Menéndez March RicardoEMPLOYMENT RELATIONS (TRIAL PERIODS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed.RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Tēnā koe e te Māngai. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi engari taku toa he toa takitini—which says My success is not mine alone but it is the strength of many." If this Government was to live by that saying they would not continue trampling over workers' rights trampling over people's ability to have secure employment and introducing the Employment Relations (Trial Periods) Amendment Bill which will see generations of workers in precarious positions and being potentially fired for things like having the wrong hair colour for things like having a bereavement and for things like being sick. The Minister should be ashamed should be embarrassed and should go back to her coalition document which supposedly claims that they will be looking at data and evidence when it comes to decision making because this bill has no evidential basis. It has no research to back it up and it is an attack on workers.I want to reflect on the fact that many of the Government members keep talking about how the left doesn't own workers. And as I've said before this Government believes in employers owning workers' ability to live workers' ability to remain in secure housing by giving employers the ability to get rid of people—to treat them as disposable economic units.As we head into Christmas what this Government is giving to employers is the ability—Chlöe Swarbrick: To fire at will. RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH: —to fire at will—that's right—and we have to remember that our employment laws are already weighted to favour employers. That power imbalance already exists. It's been decades in the making. It is how capitalism was designed and this Government is simply worsening it and entrenching it.There is research to show that 90-day trials do not work. They do not increase wages; they do not increase working conditions. There is evidence already to support this and let's not pretend that the Government simply has not read the evidence. They've read it and they do not care. They do not care for workers and they do not care for the evidence that backs up that this piece of legislation is rubbish. This piece of legislation would lead to worsening pay and conditions for workers as well.We do have also plenty of evidence from workers themselves stories that they have generously provided to people in this Chamber when the previous Government was looking at changing how 90-day trials operated. I just want to touch on for example one of those stories from Jessica who at the time talked about: "I called in sick to work one day. My employer wanted to have a disciplinary meeting about this." These are the kinds of stories; this is the kind of situation that those 90-day trials create by creating that ability for employers to be able to get rid of workers for whatever reason they like under the justification of being able to find a good match.All that we are doing is creating a cycle where people will be thrown back into an income support system that was designed to keep people in poverty back into low-wage employment back into that same income support system. Employers will continue being able to pay workers poor wages and will be able to continue treating those workers as disposable labour units.The Green Party understands that our society does not thrive when we treat workers as disposable. If we want to create a society where people are able to not just survive but to thrive we need to strengthen the right of workers not diminish them. So I look forward to the debate and exchanges with the Minister later in the committee of the whole House stages to unpack what best available evidence she used rather than the vibes she chose to carry throughout the election rather than the vibes she's now just speaking to—neo-liberal and cruel vibes at that.The Green Party will be opposing this bill and what we will be fighting for is to ensure that this Government does not last the test of time and that we are able to reintroduce protections for workers and go beyond what previous Governments have created."