Foster-Bell PaulPAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): E Te Mana Whakawā Tuarua tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou katoa e ngā mema o Te Whare. I take great pleasure in supporting the Employment Relations (Allowing Higher Earners to Contract Out of Personal Grievance Provisions) Amendment Bill in this first reading debate as has been introduced by my friend and colleague the honourable member for Coromandel Scott Simpson. It is a very sensible bill and it is quite extraordinary in my view that it has elicited such extraordinary caterwaulings from members of the Opposition.We have had argumentum ad Hitlerum from the New Zealand First party which perhaps best personifies some of those arguments I would have thought. We have had an extraordinary backflip such an extraordinary backflip from Mr Iain Lees-Galloway that I think he will have to take some physiotherapy given that he has completely contorted his position around Mr Little's early support for these sensible and actually relatively small amendments that have been introduced in this bill. And again we have had a contribution from the Green Party which is extraordinary in that the member Denise Roche who is obviously against this bill is clearly quite unfamiliar with—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Can we just calm things down. It is very difficult to hear. Allow the member to have his say.PAUL FOSTER-BELL: —against some of the provisions in this bill but has clearly very little knowledge of this area. This bill brings an ability for employees to contract out voluntarily. I would personally be opposed to anything that cemented in a systematic violation of human rights. If an employee had been discriminated against on the basis of their gender or race or sexuality I would personally have some very grave concerns if remedies were not left in place for that person. So I was delighted to hear from the member Scott Simpson that such remedies are going to be sought to be introduced during the select committee process. Also I would note the advice on the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act from the Attorney-General's office where it was made clear that people are opting out. They are contracting out of the provisions that exist under section 9 of the Employment Relations Act 2000. So I think this is a very sensible set of measures. We are talking about some of the best paid and indeed the most privileged employees in New Zealand. I would like to quote a couple of very prominent luminaries who have looked at these matters before.Back in 2010 personal grievances were being discussed by the Government. The then Prime Minister the Rt Hon John Key made the very sensible observation that he shared the concern from many quarters about the fairness and consistency of personal grievance claims and also the then Minister of Labour—a very fine Minister of Labour the Hon Kate Wilkinson—said that there were some high-paid employees who knew their way around the procedures so well that whatever the merits of the case an employee will pay out.So I think we are talking about people where there is less of a power-imbalance situation rather than lower-paid employees. We are talking about employees who can take on the very best legal advice and in fact this bill would obligate them to seek legal advice before agreeing to opt out of the personal grievance provisions of an employment case.So I think that for all of these reasons this is a very sensible bill and it really is extraordinary to have the debate reduced to the level that Clayton Mitchell took it to. Argumentum ad Hitlerum in this Parliament should be reserved for Acts that do actually impede upon the basic rights of New Zealanders and throwing insults around like that in this House actually not only debases that member and his party but should be reserved for the very serious issues where human rights are being violated and not a bill like this which brings in choices and options for some of the highest-paid most privileged New Zealanders who have access to appropriate legal counsel before they make those decisions. So for these reasons I support this bill. It is a very sensible measure and I commend it to the House.