Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): Thank you Madam Chair. It is an absolute pleasure to stand up on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on Part 2 of this Employment Relations Amendment Bill and just in the nick of time too because it is time for the voice of reason—which New Zealand First obviously have been—after that emotive contribution from the member for Clutha-Southland on this particular part. I might say he has some previous on this. He's out scaring farmers as well which is unfortunate. I had the pleasure of sitting on the select committee on this bill the Education and Workforce Committee. What a fascinating process it was and we heard both sides very clearly come through. We heard from the unions and the employees and workers' groups who did outline some power imbalances and the fact that they had been disadvantaged by those power imbalances. The gap between those at the top and those on the bottom in New Zealand has been growing and that's something that this Government is absolutely committed to addressing. But on the same token we also heard the employers. They came in with their version of events and we listened and I think this was the select committee process absolutely working as it should. You get various views come in you boil down the arguments and you come out with what I think in this case—and New Zealand First certainly thinks—is a very good outcome for all concerned. Certainly also one of the mates of the National Party from Business New Zealand Kirk Hope—I would actually quote him. Kirk Hope said the changes resulted"—I modestly say—"from NZ First's influence in changing the Bill and business would be grateful for its input in striking a better balance between [employers and workers]." So I think that when you've got the likes of Kirk Hope and Business New Zealand coming out—and whilst he credited New Zealand First for those outcomes—it's actually the coalition working as it should. This is where we saw it we saw that with the multi-employer collective agreements and we saw it with the union clarifying those union access issues. On the 90-day trial which we took a keen interest in early on we do note that the Motu report and the evidence is pretty ambiguous. There's not really any one way or the other that the 90-day trials have had an effect on employment but anecdotally and just our gut feel as champions of the regions—and many of those small businesses are in the regions—is that those businesses with under 20 employees that don't have the access to HR departments could benefit from this and it would give people that have been marginalised in society the chance for a start in a business and the dignity of work. That actually accounts for the something like 97 percent I think of businesses that are small to medium sized enterprises with under 20 employees. So I think that's a win for those businesses. It's a pragmatic step. But then those bigger businesses the ones with over 20 employees—they've certainly shown a competence in building their business to quite a scale. They should have the ability to be able to handle their HR and they should have the ability to marshal their new employees through into solid employment. So we felt we struck a pretty good balance there. On the rest breaks or smoko as we used to call it in the old days the previous contributor once again was trying to put some scare tactics in. Basically we're just returning the law to what it was previously. I'm not sure what the year was but certainly under the previous Labour Government this was a provision in the law. The world did not collapse and I think that in the days when we're looking at things like mental health etc. we need workers to have the ability to have a break. By the vast majority this will be done through negotiation and will be considerate of the nature of the work. That is just the way that it will happen and on the odd chance that they can't come to an agreement then there will be an ability for workers to have their smoko. I think that's a fair go for Kiwis and New Zealand First certainly support that. Thank you."