Katene Rahui: Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
Katene Rahui: Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
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RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 When one looks at the explanatory note of this Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 2) one sees that the general policy statement comes across as extremely positive. It tells us that the purpose of the bill is to provide more flexibility provide greater choice and ensure a balance of fairness for both employers and employees in the principal Act while improving its overall operation and efficiency. 
When we turn to the Maori Party employment relations policy it appears that there is considerable room for comfort if we are to look at our policy in this proposed bill all things being equal. Our policy states that we will support the right for employees to be treated fairly and with dignity in a safe and healthy workplace. But the key statement is “all things being equal”. I refer to comments from a submission from Te Hautu Kahurangi o Aotearoa the Tertiary Education Union of Aotearoa. It states: “This amendment will further turn the balance of power away from employees in particular young and vulnerable employees and those employed in low unionised work sites. Basically the bill will allow employers to dismiss employees without reason or justification clearly contradicting the concept of ‘natural justice’ built up in New Zealand employment law over time through case law.” 
OK so let us look at the current situation for the young and vulnerable employees that Te Hautu Kahurangi o Aotearoa refers to. These are the things that our membership also raises with us when they talk about employment matters. They talk about trade training and work experience and about how we can support our young people into secure and sustainable employment. Our membership comes to us with some amazing ideas like a skills barter system within communities. This would work something along the lines of a carpenter trading some of his or her skills for the skill of a plasterer and vice versa. 
Our members call on us to reduce the unemployment rate amongst Maori and they ask us to fight anti-worker legislation. But guess what? They do not ask us to extend trial periods to all employers. They do not ask us to specify the role and enforcement powers of labour inspectors. They want us to have a mechanism in place by which we resolve employment problems more quickly and more efficiently and of course we want to be more effective in restoring the confidence of all parties in various aspects of employment relationships such as the personal grievance system. We want to do this so that the negative impact of these problems on workplace productivity will be reduced. 
But we also want to talk about the things that really matter to us the things that we as a party believe are critical for us to advance which have to be employment opportunities for our young people. If we look at the demographic profile of our population we know that one in four babies born are now born into tangata whenua homes. But if we look a little further down the life cycle we find that in the latest quarter the unemployment rate for young Maori aged from 15 to 24 has risen from 26.7 percent to 26.8 percent over the year and for our Pasifika young people it has risen from 27.9 percent to 29.8 percent over that same time. In comparison across all young people the unemployment rate is 16.2 percent. 
This is the key issue that confronts our members and it is the key issue that confronts us in this bill. For how can we—indeed how can any members—willingly act in a way that we know will most likely exacerbate the fragile employment status of our most vulnerable? The Maori Party cannot support this bill.