Soper Lesley: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Soper Lesley: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:640;Page:10505] 
LESLEY SOPER (Labour) 
: 
 What we had there from that National Party member Kate Wilkinson was a rave—an anti-union rave. Let union members negotiate the deals for union members and let people who are on individual contracts who refuse to join unions negotiate their own deals. Let them do that. But I ask the member not to come here and give an anti-union speech across this Chamber as though she somehow has gold in her hands. That is just absolute nonsense. 
The fact of the matter is that the National side of the House is anti-union and that member used that speech to attack some very good unions that are working hard for their members. The leader of the National Party and other National Party members bounce from cloud to cloud trying very hard to find something to give themselves a little bit of substance and another member of the National Party by the name of Mr Bill English claims to be the one grinding away at the real work. The real work is actually being done by Labour Ministers in a range of portfolio areas. That is the real work while those members bounce around on clouds with very little style looking for a bit of substance and not finding it. Substance is something they know nothing about as has just been illustrated by that last member’s speech. 
I want to talk briefly about the real work in Vote Labour led by that excellent member my colleague the Hon Ruth Dyson. I tell the members of the Committee who did not really concentrate on the vote at all that this vote is about providing services to promote and support fair and productive employment relationships safe and healthy people in workplaces and issues—if members across the Chamber can recognise them—like safe management of hazardous substances. This vote is actually about creating innovative and productive workplaces and that means becoming a high-wage high-skilled and high-value economy. From that last speech I really wonder whether the members on that side of the Chamber know what a high-wage high-skilled high-value economy might mean. 
To do that we need to focus on things like raising skill levels and we are doing that work in this vote. We need to focus on producing more globally competitive firms and we do. We need to concentrate on increasing business investment in equipment and technology and there are many fine examples of that. We need to concentrate on increasing the value of work through raising workplace productivity and that means changes in work culture and practices. That sort of work is actually happening which may come as a surprise to members on the Opposition side. 
We need to concentrate on working with business networks and that is very well done by the Hon Ruth Dyson and by other members like the Hon Lianne Dalziel. We need to concentrate on that particularly in the small and medium enterprise sector. There is some very good work going on there productive work that it would appear members on the Opposition side know little about. We need to concentrate on things like providing online tools such as Holidays Online and the Employment Agreement Builder. I really wonder whether the members on the other side have even looked at some of the online tools of the Department of Labour. Perhaps they should look at the “ask a question” feature. It might do them some good. They might get some sensible answers that would help them when they go back to the real world outside Parliament after the 2008 election and actually have to know about things like business progress. 
The Labour-led Government has a strong focus on proactive approaches and those approaches are working. These are approaches that concentrate on higher-value work higher-quality working lives social dialogue and the awareness of fundamental rights for workers like the right to negotiate collectively which the last speaker might like to do a little bit more research on. All of that is bearing fruit. We now have every employee entitled to 4 weeks’ annual leave. Paid parental leave is available for the self-employed as well and remember that it is this Government that has increased paid parental leave to 14 weeks. The pay and employment equity 5-year plan of action is under way and that is something that members on this side are very proud of. National members might remember a certain Employment Equity Act that they repealed in 1990 as soon as they became the Government. Other things like quality flexible work are on the agenda. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
Vote agreed to.