Mapp Wayne: Holidays Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Mapp Wayne: Holidays Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I guess the Government will seek the assistance of its coalition partner which no doubt will boldly sally forth and vote for this bill. One of the measures of being in this Parliament particularly for a common-sense party is whether one can vote “Yes” or “No” to things. Abstentions do not seem to me to be a common-sense approach. We are put in this Parliament by the voters of New Zealand to make up our minds. I would have thought that was a pretty obvious common-sense approach. [ 
Interruption 
] Well I suppose that is really the point is it not? Common sense does imply that one has a mind to make up as my colleague Maurice Williamson just said. The “common-sense party” apparently has no mind. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Mindless! 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: Mindless! Therefore it abstains. Will it abstain on this part? This is another part in which the Government states that it is fixing up the problems of the Act. What it is actually doing is loading costs on to employers. That is what it is doing. 
The Minister of Labour will say that the Government is making it easier for employers in that if an employer suspects that an employee has been untruthful in claiming sickness the employer can demand a medical certificate. On the face of it that sounds reasonable. There is a sting in the tail though: the employer has to pay. We know how much medical certificates cost. They cost at least $50 and in many cases $60 or $70. The Government knows perfectly well that in many cases it simply will not be worth it for the employer to make that request. So it has given a remedy that is no remedy at all. It has said that here is a reasonable measure—the sort of measure I guess that United Future might support— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: If they could make up their minds. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
:—if those members could make up their minds—but it has made it nugatory by adding the provision that the employer has to pay for it. 
That is the sort of thing we expect from “Swainy and the boys”. He is a man who goes out and pretends to be the friend of the employer. In fact he is not. His background and his record are as a dyed-in-the-wool unionist. He acts here fundamentally under the direction of ideology driven from his union past. All the honeyed words we hear from that man—that he is a friend of the employer—are completely false because in fact whenever he is given a choice he harkens to his union background. That is true in this bill and it will be true in the next bill. 
That is why we see this vicious sting in the tail. The Government renders this part completely pointless by making the employer pay for the medical certificate. It is not as if the employers of New Zealand do not have enough compliance costs. This Government after all has gone out of its way to load compliance costs on to employers. All the provisions in this legislation and in the Holidays Act add costs on to employers. All the Government’s union-based legislation—the Employment Relations Act and the amendments to it that we will be dealing with later—adds costs on to employers. All the Government’s taxes—about 23 new taxes on employers—add costs to employers. Today the Government is asking Parliament to vote for another additional cost on employers. 
I want to hear from United Future whether it will support this bill. Will United Future support this legislation? Every indication we have had so far is that it will support it. It has said that it is part of its magnificent meal of an elephant—one bite at a time. A meal of an elephant—large beast that it is—requires about 3000 bites. United Future will give the Government 3000 opportunities to fix up the legislation.