Curran Clare: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:310. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South):First of all I would just like to say warmest congratulations to you Mr Chair on your new position. Unfortunately though it is with deep disappointment that I rise to speak for the first time in the 51st Parliament on this particular bill which is probably one of the worst bills that we have seen put forward to us by this Government. Speaking to the commencement and title clauses of this bill I say this mirrors not only the 1991 Employment Contracts Act but also the Workplace Relations Act introduced by the 1996 Australian Howard Government. Unfortunately though at that time there was a confrontational approach by both Governments to unions and to workplace rights. This bill would be more aptly named the “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing Bill” because ultimately that is what it represents and ultimately we know that it is not good employment law.Just referring to what my colleague Chris Hipkins said earlier tonight about a potential constitutional crisis emerging from the confusion around the title of this Act there was a very apt phrase used by the late Gough Whitlam at the time of the constitutional crisis in Australia which was: “Well may we say ‘God Save the Queen’ because nothing will save the Governor-General!”. It may be that we never hear those words in New Zealand. It was not a great phrase to be used in Australia at that time but unfortunately the legislation that is being put before the Committee tonight has the effects of bringing into question constitutional issues and striking to the very heart of the contract between employers and employees.It is a particularly deep disappointment to hear that the Minister who is shepherding this bill through the House as we speak is the Minister who comes from a long line of workers in the rail industry and in the waterfront industry where there were conditions that were very hard fought for that are now being eroded as we see in the Chamber tonight. Unfortunately when he first spoke in the Chamber last week he painted the Opposition as irrational ranters like meerkats and he spoke as if we were cloth-cap socialists. Unfortunately the ideology that we are seeing through this bill actually comes from that side of the Chamber and not from this side of the Chamber because ultimately all we want and all the workers that stand behind us want is a fair go. Government members use words like “flexibility” and “small changes”. They paint the Opposition as irrational but it is the ideologues and the ideology that are coming from the other side.My colleague David Clark who just got cut off while reading from the list of collective agreements that are going to expire in the next couple of years started to read an important list of the workers who are actually going to be affected and who basically cover the whole spectrum. These are not just workers whom you would classify as being vulnerable workers. Every worker in this country essentially is going to be impacted on as a result of this bill. When you think about it at the moment so many of the workers in the health industry are very stressed and are not able to take breaks through the pressures that are being put on them. I will give as a good example of that nurses at Dunedin Hospital.