Connell Brian: Status of Redundancy Payments Bill — Second Reading 
Connell Brian: Status of Redundancy Payments Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10433] 
BRIAN CONNELL (National—Rakaia) 
: 
 I thank the House for the opportunity to take a call on the Status of Redundancy Payments Bill. At the outset I have to say that I was not on the Commerce Committee which considered this legislation but if I had been I would have strongly opposed it. This legislation is absolute garbage. I really do not know who thinks up this stuff. It is the worst type of socialist claptrap I have encountered since I have been in this House. Who thought of it? Who created it? Is it that member’s bill? 
Rod Donald 
: No. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: I would not own it either. Who owns this bill? It is the most anti-business legislation that I have seen for ages. All that it will do is to add to the cost of compliance which is already killing this country’s businesses. 
I will give an example of why I am saying that. I had the opportunity to speak to some executives from a company called Weyerhaeuser the other day. For the edification of the members on the Government side of the House that company turns over US$22 billion a year. Its executives came to New Zealand to look at a small investment the company has in Nelson. In conversation with its executives they said to me they had brought a chequebook and were going to do something about extending the company’s investment here. They found that the compliance regime in this country was the biggest turn-off to business anywhere in the world. They said that we grew great trees and had a great country but our compliance regime and the Resource Management Act in particular was something that Weyerhaeuser just could not afford. The tragedy is that the executives of that company left this country without opening its chequebook. 
All the risk in this legislation is piled on the employer. Already employers work harder than most people. They risk everything in most cases. They mortgage their homes. This is the worst kind of double whammy imaginable. How hard does the Government want to make it and how much is enough? With its appetite for tax and for knocking hardworking Kiwis how much will be enough? 
 That is the question those members should be asking themselves. I bet the members across on the Government side of the House cannot answer that. I believe there is a misconception in this country that all business is large—that all business can afford this measure. The reality is that businesses employing 10 employees or fewer make up 90 percent of the incorporated businesses in this country. 
Marc Alexander 
: They can’t afford it. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: No they cannot afford it. Business people risk everything in order to get into business and then suddenly they get hit with this legislation. 
Whatever happened to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work? Who says the relationship has to continue past that point? That is not fair and is not reasonable. Who risked the capital in the first instance? Who risked their life savings? Surely businesses have paid enough before going belly up without the Government coming along then and saying there is a double whammy and it wants a bit more from them. The employee-employer relationship is essentially about work not about non-work. [ 
Interruption 
] A couple of members on the Government side of the House are calling out. They have never been in business I am sure; otherwise they would not make such stupid comments. How much blood does the Government want? How much is enough? Unless we address this issue we will just drive more and more businesses and business people out of business and out of this country. They will become so risk-averse that they will not have the appetite to get involved in business because it will not be worth it. 
Let me give members another example. When I worked in this country in the early 1990s I got involved with a company called Serco. In fact there were four brave guys who saw an opportunity. They looked at a company that I think was called Works and Development Services Corporation said they thought they could organise a management buy-out there and asked whether I could assist them. I said yes we should have a look at it. They paid about $5 million for the assets but there was a contingent liability on the books for redundancy of $35 million. Members should think that through. If legislation such as this had been invoked then that buy-out would not have happened. Those four guys—they were bright guys and also brave—took a risk. They saw an opportunity and were prepared to mortgage their homes which they did. They were able to talk a bank into backing them on the basis that it saw the same opportunity that they saw. If they had seen under legislation a contingent liability of $35 million to be paid out regardless of the circumstances they would not have taken that risk. That company is a success; it is now an international business. It employed something like 1100 people in this country in my day and now it is one of the success stories not only of New Zealand but also of Australasia. But with the short-sighted nonsense that this Government is driving that would never never have happened. That is the type of success story that the National Party is prepared to help to drive and will drive once we get the opportunity. 
This legislation is the worst kind of nonsense. It shows the worst kind of business ignorance I have encountered for a long time—all care and no responsibility. Is it not easy to spend someone else’s money? That is a concept that the Government members will understand because that is all they have done all their lives. They have been ticket clippers and nothing else. No one has answered this question yet: who thought this bill up? Who in the House is prepared to put up a hand and say this bill is his or her piece of legislation? Can anyone name that person? I am listening but the House has gone awfully quiet. Whose legislation is this? Has that person ever been in business? 
Marc Alexander 
: It belongs to the socialists. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: It is a combined effort is it? I did not appreciate that. I did not realise it was a combined effort. Have those people over there on the Government benches ever risked anything let alone risked everything? Mr Perry knows the answer to that. I ask him whether those members have risked anything? 
Edwin Perry 
: No. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: They do not know what it is like to be in business. It is very easy to spend someone else’s money. This bill represents the worst type of tall-poppy syndrome I have ever seen. 
Debate interrupted.