Mackey Moana: Employment Relations (Film Production Work) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Mackey Moana: Employment Relations (Film Production Work) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:15024] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I am happy to take a call on clause 3. It states that the bill amends the Employment Relations Act 2000 which is domestic legislation. The Labour Party has a proud history of fighting for independent foreign policy. I think today is a sad day in the Chamber when we now have to fight for independent domestic policy. This is a huge shift. We are amending the Employment Relations Act because a foreign multinational company has pressured the Government to do so. We on this side of the Chamber do not believe that step was necessary and we do not believe it should have been taken. 
I had an email overnight from a colleague in an overseas Parliament who said to me that this cannot be true. He said that someone told him New Zealand was amending its Employment Relations Act 2000 because a foreign company had asked us to and had put pressure on us and he said that that would not happen in a modern developed country like New Zealand. I had to go back to him— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Is he from Cuba? 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: No he’s from North Korea. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: —he is a member of Parliament in the Westminster Parliament in the UK—and say that it is true. It is true. A foreign company came and said that it wanted us to amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 because it did not like it and our Government rolled over and said yes it would do that. 
The Government did not have to do that. Had the Government negotiated this dispute better we would not be here amending the Employment Relations Act. Had our Government not gone out and tried to whip up anti-union sentiment because it saw an opportunity to amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 we would not be here. The Government thought it was a chance to have a whack at the unions and change some employment law that it did not like. But had it pointed out the reality instead which was that this matter had been settled there was no danger no more industrial action was being threatened and it was a peaceful industrial relations environment—emails that have been released have shown that the Employment Relations Act did not need to be amended in order to fix it—we would have been in a much stronger negotiating position. We would not have needed to be here sitting under urgency passing law to amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 at the behest of an overseas corporation. We may not have had to pay as much subsidy either. 
The Government had a choice. It wanted to amend the Employment Relations Act so it decided it would whip up some frenzy which was not justified. The Government knows it was not justified because this was all resolved a long time ago. Since the court case that we are discussing we have made huge numbers of movies in New Zealand and have not had a single problem that would suggest we need to amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 to fix it. We have made a huge number of movies with absolutely no problems. Government members know this was sorted. 
We are here because our Government decided to take an opportunity. Last week there were protests attended by tens of thousands of people against some of the Government’s other employment relations changes. It was feeling the pressure so it thought it would have a whack at the unions and amend a bit of law it did not like anyway the Employment Relations Act 2000. Who cares if it means we end up in the position of paying higher subsidies offshore and also have Parliaments around the world looking at us saying: “Are you kidding me?”. We are changing laws in New Zealand because Warner Bros asked the New Zealand Parliament to. 
Of course everyone in this Chamber is pleased that this movie will be made here but we do not believe that the Employment Relations Act 2000 needed to be amended in order to do that. If the Government had handled this matter better—if Mr Brownlee himself had developed relationships with Warner Bros like the previous Government did and not come in at the eleventh hour when the relationship had broken down and when everything was in a shambles—we would not be here amending the Employment Relations Act 2000. 
Let us be clear. This is opportunistic by the Government—very opportunistic. Government members are not telling the whole story in their speeches. Everyone is very very pleased that this film will be made here; it is a shame that the price we had to pay was being seen as a Parliament that no longer has independent domestic policy.