King Colin: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee 
King Colin: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:633;Page:5134] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It is interesting to hear comments by the member from New Zealand First. It is significant there will be some very hard calls required in the near future for his party because it is facing a problem where it is seen to be in Government with Labour and therefore guilty by association. I do feel very sorry for that outstanding member Ron Mark from down my region who is respected but is soiled with such filth and utterly deplorable legislation. It is very very scary because it is against everything that has made this country great. 
When we look at the way provincial New Zealand voted during the last election I believe we will see the completion of the New Zealand convergence to come in behind National to be the only solution to take this country forward and to maintain that high quality of life that we have become used to. When we see that we have had 15 moves to get this bill to a stage where Labour can be satisfied with it knowing that 15 movements beforehand it was totally unacceptable to its comrades—the unions—we can see why one would call the bill the “Labour (Union Movement Close Relationship) Amendment Bill”. Certainly it is nothing to do with looking after those people whom the Government labels “vulnerable”. The people whom I come across who are vulnerable are mostly those who are ripped off continually by the behaviour of the Labour Government. It is very very recognisable that many many people are coming to the understanding that the only way forward is through supporting the way forward with the National Party. 
There are 300000 businesses involved and it is a bit of a shame when we hear the president of the Council of Trade Unions talking in glowing terms about innovation productivity and suchlike yet enshrined in this legislation is the deplorable activity of beating up on business. The bargaining of an employee is open to abuse when we get to a situation where somebody wins a contract and I would be hopeful from my own experience of taking over businesses that it would be done with due diligence and that one would convince oneself there was a degree of rigour inside the accounting processes and that people came on board subject to their satisfaction and one’s own satisfaction over a period of time. 
So on that basis I can see a lot of logic behind Wayne Mapp’s 90-day probation bill on the basis that it gives everybody the opportunity of being comfortable. On that basis we look forward to that engagement as well. But I would imagine that the insidious behaviour of the union movement has so turned the tables on what is good for this country that we will be confronted again with this deplorable activity where we end up with consumption speeding away and burning up our economy while the export base is eroded. So when we think about those sorts of things we can understand why the National Party is so clearly opposed to this legislation. 
I would like to recall the situation with Garfield the cat—that deplorable beast that we all recognise within ourselves as that tendency we must resist where we yawn and dream away about those warm fuzzy notions of self-interest. That is what we are seeing inside this sort of legislation—the “Labour (Union Movement Close Relationship) Amendment Bill”. This bill does nothing to create the robust innovative competitive environment with rigour and what is necessary to grow this economy. What we are seeing is Labour waxing lyrical in some dreamy fantasyland that will have us all come home rich and abundant but just for the pure effort of keeping this Government in power. It has nothing to do with vision nothing to do with leadership. Good hard-working New Zealanders will recognise that. 
When we look for examples of how we get performance we look at the export sector of this country and globally we lead the world around creating the incentives whereby we stand on our own two feet. At the end of the day everybody on this side of the Chamber prays that we will continue to produce sufficient people in this country able to stand on their own two feet.