Bidois DanDAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): Well that contribution should give you some indication not to believe everything you see on the internet especially from Urban Dictionary because today is in fact a sad day for our screen industry. It's also a sad day for good policy-making in New Zealand. I recall actually living in the US—I was a graduate student just outside of Cambridge in Massachusetts in 2010 when this law was passed and I remember watching the US media's reaction to this law. They were praising it—they were praising it for good policy reasons. Today is a sad day for this industry but also for good policy-making in New Zealand.Why are we here? Why are we actually considering this bill? Well it's very simple. This is union payback. There's no other way to find it—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'll just advise the member you've just got to be careful. DAN BIDOIS: Thank you Madam Speaker. This is nothing but appeasement to the unions because after years of back-scratching now it's time for them to deliver.Our film industry is going to be harmed by this law. This law in fact will cost job opportunities and let me outline for you some of those. The point of the Hobbit law" was to create the conditions whereby these international companies who could go anywhere in the world felt that there was an incentive to come to New Zealand. With this law what you're going to see is increased costs for these companies. You're going to see increased compliance costs. You're going to see greater costs for actually manufacturing and building these film productions. So what you're going to see is fewer of these overseas companies—the very companies that we want to come here and produce films like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and other great success stories that we're all proud about. What we're going to see in fact is a diminishing of this industry with fewer job opportunities fewer high-income job opportunities for our New Zealanders and a reduction in incomes as a result.So that is where we come from in the National Party—is saying this law was a good policy. You don't have to take our word for it. The Government's own advice said the same thing. So here we are about to toss out a policy that was good and that is why this is a bad day for policy making in this country.Now the other thing I want to raise is that the provisions in this bill give explicit conditions where there are collective bargaining rights at the sector level. Now what does that mean? What it means is what we call fair pay agreements. To the average person out there fair pay doesn't necessarily mean fair pay. In fact in many ways it doesn't. Let me describe for you how fair pay works. If there are companies that are operating in Auckland and companies that are operating in Gore and there is an agreement established whereby a certain screen worker in Gore and in Auckland must be paid the same rate now what we're going to see—of course the cost of living in Gore is different to the cost of living in Auckland so my colleague Hamish Walker the MP for that area tells me. So what we're in fact going to see is the screen workers in Gore paid far more than they actually need to—Hon Member: "Gorr".DAN BIDOIS: "Gorr"—well whatever. I'm a proud Aucklander. OK. What we're going to see is in fact higher costs for that company down in Gore and as a result this company is probably going to chuck in the towel and actually not come to New Zealand. Again don't take my word for it. Take the word of the independent research conducted by the New Zealand Initiative which states very very clearly the negative effects of these fair pay agreements on New Zealand businesses workers productivity jobs and incomes. So there is no evidence that these fair pay agreements actually lead to positive outcomes. It is in fact poor policy-making that we are seeing and witnessing today from this Government that they are overturning this "Hobbit law" in the namesake of ideology. Now let me come to what National believes. National believes that these kind of employment relationships should in fact be at the firm level between the company and the workers themselves. We want a flexible environment where these people and organisations can come together and establish a relationship that is beneficial for both parties not for the whole sector. We believe in creating a competitive and vibrant film industry. That is why we put the "Hobbit law" in place back in 2010 and that is why it has consistently thrived since then right up until 2020. These individual agreements we believe in not collective agreements. You know there was a speaker there that talked about bullying and harassment. Of course we want to see improvements in that area but this law is not it. So let us chuck this law out in select committee—we'll do whatever we can—and actually go back to good policy-making in New Zealand because this is in fact a sad moment for the industry it's a sad moment for good policy-making in New Zealand and National opposes this bill. Thank you.DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call."