Ardern Jacinda: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 27 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6289. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACINDA ARDERN (Labour): After the period in this country’s history only 5 years ago when there was a sense of unity around fixing issues of health and safety that led to tragedies like the tragedy we saw at Pike River we now find ourselves in a situation some years later where that sense of unity and sense of collaborative purpose from this Parliament has been lost. It has been lost for a very good reason. Essentially along the way too many compromises of politics compromises based on interest groups and compromises that were ultimately unnecessary and could ultimately lead to harm have all found their way into this piece of legislation and led us as a Parliament to lose that opportunity that had been borne out of what was an extraordinary tragedy. Perhaps that is why you see the symbolism of a Parliament that gathered together to share in the grief that those families at Pike River had so many years ago to a situation now where when those families come to Parliament that unity seems to have been lost.It is a regret therefore for the Labour Party that we are unable to support this legislation. And there was a point where we thought it might have been possible. We supported the bill as it was introduced into Parliament. As my colleague Iain Lees-Galloway who has worked tirelessly on this bill along with colleagues like Sue Moroney said it was a bill that was based on sound international evidence. It was based on a law that had demonstrated that it could work well in places like Australia. It was based on the recommendations of two really important reports—including the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy and the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety. It was built out of evidence we should have listened to in this House and evidence that could have created a pathway for us to come to a collective cross-party agreement.And it was an overdue piece of work. Unfortunately workplace health and safety had become an area that was somewhat demonised. You would often hear minor abuses of health and safety legislation that made it sound like health and safety had this “PC gone mad” element to it. That is wholly unfortunate because beneath all of that people were dying in our workplaces. I feel particularly strongly about this. I have a family member a wonderful relative of mine whom I love dearly who works in the forestry industry. I fear for him and I have talked to him about this situation that we have in New Zealand. He is vehement that we need change to protect the workers in that area.So underneath all of this perception that had been built up over the years—unfortunately for ideological reasons—that we had gone too far in health and safety legislation deaths were occurring. People were being harmed in our workplaces. The time had most certainly come for us as my colleague Iain Lees-Galloway has said to take and make use of the opportunity of a lifetime—of a generation—for this Parliament to make changes that were lasting and that would make a real difference.We saw though the National Party implode over this piece of legislation. What we saw introduced changed dramatically we lost the ability to work cross-party and all over what? Well we saw for instance exemptions put in around small businesses. As soon as you create exemptions you create inconsistencies. You create scenarios that do not quite make sense. Even from a small-business person’s perspective inconsistences can be as problematic as just being compliant with a law that applies to everyone. As soon as you employ that one extra person suddenly you are in. You are up from 20 to 21 and suddenly you are included and you need to know a whole lot of extra additional information. Well I can tell you now as the small-business spokesperson for Labour I speak to a lot of industry associations a lot of small-business representative groups. Not one of them raised the issue with me about being concerned about having to have health and safety reps—not one. Yet the National Party carved it out unnecessarily—unnecessarily in my view.We have got a situation where agriculture exemptions and everything that has been canvassed in this House has created a mockery and we did not deal with corporate manslaughter—another lost opportunity. We lost sight of our purpose around this health and safety legislation and I share the absolute disappointment of my colleagues for that lost opportunity. But more important I share the disappointment of the families who have experienced failed legislation.