Gallagher Martin: Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Gallagher Martin: Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 We have heard comments about fairness from members on the other side. Basically when they are talking about fairness why on earth can they not back this bill? It is obvious that they cannot back this bill and they certainly cannot back this Supplementary Order Paper because their friends and mates in the Business Roundtable have picked up the phone and said they do not like the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill because the so-called free market operates on one premise: free for the employer but not free for the employee. 
We have heard from people on the other side of the Committee who in their heart of hearts aspire to be the lord of the manor. In the middle of the night they actually believe that workers and employees should be grateful for having a job with all this bunkum about free choice and flexibility. Even my good friend from Tauranga was disparaged as a so-called ship-jumper from the UK. Well if he did jump ship he is a far better import than all of the Opposition combined. I bet every expatriate from the United Kingdom would be proud of him in terms of his contribution to date. 
But fairness and freedom are what this Supplementary Order Paper is about. It is about being for the family and being for fairness and reasonableness. Some of us never forget that the previous Government introduced something called the Employment Contracts Act. There was no contract it was take it or leave it. It was the “Employment (Take it or Leave it) Contracts Act.” As for the notion that the 18-year-old who turns up for a job at the gas station or the petrol pump is somehow equal with the employer who may be a very wealthy individual we know that for the sham it is. 
It is interesting that they were talking about filling cake tins or whatever to go to Australia. The reason people go to Australia is for higher wages and perceived better conditions. But watch this space. We look across the Tasman and we see the Employment Contracts Act in the form of the workplace legislation which I can say as a member without interfering in the domestic affairs of Australia is now up for very very vigorous debate. I personally believe that the people of Australia will deliver their verdict on that particular industrial legislation. 
I speak as someone who has some background in a small-business family company. I am also proud to have been a member of a trade union in my life. The two are not contradictory. In fact most New Zealanders are decent good hard-working people whether they work in a business or they are trade union officials. The one thing that I really remember was the wonderful relationship my late father had with an official from the Engineers Union the late Ralph Savage. They got on well. They were two reasonable decent Kiwis who talked across the table and came to a deal. The only reason they had to talk—and I am talking in terms of the Supplementary Order Paper—was when there was a need for negotiation; where the normal sort of agreement had broken down and one moved to the next point of reasonable people talking in order to get a fair and reasonable outcome. If the two parties could not agree then one moved to arbitration and mediation. 
This is not rocket science; this is the basis of building good industrial relations in this country. But the weasel words from across the table are: “Oh we really like this but it’s too restrictive.” What they want and what the real agenda is—as one can see across the Tasman with their sister political party at the moment—is “workplace choices”. Is that the word? 
Lesley Soper 
: Yes that’s right. 
MARTIN GALLAGHER 
: There are no choices for workers. All the choices are for the Business Roundtable and big business. In fact this is giving us the next bit of the hidden agenda which is out there. Make no bones about it that crowd opposite will be reintroducing a new version of the Employment Contracts Act. Lest we forget they will be introducing a new version and they will be winding the clock back.