Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Well the speaker that has just resumed her seat Marja Lubeck represents very starkly and clearly the fundamental ideological difference between the socialist left that is dominated by union activists and those of us on the right side of the politics in New Zealand who understand treasure and value the rights and freedoms of individuals to negotiate their own terms of employment and agreements with their employer in a way that provides flexibility certainty and most importantly in a way that provides economic goodwill and growth for us as a nation. My colleague the Hon Paul Goldsmith in his very good contribution on this the third reading of the Screen Industry Workers Bill made a number of those exact points. This is a piece of legislation that one can't help but feel is a piece of legislation that has only been pushed through the Parliament as a result of a new Minister determined to exert his ideological views about the roles of trade unions on New Zealand workers in a way that his predecessor didn't. His predecessor Kristopher Faafoi had some very good common-sense things and he managed to put this piece of legislation on the backburner because he knew and understood that it would create problems that it would have a negative impact on our economy and it would be very bad actually for workers in the film sector. What we've heard today just confirms all that stuff.Of course the current Minister and the speaker that's just resumed her seat both came to this Parliament by way of trades hall—union representatives union delegates. One only has to remember to understand the philosophy and motivation for this piece of legislation a little bit of the history of labour parties around the world—of course back in the 1800s when there was a need and a time for trade unions when they were relevant when they were coherent meaningful and modern there was a need. That time has long since passed. What happened was that the trade union movement around the world established itself in a way that ultimately decided that sooner or later they needed parliamentary representation if they were going to make the changes that they needed. So labour parties sprung up in places like the United Kingdom in Canada Australia and of course in New Zealand. The parliamentary Labour Party effectively became the political wing of the trade union movement.So many people today often forget that history they forget the connections they forget the motivation—they don't necessarily join up the dots that see a bill like this coming to the Parliament that will be a handbrake on innovation a handbrake on enterprise and a handbrake on economic development in the international film sector for which New Zealand has a very proud and rightly proud record of magnificent success.My colleague the Hon Paul Goldsmith made the very good point that New Zealand is not the only country in the world with beautiful landscapes with snow-capped mountains with blue skies lovely lakes and lovely vistas. The people who make movies around the world are competitive creatures and they will make movies in environments where the regulatory and legal opportunities exist for them to do so successfully. It's not like there's any shortage of people wanting to participate. When the National Government passed what has become affectionately referred to as the Hobbit law" a massive freeing up of opportunity—not only for those businesses but for the individuals who were engaged in it who were successfully employed who were contracting who were earning very good money who would otherwise not have been doing so.So this is a piece legislation that was originally promised by a fellow by the name of Iain Lees-Galloway. Most people in the Chamber probably—in fact certainly the Labour backbench—weren't in Parliament when this fellow Lees-Galloway was here it was so long ago. He promised—in fact Labour promised back in 2017 at the election that they would pass this piece of legislation in their first hundred days. Well their five years of failure is stark not only on this piece of legislation but it's stark in every other aspect of Labour Government's policy initiatives. Five years of complete and utter failure—inability to understand the basic mechanism of a thriving flourishing and prosperous economy. Our total economy is now paying the price for that lack of understanding that lack of knowledge and the stubborn determination that the parliamentary Labour Party has in following through on their promises to the trade union movement.So this is a piece of legislation that unions don't like. The reason they don't like it is because currently there is virtually no collective bargaining in the film industry as the majority of film production workers are actually contractors. That's a situation that suits the contractors it suits the employers and there's no shortage of people wanting to take up the flexibility that comes with being a contractor.Now I know that the Government fundamentally don't like contractors. The reason they don't like contractors is because independent contractors don't become members of a trade union—they don't become a member of a trade union. Of course since the establishment of the Employment Contracts Act back in the 1990s trade union membership has dropped significantly and steadily. The reason it's dropped significantly and steadily is because most New Zealanders don't find relevance from being a member of a trade union. They don't find any benefit from paying their $500 $600 $700 or $800 a year membership to be a member of a magical collective that is somehow going to further stifle their employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.So unions don't like the prospect of people having freedoms of people having free choice of people negotiating terms and conditions with their employer and they want everybody to be pigeon-holed to be boxed in together as a unit of labour if you like a unit of production. But we on this side of the House see things in fundamentally different terms. We see people as individuals as people who are able and capable of determining their own employment arrangements that benefit most effectively from the flexibility that comes with a nimble flexible approach to the economy and to employment conditions.All around the world other countries have looked at our industrial relations environmental landscape and they've said "By crikey over the last 30 years since the 1990s New Zealand has got it right." But since this Labour Government came into Parliament or came into power they've determinedly tried to change every single aspect and turn it back to the "good old days" as they see it of union dominance union control and decisions being made behind closed doors at trades hall. The days of that I thought were long gone. I thought that that was long long over. But the current Minister of course is a Minister who comes from a trade union background. He was an organiser in the FinSec union and I guess that probably after the next election that's where he will go back to—to a trade union of a similar sort because there's going to be a whole lot of those Labour members who came from that union delegate role who will be looking for new jobs after the next election.So they're trying to use their absolute majority in this Parliament at the moment to pass this piece of legislation. They'll pass it and then it will be up to a future Government to have a look at it to determine how unhelpful it's been how impossibly difficult it's made employers' opportunities and how little work is being done in terms of film production in New Zealand because those companies will have simply taken their capital their enterprise and their imagination and innovation to another country. It will be New Zealand—it will be New Zealanders—that lose out as a result of that ideological change that the Labour Party and their union friends seem so determined to foist upon hard-working innovative imaginative and creative New Zealanders.Well we on this side of the House take a fundamentally different view. We have faith in New Zealanders. We trust them. We understand that they can and will make sensible and fine decisions based on what is good for their own creative talent what is good for the opportunities that are provided to them. So this piece of legislation is little more than the Labour Party belatedly finally—not in their first hundred days but finally—under duress I suspect and a little bit of nudging pushing and prodding by the trade union movement they're trying to get this passed while they have a Parliamentary majority to achieve that. Well we'll have a look at it when we get the opportunity should we get the opportunity to be in Government at the next election. This will be a piece of legislation that will be firmly on our radar. Thank you Madam Speaker."