O'Connor Simon: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16811. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki):People do not want to change the Government. That is really clear in recent polls. Part of it is that when they listen in to debates like this they hear only backward talk from an Opposition living well back in the 1970s and the 1960s—if not the 1870s—and arguing the old tired arguments. You see one of the great things about being a National Party MP and a National Party member is that we believe in people. We believe optimistically that people can make the right decisions for themselves and their families. I think that something that the Opposition needs to contemplate within the context of this legislation the Employment Relations Amendment Bill is that it continuing to run around declaring every person it decides arbitrarily is a victim or a vulnerable group is actually contributing to that. It continues to keep people down. That is not to say that there are not people including in the area of workers who need help but if you always listen to the Opposition arbitrarily calling people victims holding them down telling them that they are no good—[Interruption] And some of them oh dear they put their hands on their heads and say: “How could this come from a person on the right wing?”. Well you know let us say that a lot of us have actually worked in the community for year after year in the prisons or with the army or in the streets with the workers. This is not just theory.When it comes to the dignity of people you want to give them the positive choices beginning with the opportunities to work and to tell them: “We have a belief in you that you can make the right decisions.” and not make continual excuses—excuses that keep people down. [Interruption] Oh those members hate it. They hate it. You see what we have heard from the other side is negativity pessimism and no vision and ultimately it comes down to a desire for control. That is what we are seeing being pushed back here.The Employment Relations Amendment Bill is introducing that flexibility taking us back to those original principles in employment relations. Yes we are looking to say that we do not want absolute set rest breaks in law. We want that flexibility because you know right at the moment—to use a quick analogy—we do not want to stop because the MPs’ agreement says that we need a 5-minute break at 8 o’clock. That is not how the real world works. It is the same for the people in the nursing professions health professions and so on. We are allowed to have that flexibility.We have heard a lot of concern around the partial strikes. Well all we have done around that is make it more clearly defined so that people know where they stand. When it comes to bargaining we on this side believe that Kiwis can make the right decisions. They can choose to go collectively and deal with the unions or they can choose—like people like me in the past—to negotiate individually. Do you know why? Because we believe optimistically that Kiwis are smart that Kiwis can make that right decision and that they will generously make that right decision.There is a lot of good in this bill. The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee spent a lot of time considering this bill. I certainly acknowledge that there were thousands of submissions. Of course it is important to say that a lot of those were form submissions and they said the same thing. A lot of them as my colleague from Coromandel was saying were from the unions. That does not invalidate them—they absolutely have the right to speak—but of course there is a range. They have that ability to talk and we are very happy for that to happen but sheer numbers do not necessarily speak to the quality or I suppose the range.Hon Member: Labour’s union mates.SIMON O’CONNOR: Absolutely and there is an element of that of course around control and it comes back to why those members do not like this. They want to control. They want to control the way places are run in the same way that they want to control logging now I believe. They want to control the electrical market—Hon Member: Labour knows best.SIMON O’CONNOR: Absolutely—Labour knows best! Was it a hands-on policy? I have said it once before. They want their hands on your wallet and round your throat. They want to control New Zealanders. We do not believe in that.