Sowry Roger: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Sowry Roger: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:615;Page:10829] 
Hon ROGER SOWRY (National) 
: 
 I rise to speak in support of the motion moved by the leader of the National Party Dr Don Brash. It is important for this country that people know at the start of this year which political parties are lining up with the Government and which are lining up against it. There are too many political parties in Parliament today that are just a bob each way with United Future being the most flip-floppy of them all. It votes for the Government on confidence motions criticises legislation the Government is passing goes around the lobby groups promising to oppose it then votes for the same bills in the House. It is the most flip-floppy party in Parliament. 
But United Future is not alone in having that flip-flop sort of attitude. Even the New Zealand First Party has been known to start flip-flopping around with this Government. We saw that just before Christmas when New Zealand First voted for the Government’s Employment Relations Law Reform Bill which business all over New Zealand is now wound up about and campaigning against. I hope it is not too late for New Zealand First. I hope its members will have time over the summer to look at the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill and realise that that piece of legislation which the Prime Minister referred to in the Government’s speech earlier on this afternoon will do more to destroy employment opportunities than any other single piece of legislation this Government will deal with in its 3-year term. I hope New Zealand First members will join a campaign we are leading to oppose that legislation. 
Jim Peters 
: You run your own campaign! 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: Well New Zealand First says it is in that campaign. I think that is what the gentleman said. 
Jim Peters 
: You have yours; we’ve got ours. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: Mr Peters says they are in the campaign. That is good but it is not how they voted. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: The National Opposition has moved a motion of no confidence in this hopeless Labour Government. The test of that motion will be what other parties in the House do to it. Naturally Labour will vote against it but what will United Future do? Will it once again go in and vote as a matter of confidence in a Government that has laid out as a central plank for its programme over the next 12 months new employment legislation to which every business in New Zealand is opposed? Can any member in the House name one business group or one business that supports the Government’s approach on industrial relations? Not one does but the United Future party is happy to vote for the Government on confidence motions and is happy to support the Government as it wheels into Parliament employment legislation that will destroy jobs and restrict this nation’s growth. 
As a portent I guess of what is to come in employment law there is a press release today from the Amalgamated Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union. In the press release that organisation proudly announces that momentum in this country’s most significant industrial round is growing with hundreds of workers due to stop work in Auckland tomorrow. That is what is about to happen to this country with the new employment legislation that will put all the weight back into collective bargaining and multi-employer collective agreements. 
Jill Pettis 
: Shock horror! 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: The Labour Party may say “Shock horror!” but this new legislation means that small or trend-setting unions will set the terms and conditions for all workers in this country. In fact the press release states: “Workers covered by the agreement are holding stopwork meetings around the country to set claims and plan their negotiating strategy.” It goes on to say that this award relating to the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union will be “keenly followed by thousands of workers and employers”. It is seen as setting the trend for all other wage negotiations. 
Is that the sort of gridlocked economy the United Future party and the New Zealand First Party are happy to see us go back to? I ask that question for two reasons. The first is because New Zealand First voted for the introduction of that bill. Its members voted in favour of more union power. That is what they voted for. United Future which voted against its introduction will vote for Labour so that Labour can stay in office to implement the legislation. How will United Future members get on when they toddle around the business community saying that they oppose it? Here is their chance to stop it dead in its tracks this week. They can do that if they have the courage to do it. But when a party is 2.5 percent in the polls and falling its members are not about to go off and vote for an early Christmas. Someone who is No. 6 on a five-party list as Mr Baldock is sure as heck will not be doing that. He will not be puffing his chest out and voting here but he will be going around the businesses in Tauranga and saying to them: “Don’t worry I’m opposed to it.” 
I will be in Tauranga on Monday. I challenge Mr Baldock to come along to the chamber of commerce meeting and stand up and tell why he is supporting a Government that will be implementing that legislation. In Tauranga a survey was carried out that showed over 90 percent of the businesses in the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce were totally opposed to that legislation. He will not be doing anything about that at all. 
It is not only that. This legislation is an attack not just on large business but also on small business all over New Zealand. The changes that Labour will be implementing this year around the contracting out and sale of business provisions will mean that small businesses up and down the country will lose goodwill from their businesses. What are members opposite saying to small-business owners who have saved who have a mortgage on their house who employ four or five people and who will see goodwill wiped from their businesses? What are they saying about that? I do not think they are even responding. I think the emails I am getting from people who own small businesses telling me that they are contacting their local member— 
Darren Hughes 
: Oh Oh! 
Hon ROGER SOWRY 
: Mr Hughes says “Oh Oh!”. I tell him that he has not replied to the people writing to me who have a small business in Levin. I say to him that they are very worried their local member will not even reply to his emails. That tells us where those Labour members are at. They have decided that this legislation is what the unions want so that is what the unions are going to get. This legislation is a cheque for the Labour Party; that is all it is about. It will drive union membership up it will drive more money into the unions and it will therefore drive more money—through the affiliation fees—into the Labour Party. 
It is payback time for the Labour Party and for trade unions and the rest of the economy will bear the cost of it. At the end of the day it is the workers who will bear the cost because workers will not get jobs. Jobs will not be created because of the silly bureaucratic legislation that Parliament will pass this year—unless we defeat the Government in the vote on this confidence motion.