. One of the issues is about reducing costs in the system because this is a Government that point blank refuses to accept the basic proposition that if you add costs into the economy eventually many of those costs end up with the consumers. Secondly as well as dealing out of a context of a cost of living crisis where New Zealanders are struggling to pay for the things that they need in the supermarket to pay for the rent to get by—including the cleaners of this country—many New Zealanders are struggling to get by and facing real pressure at the checkout as well as that we've got an issue in terms of New Zealand's growth and investment. We live in a dangerous world. We live in a world where globalisation has been retreating where protectionism is rising. New Zealand as an economy is going through a difficult phase and we need to be focused on how we grow how we become more productive—that is how we deliver the higher living standards and the higher wages to which we all aspire. When we look at this legislation we don't see much hope on any of those fronts. What we saw introduced by this Minister—first up he rocked up here in Parliament with the fair pay bill and on day one had to introduce a massive change to the bill that he was just introducing. He was introducing a whole new backstop system because he thought he had the support of Business New Zealand but in terms of dealing with this he didn't. So what are our main concerns about this legislation? First and foremost that it makes our workforces less agile and less flexible at a time when they most need to be. Because ultimately what it means is that the same set of terms and conditions have to apply to large businesses and small businesses. Think of supermarkets or checkout operators which might be one group that we might hear from. So what's got to work for the very large Countdowns and New Worlds and Pak'nSaves also has to work for the little place in Hokianga with two people. It doesn't take too much imagination to think that there might be different requirements for both those circumstances. And if you're in a small little business trying to operate and make a living get by struggling you've gone through COVID you're struggling with all sorts of additional costs that have been thrown at you by this Government—another week's sick pay no trouble let's have it. Another public holiday yeah no trouble let's have it. A whole bunch of other things: higher minimum wage yes throw it all out there. Don't worry all these extra costs will magically just be absorbed by everybody and there won't be any impact on the prices that New Zealanders pay at the checkout. So this is the second thing: it will add to the costs that New Zealanders face. Interestingly enough Retail New Zealand did some surveys of New Zealanders on this legislation and found that only 29 percent of New Zealanders thought that this was good legislation—29 percent. But 75 percent were concerned about price increases that will come through because of this legislation because there is no magic in this world Minister Michael Wood—there is no magic. If you add extra costs on to businesses eventually they flow through to consumers. New Zealand consumers when they're trying to buy their broccoli when they're trying to buy their cauliflower when they're at the supermarket see the prices going up like that and they're rightly worried that this legislation will add to those costs and add to that pressure. So his timing in terms of bringing this out on a day when inflation is at 7.2 percent in New Zealand and mortgage rates are going up couldn't be worse. Another 63 percent of New Zealanders are worried about the fair pay surcharges that they can expect to be seen. Because if you think of the hospitality sector what will they be doing? They'll have a fair pay agreement right across the hospitality sector bringing in a whole bunch of penal rates for the weekends and for the evenings and for unsociable hours and of course what will that mean? Well it will mean more surcharges on the weekends or it may well be that places close. So 49 percent are worried about reduced retail hours that the shops won't be open anymore because they won't be able to afford to open because of the extra costs being imposed by this legislation. So as well as making our workplaces less flexible—giving workers less flexibility to have arrangements that suit them—this legislation adds costs to the New Zealand economy which will be paid by New Zealand consumers and those New Zealand consumers are particularly worried. Now there's two particular groups that are most affected those where what they're selling is ultimately discretionary—people don't have to buy it. Hospitality is one such sector and retail. Ultimately you don't have to buy a cup of coffee if it's going to be seven or eight bucks; you can stay home. Those businesses are increasingly under pressure under this Government. The other area of course is the internationally competitive business because the cost structure does matter. They might dream it away and think it doesn't but it does. People around the rest of the world want our products. If they are really good they'll pay a premium for them but they are still fundamentally interested in the price and so cost structure matters. There are lots of specific issues that we have with this bill. We are stridently opposed to the obnoxious triggering regime to start this process. So what happens is if you took for example retail workers—and there might be 100000 of them across the country; there might be 200000 of them across the country—all it takes is 1000 to sign up to start the fair pay agreement process; 1000. So it could be fewer than half of 1 percent if you're in a large industry. A tiny little minority can decide to start this process and once it's started there will be a fair pay agreement—there's no stopping it; there is nothing to stop it. So it starts and then everybody is drawn into this debate and it doesn't matter if you don't know anything about it; you don't have any say in it. You're not interested; it'll still affect you and tell you what you and your business and your employers have to do. That's outrageous it's wrong and we oppose it. The second thing with this is it reduces competition. So half the time the Government comes into Parliament and says We're tough. We're going to take on the duopolies in the supermarket regimes. We're going to toughen up competition." and then the other half of the time they bring in legislation that helps the very same big players in any market. So I mean think for a moment about how this impacts them. If you're talking about supermarket workers or checkout operators as a fair pay agreement who do you think's going to be organising it; who's going to be designing it? It's not going to be the little shop in Hokianga with two employees. No it's going to be the two big players that organise it. And do you think they'll do it in such a way that suits the Hokianga person with two people working for them? No they'll be doing it to suit them. This regulation like most regulation in the economic space helps the big players. Half the time they come into Parliament saying we're going to get tough on the duopoly in supermarkets; the other half the time they bring in legislation like this which makes it easier for them and harder for the small players. Because just think for a moment if you're talking about meal-time breaks and double pay and things that you can cope with if you've got 10000 employees but are impossible to deal with if you've got one employee working in a shop and it doesn't have the flexibility to—you just have to think for a moment of how unhelpful this will be for the small operators. It makes it difficult. This legislation includes a whole bunch of mandatory things that need to be considered as part of the misnamed fair pay agreement including base rates payment for overtime penalty rates. All these things have to be included in the fair pay agreement. Nowhere would you find any reference to the productivity of the other company. That's an irrelevant factor as far as this Government is concerned. If we're thinking about how you design higher incomes productivity is the key nowhere to be found. The National Party sees this legislation for what it is. It's about imposing mandatory union deals on New Zealand workforces. We don't want it it's not going to help and if we get a chance we will repeal this legislation as quickly as we can."