Davis Kelvin: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Davis Kelvin: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 I agree entirely with my colleague Darien Fenton that I would not have been too fussed about the word “Workers’ ” being left in the title of this bill. To me the word “workers” returns a bit of the personal touch to this bill. We have to remember that workers are the people whose sweat and tears are what carries industry and business. By removing the word “Workers’ ” from this title we are just depersonalising this whole bill and making out that workers do not mean a lot. 
I do not really understand the purpose of this bill and why it is necessary. We all agree that secret ballots for strikes are fine. It is just the common practice that carries on now but the removal of the word “Workers’ ” from the title I think depersonalises and desensitises this bill. It is just another one of these bills that National is infamous for—bashing workers and their rights their conditions and their pay. That is what this bill is really all about. That is the underlying menace of this bill. It is just another dig—continuing the work of this National Government since it was elected—at workers and their rights. It chips away at the very people whose sweat and industry carries this Government forward. 
We have to remember that when we talk about workers we are talking about people. We are talking about the mums and dads who have families and kids and who work in the factories the abattoirs and the various places all around the country. They are people and we should be looking after them because it is their work that lifts the country. We have to remember that. We cannot desensitise ourselves to the very people whom we should be helping to make this country go forward. 
I believe that there is no reason to remove the word “Workers’ ” from the title and just have the title as the Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill. I think that is pointless. We should keep the word “Workers’ ” in the title so that it reminds us that we are talking about people as we go through this bill. 
Again this bill continues what National has started. We have a litany—in fact it is a rap sheet—of what this National Government has done to erode workers’ rights. If we put all these pages together it would be literally as long as my arm. We have the employment relations legislation that introduced the 90-day trial period. This bill is just a continuation of what was started then. That was one of the first pieces of legislation that went through this House during the time when I was first elected to Parliament. This bill is just a continuation—more chipping away at workers’ rights. 
Of course we then look at the pitiful rises in the minimum wage. I think it was 50c in 2009; again that shows workers getting hammered by this Government through pitiful hourly wage rises. The minimum wage went up 50c the first time and I think the second time it went up a massive 25c. That really highlights the value that this Government places on workers on people who do the hard yards and that word “Workers’ ” is being removed from the title. The Employment Relations (Rest Breaks and Meal Breaks) Amendment Bill denied vulnerable workers their basic rights to minimum breaks during a working day. Workers were attacked once again; a continuation as I say of the rap sheet from the National Government. I do not know what National has against workers. I do not know what it has against people the mums and dads of this country who get out there and try to earn a living to feed their kids to put a roof over their heads and to put clothes on their backs. I do not understand why this Government wants to take another little pot-shot at workers in the form of this bill.