O'Connor Simon: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 05 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10790. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Is it not a paradox that we have been listening to an hour and a half you know of “This is an attack on workers.” and then it is someone from the Labour Party who stands up and starts to point at someone who is actually doing some hard work in the House. I think the word is “paradox”—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! [Interruption] Order!Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Point of order—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! Just a minute Mr Cosgrove. The member cannot refer to points of order that have just been held. The issue is closed; it is not for him to do so.SIMON O’CONNOR: I thought it was purely hypothetical and—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order!Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You have just made two definitive rulings. I know that the member is a new member but you made a very very clear ruling that it is not appropriate to challenge the Chair and he does it again. You have some course of action available to you.Tim Macindoe: The member on his feet had barely begun. He was not even halfway through his first sentence. I challenge that member to say how he could possibly have known what he was—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! I know it is one of those debates. I just ask the members to show some restraint. I have called the honourable member. Would he please get on with his speech in this debate. Chaos may be the parent of creation—SIMON O’CONNOR: Indeed.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): —but in this place we will have order.SIMON O’CONNOR: We will indeed.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): I have just given a ruling.Hon Member: He’s trifling.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: No I am not trifling. I think it is important because the Chair has ultimate authority in this House. The point was made that I was being challenged in respect of my conduct—taking a point of order. The reason I knew that the member was out of order was that the whip may note the Assistant Speaker leapt to his feet and ruled that he was out of order. Wakey wakey.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! Mr Cosgrove you were doing exceptionally well and then you had to ruin it right at the end.SIMON O’CONNOR: Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker. I am all for bringing order out of chaos. I think the original Hebrew or Aramaic is “tohu wa bohu”.But as I was saying hypothetical and paradoxical is an element of what we have heard tonight as we have heard basically a number of philosophical positions being put forward. One of the primary ones is the whole Hegelian element of master and slave. We have heard of power dynamics which is delightfully Marxist and for some who want to be slightly slightly more modern it is very Foucault. The problem with allof those people is firstly they do not know what we are talking about. Secondly of course those are names of a past and discredited philosophy.This bill the Employment Relations Amendment Bill is not hypothetical. It is not paradoxical. It is about balance and it is about trust. This is about rebalancing dynamics within the employment sector. We have heard a number of things here tonight but I have got only a few moments to speak to it. The first is around the meal and rest breaks. Most of us have enjoyed them in different ways. This bill does not get rid of them; this just steps away from being prescriptive. This is about maintaining a clear signal to employees and employers that they can negotiate these breaks; it does not get rid of them. It is all about flexibility. At the ultimate end this is about trusting Kiwis.Sue Moroney: Oh that old chestnut—there’s power in that relationshipSIMON O’CONNOR: Ah yes we hear “power relationship” again—old term Hegelian philosophy. This is about trusting Kiwis. This is about trust and this is about balance. This is moving away from the hypothetical and the paradoxical. This is moving on to real good legislation. I commend this bill to the House. [Interruption]