Pillay Lynne: Companies Amendment Bill Insolvency Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Pillay Lynne: Companies Amendment Bill Insolvency Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:616;Page:11944] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour—Waitakere) 
: 
 I want to start by congratulating Peter Brown. What a passionate well-informed speech! He displayed common sense and integrity. That contrasts with the National Party. I am appalled. This is yet another case of that party not letting the facts get in the way of a good story—just like its leader follow the leader—by claiming that Maori get more bereavement leave than anyone else. That is absolutely untrue but do not let the facts get in the way of a good story. 
The National Party makes “union” a dirty word. I have news for you—it is not. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will not bring me into the debate. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: I have news for the National Party—“union” is not a dirty word. That party indulges in dirty politics to the max. Unions are on that party’s hit list along with Maori and anybody else who does not fit its mould. I am proud of unions. I am proud of workers in New Zealand who advocated many of the good improvements that this Government has delivered. I am talking about things like increases to the minimum wage paid parental leave improved health and safety 4 weeks’ holiday and fairness at work—all those things that the National Party would dump if it could. 
Returning to the bill I want to make it clear again to the slow learners that itrefers to an insolvency situation. It imposes no more cost—read my lips no more cost—on employers. It is simply about making creditor status fairer for workers by making them preferred creditors. That was another example of misinformation. I am pleased to stand in support of this bill and I commend my colleague Mark Peck for his work on it. I commend him for producing this bill because he has seen—as I have—the heartache of redundancy for workers and their families and for employers and their families. 
It is devastating for anybody to be deprived of their livelihood through no fault of their own. The stress both financial and emotional is far-reaching. For some workers the security of redundancy compensation goes some way to assist them and their families at the difficult time of the loss of their job and income the loss of their self-esteem and the loss of their dreams for the future. That redundancy compensation I stress has been negotiated in good faith by employers and unions. It can provide hope whether to tide things over until another job is found whether for financial support while training or studying or whether restarting a work career through a small business—which this Government is happy to support. 
Imagine the double whammy if a worker learns that redundancy compensation is at best at risk but more likely worthless and simply not worth the paper it is written on. I have seen this situation most recently with Qantas New Zealand employees. The uncertainty for those skilled professional employees who were looking toward a career that would basically be their job for life was devastating. They were now in a job market that had severely diminished and they had the challenge of finding employment in their chosen field. Added to that was the harsh reality that their long-standing negotiated redundancy deal was worthless. It was an extremely difficult time for those employees and their families. It was unjust and unfair. 
This bill goes a long way to address those injustices in that it gives employee redundancy claims priority over other unsecured claims and gives some claims preference in an insolvency situation. It removes the current limit of $6000 paid to a worker by an employer in a corporate insolvency and raises the cap to $15000 and I think that too is good and fair to workers. A new priority is to provide an incentive to creditors to financially assist a liquidator to recover or preserve business assets. That is one way to help the overall return to creditors. 
This bill is about common sense fairness and balance and builds on Labour’s election policy to improve the protection of workers’ conditions when businesses are transferred and sold—as will be addressed in the Employment Relations Act amendments. Labour will continue to reform laws relating to redundant workers. If we look at the impetus for this bill the Weddel Crown collapse we see that workers had to line up with other unsecured creditors for their redundancy pay—compensation that had been negotiated in good faith between workers their union and their employer. They were collectively owed $35 million but they had to line up with other unsecured creditors for their money. It is unlikely that any of those creditors will ever see a cent of what is owed to them. This Government looks forward to workers not being in that situation again. Although there is no guarantee of full redundancy there is considerable comfort for workers in having a fairer position in the queue. 
I say “shame on you” to those on the other side of the House who oppose this legislation. It is the same sad group that revels in opposing anything relating to fair pay whether it is to do with workers’ rights women’s rights students’ rights or superannuitants’ rights and so on. It is consistent with their support for the Employment Contracts Act and their opposition to the Employment Relations Act the improved Health and Safety in Employment Act and the improved Holidays Act. It is consistent with their inability to accept or even comprehend the idea of work/life balance or to comprehend the win-win situation of investing in employees by providing healthy and safe working conditions by family-friendly approaches to employment by the principle of a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay and by ensuring a degree of certainty with fair compensation in redundancy situations. 
I repeat that this will not add any cost whatsoever to the employer. I am tired of sitting in the House and hearing or reading in the newspaper outlandish claims about what is happening. Those things are simply not true. It is simply not credible. We cannot make allowances even for stupidity for those outlandish claims in this House. 
Again I commend my colleague Mark Peck. He had the foresight the compassion the sense of justice and the intelligence to bring this bill to the House and to build on this Government’s delivery of fairness and justice so that we as a nation can hold our heads high on the world stage and can look people in the eye and say that we are committed to being fair and do not want to see good working people ripped off. 
The Government is also committed to saying to employers that it wants to be fair to them in supporting their businesses but it insists that it is fair that in insolvency situations workers have a fair place in the queue. I say to the National Party that this bill is supported not only by Labour supporters workers and unions but also by fair-minded business people in New Zealand.