Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): Thank you for the opportunity—Hon Member: Oh this will be good.LAWRENCE YULE: —it will be good—to speak to this bill the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. First of all I do want to acknowledge my colleague in front of me the Hon Scott Simpson because unlike many of you he has been on the road for months. He has talked to employers all around New Zealand in around 40 meetings and he gets it. He gets it. He has heard exactly what I've heard in my electorate. Every single employer I have spoken to—every single one—has said that all this type of legislation does—Jamie Strange: How many?LAWRENCE YULE: —is speed up automation—hundreds Mr Strange. Hundreds. All it does is speed up automation as companies try to work around these new things. I find it ironic really that coming from the other side in an area where they proudly boast there is full employment—full employment—they would see that this could somehow be a good thing.There have been two things that have really irked employers: first of all the fact that unions can enter the workplace in a more significant way they can now and the second was when the Minister came out on national TV and said that if employers could not pay the minimum wage and the new minimum wage they should get out of business. That is so far removed from how hard it is for employers to make money in small cafeterias restaurants all those things and Mr Chair—I'm coming back to the bill and Part 1 as you're about to remind me—it's really important that we understand the dynamic here.I want to particularly come back to new section 62A inserted by clause 18 which is what the Privacy Commissioner said. I'm coming back—and I know the Minister shakes his head—because he said I respectfully disagree with the Privacy Commissioner." That's what he said—stood up in this committee not a short time ago and said that. That submission from the Privacy Commissioner was scathing—scathing—and I tell you why it's scathing and I want the members of the other side to think about this. Why are unions treated so differently in this bill under the privacy provision than all sorts of other service providers? Why do unions have this part of the bill enacted for their benefit? Why don't we say the same about superannuation trusts? Banking trusts? Medical insurers? No we are choosing unions specifically to have a provision inserted in this bill that the only way of getting out of it is if you physically say "I want to get out of it."If this side of the Chamber as an example to put a corollary back at you put up a piece of legislation that said whenever a new employer does something we automatically give the names and addresses and phone numbers of the National Party to that employer there would be outrage on that side of the Chamber. But what you're saying here is we will automatically if they don't sign or if they say they're happy to be contacted give that information to the union.So I have heard what the Minister said and he respectfully disagrees but I have not heard one reason so far as to what his differentiation is on privacy—not one—other than that there is an imbalance occurring; there has been an imbalance and we're seeking to address that. So I'd like the Minister to stand up and tell me and the committee exactly why unions should be treated so differently and specifically in the privacy provision of this bill. As we look at rewriting the balance as the Minister has said I would argue that there is no need. The market at the moment is giving the balance. People in my electorate—if they don't like the terms and conditions—they just go to another company because there is that much of a shortage of skilled workers. That's what they say to me. That's what employers say to me: "We don't need any of this. We don't need the unions to be heavy-handing us. We are looking after and keeping our employees because if we don't we are not good employers and they simply leave."So in closing my final plea to the Minister is this: can he please explain to this committee why the Privacy Commissioner made his views known and why he thinks unions should be treated differently to banks insurance companies medical insurance companies and every other Tom Dick and Harry?"