King Colin: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
King Colin: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 I must take my hat off to the wisdom of my three National Party colleagues who spoke on the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. They were very aptly able to grasp the nettle and identify the problems that the bill has. Wayne Mapp was very very good and Paula Bennett spoke from the heart on behalf of small business. 
When members look at the bill before us for its third reading—a bill that National is opposed to—they can feel sorry for people who are exploited and there are those people out there. However when we look into the devil in the detail of this bill we see that it also severely beats up a number of those 300000 small businesses. Those businesses which are family-operated and mainly owner-operated do not have the huge capability that is perceived in the minds of members on the other side of the House to throw unwanted discarded people on to the scrap heap. There are also first-time business entrepreneurs who wish to start out to buy a plant and to go in for a contract. They will be turned off by this legislation. I am afraid that in the intent of trying to sort out an issue that does exist this legislation has unfortunately gone to the extreme and is a total disincentive and beats up on small business. 
Paula Bennett 
: How can small businesses survive? 
COLIN KING 
: It will be remarkably difficult. I do not know how they will survive. In an area that I am probably more familiar with—the shearing industry—the legislation just totally defies logic. In fact it cast my mind back to what happened across the Ditch in 1985. The unions were trying to justify their existence and they took to court an issue over the wide comb versus narrow comb affair. The situation was very similar to what we are seeing in the House at the moment where the unions are asking to be paid back for the favours they have given to the Labour Party. They have called in a due on the basis of getting their favours back—“You support us and we will support you.” So the Employment Relations Amendment Bill is really the “Employment and Relationship between the Labour Party and the Unions Amendment Bill”—a bill that does nothing to promote enterprise and productivity in this country. 
It is with great pride that members on the Opposition side of the House speak up on behalf of businesses medium and small— 
Paula Bennett 
: And workers. 
COLIN KING 
: —and workers for that matter. One thing we want to make very clear is that on this side of the House we have a vision. We want to see this country go forward prosper and grow enterprise. I am a great believer in that. I want my children to succeed and I want my grandchildren to succeed. I want to see the people I pick up at 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning when I go shearing be empowered as well. I do not see that this legislation sends the right message—in actual fact it does the absolute opposite. We have a generation of young people out there— 
Peter Brown 
: It would help if you read it. 
COLIN KING 
: —I say to New Zealand First—who are having difficulty making a decision to commit to employment. I was reading a publication stating that Generation Y today needs leadership. If the Government does not carry on beating up on small business it will get a bit of leadership. Members on the Government side need to pull their heads out of their laps and start to think about what will take this country forward. [ 
Interruption 
] The only vulnerable workers we have in this country at this time are those people who are prepared to get off their backsides work hard pay taxes and improve themselves. 
Paula Bennett 
: What do they do with taxpayers’ money? 
COLIN KING 
: They keep spending it. I ask members to think about the wide comb versus narrow comb affair. The unions argued that narrow combs should be used because wide combs gave an advantage to stronger men. What a lot of nonsense that was. 
This bill is a lot of nonsense. It goes far too far. It has been 15 ways to screw a nation. The employment relations legislation was set over here originally but it has been systematically moved to a stage where it has become totally clear that we will regulate regulate and suffocate this nation’s economy. 
But National has a vision. It will take this nation forward and inspire its younger generation to cultivate those wonderful qualities of industriousness and entrepreneurship that we have heard about from speakers on the Opposition side of the House. We will be very proud of the nation. We all want a nation that people who have left already will want to come back to to enjoy the beautiful standard of living— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Where is your policy? 
COLIN KING 
: It is a vision at the moment. This bill is a problem and a very bitter pill we have to swallow. It is so unpalatable and is totally unjustified. One of the things that sticks in my throat is that although the bill claimed originally to look after what the Government calls “workers who could be abused” in effect the bill beats up on those 300000 small businesses. 
If one stifles enterprise one stifles vision. National has a vision of where we want this nation to go but it is certainly not built around this ridiculous Employment Relations Amendment Bill which is just hand holding between the unions—paying back deals for elections. I have just about run out of words to describe to members opposite just how pathetic they are. I articulate that National has great satisfaction in speaking up for small business family business first-time business operators and owner-operators. I would hope that after the next election when National is in Government we can provide inspiration and a vision for the young people of this country.