Mitchell Clayton: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: General Debate[Sitting date: 30 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:10022. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I rise to take a call for New Zealand First in the general debate today. I have to say I have never seen as much animation or excitement from the Hon Simon Bridges as I did with his contribution today. In fact at one point he got so excited he almost launched himself across the lectern and I actually think he touched a little bit of cloth because he very quickly stood bolt upright and his cheeks were closed tight and his eyes were wide open and the reality was he tempered himself down. But we know and New Zealanders know that he must be taking his stupid pills because there is nothing in anything that we have heard from the Minister of Transport that has an integrated transport policy that includes rail. We have to take New Zealand seriously and involve rail into our discussions. I am not here in the general debate to have a complete smack at Mr Bridges but he does make it very easy I have to say.Today we are on the precipice of change. Come Monday 4 April we are heading into new uncharted territory with the legislation arising from the Health and Safety Reform Bill coming in. There is a lot of fear and a lot of that fear is driven by uncertainty of what is going to take place come 4 April. We had questions—patsy questions all of them patsies—with Mr Woodhouse today in the House to try to bat away some of those concerns. The reality is that there are some serious concerns but the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and this Government need to take ownership and responsibility for some of those concerns because the reality of it is that we are coming so close to this new legislation and very little has been done to appease and ease the minds of the rank and file of New Zealanders. And there is no guarantee that this Minister can give the people of New Zealand that there are not going to be some serious changes when it comes to people being pulled before the courts and having some hefty fines put upon them. Case law will determine the way of this new legislation arising from the Health and Safety Reform Bill when it goes into action on 1 April.Also the reality is that only 5 weeks ago—5 weeks ago—the Minister released the regulations to actually encompass this legislation that is coming into the days and the lives of all New Zealanders who are going to be affected by it. Five weeks for the regulations to come in is just not good enough and this Government is flying by the seat of its pants trying to push something down the throats of New Zealanders without giving them real time to engage and to get to appease themselves and settle into what is going on. On 18 and 25 February the 33 regulations were put through giving New Zealanders only 5 weeks to adjust and get themselves ready. I think this is an embarrassment to this Government.But let us be honest it is used to being embarrassed in recent times—you only need to look at the flag referendum. That was a bit of a Watership Down a little bit of egg on the face—a little bit of Cadbury Creme Egg down the side of your cheek there—and of course we have had the Northland by-election. But get used to it: there are going to be plenty more embarrassments coming your way as New Zealanders know the real truth behind this Government which is not actually standing up for the best interests of New Zealanders. You are looking after your corporate buddies your foreign nationals and all those people coming in and making it harder for New Zealanders to own their own homes. The list goes on; I could spend hours just talking about that—how is my time looking Mr Speaker? You are looking at me like my time is up but I am still going.Mr SPEAKER: You have got a minute and a half.CLAYTON MITCHELL: Communication is the key with the new Health and Safety Reform Bill and we have got to see more from this Government to appease the minds. Perception is reality because unfortunately we have got school principals who are stopping children from climbing their trees because their perception of this bill is that that is what they have to be fearful of. What we could actually look at are the unintended consequences of the Health and Safety Reform Bill and one of those unintended consequences is those not-for-profit organisations that are seeing their qualified and valued board members stepping down. You only have to look at Peter Jackson for example who stepped off his Weta Workshop board. There is not a more qualified person to be taking a position and he is stepping down out of fear of the legislation arising from the Health and Safety Reform Bill—and his fear is a reality. There are organisations throughout our country—in fact most councils have council-controlled organisations which are boards put together by councils. They get seconded on there they get paid a small honorarium—they are stepping down from those positions because they are up for huge amounts of penalties if there is a serious accident a breach or a death under their charge.We needed to cut out clause 29AA—that was an amendment New Zealand First put through right back when we were debating this to actually indemnify people in certain positions to stop things of this insidious nature happening the future. In saying that I think health and safety is something we need to make a priority but this Government has not done a great job of integrating it into the rest of New Zealand. Thank you.