Hide Rodney: Employment Relations Law Reform Bill — First Reading 
Hide Rodney: Employment Relations Law Reform Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10676] 
RODNEY HIDE (ACT) 
: 
 This bill splits the House into those political parties that are looking to the future and those that are looking to the past—those political parties that want to support enterprise and a prosperous nation versus those that want to prop up the dinosaurs. Sue Bradford was quite right when she said that this is a bill to re-unionise New Zealand. When New Zealand workers are faced with a choice they do not want to be saddled with a dinosaur union the head honchos of which do not look after the workers. Unions do not produce the wealth of New Zealand. Working New Zealanders understand that and they are saying no they will not pay their fees to a union that does not deliver. That does not satisfy Labour Party members who like to have drinks with their mates in the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and to discuss the brave new world. The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions cannot sign up members so the Labour Party aided by the Greens told it not to worry because Labour would put a bill into the House that would force people into the hands of the council. Labour has done that because the one thing this Government cannot do in the private sector is what it did in the State sector: pay people to be members of the union. That is what happened in New Zealand. This bill is about supporting dinosaur unions to shackle enterprise in New Zealand and the ability of New Zealanders to go ahead. 
Clause 8 shows that this Labour Government is given over to spin and dissimulation. I know that the Minister of Defence does not know what that word means let alone how to spell it but I cannot use the appropriate word here in the House that one would use in common parlance. Millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have been paid to civil servants for joining the union—true or false? It is a true story. In fact in the civil service it is called compensation for joining the union. 
Simon Power 
: Compensation? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Yes it is the payment of civil servants’ union fees. They get $400 $700 up to $1000 and in some cases as much as $1200 simply for joining the Public Service Association. Is that true or false? It is a true story. It happened in the Inland Revenue Department in Work and Income in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and in two or three other Government departments. That is clearly illegal under section 9 of the current Act because it discriminates against workers who are not members of the union. 
The Minister of State Services came down here to the House and said those payments were all legal and consistent with the Employment Relations Act. Yet every employment lawyer that I spoke to said that the Minister was talking through a hole in his head unconnected to his brain. 
Simon Power 
: Not an easy thing to do. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: If one is Trevor Mallard it is very easy. The member does that every day without even thinking about it. Members should just ask the teachers and the parents of New Zealand. In fact the member’s mouth is so unconnected to his brain that he got a psychologist in the Ministry of Education to write to all the schools of New Zealand saying they should not allow their children to come along and heckle him because that made him look bad. That is what he did; Trevor Mallard was scared of school pupils. Trevor Mallard stood up in this House and said no those payments were quite consistent with the Employment Relations Act and that there was no problem. Our State Services Commissioner who is paid over $400000 a year—New Zealand’s top civil servant—said that the payments were all within the law and he had no problem with them. But the State Services Commissioner took his direction from the Minister of State Services Trevor Mallard the bully boy of New Zealand politics and he was scared of getting the boot. 
Then suddenly we see in this bill that section 9(1) of the Act is to be changed. Clause 8 states that the following subsection will be added to section 9: “(3) To avoid doubt this Act does not prevent a collective agreement containing a term or condition that is intended to recognise the benefits—(a) of a collective agreement: (b) arising out of the relationship on which a collective agreement is based.” The Government had to do that because it has been handing across millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money straight to its mates at the Public Service Association. It goes to the workers first—all they have to do is to sign a little form that sets up an automatic payment to the Public Service Association. Therefore taxpayers have had to pay money to the health system to the education system and to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for border security—to all those things—not for services but to pay for a Public Service Association that civil servants themselves would not sign up to unless they were paid for doing so. 
How useless a union is that? People do not want to join the Public Service Association. They want to join it only when they are paid to do so. They have to be subsidised and on top of that paid to join it. Is it any wonder then that the number of civil servants who are signed up with the Public Service Association is growing yet in the private sector union membership lags well behind that rate? Is it not clear from this bill that what was being done was illegal? If it had been legal we would not need to change the Act would we? 
Simon Power 
: We would not need the new clause. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: We would not need the new clause—the one that Trevor Mallard said we did not need because the payments were legal. Our top civil servant the State Services Commissioner Michael Wintringham said the payments were legal but now we have to change the Act in order to remove any doubt. Well Dr Don Brash of the National Party said the payments were illegal Rodney Hide of ACT said they were illegal the United Future party said they were illegal and now the Labour Party agrees with us on that because the Government is changing the Act. Yet Labour is just not big enough to agree with us that the payments were illegal. 
The Labour Government does not understand what it is that drives up wages. Why is it that we are now paid more than our grandfathers and grandmothers were paid 50 60 or 70 years ago? Labour members think that is because of the union movement. No I am sorry to say it is because we are more productive. We have been invested in in terms of plant and capital and we can produce more. We no longer use shovels; we use hydraulic loaders and the like. Being invested in makes us more productive. Michael Joseph Savage understood that. It is investment that drives up wages and conditions not the unions. 
There is one final thing that this Government does not understand and this has also been alluded to by other speakers. Let us imagine that a person is contracted to a business and is making a hash of it. If another contractor comes along who is much more efficient the efficient contractor may compete for the business and win it. Is that not the way that the capitalist system works when a contractor is not up to scratch? But this bill requires the successful contractor to take over the unsuccessful contractor’s workers on the same terms and conditions that they already had. What is the point of that? It disadvantages the efficient workers and the efficient contractor to the benefit of the inefficient ones. Is that a picture of the sort of economy that this Labour Government wants? I do not think so. But Labour is so held in the sway of its 19th century view of the workplace— 
Darren Hughes 
: The 20th century! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I tell Darren Hughes it is a 19th century view—and is so held in the sway of its union mates in the Council of Trade Unions—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: The ACT party—the Flat Earth Society—I mean it’s a dinosaur! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Is that not great? The Minister of Immigration calls out that the ACT party which believes in low taxes and a free labour market is the Flat Earth Society. But over there on the Government benches supporting the dinosaur unions in New Zealand is somehow— 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member’s time has expired. I call Winnie Laban. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I am going to respond to those points. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member will be seated. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: OK then. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member will sit down in future when his time has expired. I call Winnie Laban. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I will sit down when my time has expired as I always do. But I also expect that if someone yells out right at the end of my time and thinks he or she can get a free hit that will not succeed particularly when it comes from the Minister of Immigration who is making a complete hash of her portfolios and now thinks she is an expert in the labour market. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member will be seated. That is not a matter for a point of order.