Flavell Te Ururoa: Employment Relations (Flexible Working  Arrangements) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Employment Relations (Flexible Working  Arrangements) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:643;Page:13327] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Kia ora tatou. Kia ora everyone. The essence of this Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Bill is to ensure that workers can negotiate with their employers more flexible working arrangements to create a better work-life balance and a win-win situation for all parties. What interests members of the Maori Party about the bill besides this intent was the innovative manner in which I am told the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee under the leadership of the Hon Mark Gosche facilitated a rather novel procedural approach. I am advised that the committee’s approach in May 2006 involved the debate of an interim report by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee that set aside the House’s consideration of the bill for a year. It was set aside so that further research could be carried out more information sought and greater consultation had with workers employers and all of those who might be interested in this bill. We in the Maori Party understand that this has never happened before. 
Quite frankly we are encouraged by the fact that this one action perhaps demonstrates best that MMP politics can be accommodated despite the fact that the rules under which this Parliament behaves are deeply entrenched and have yet to catch up with the changing political environment. In speaking of the rules I refer to the Standing Orders and the Speakers’ rulings which are remnants of another age and rules of first-past-the-post thinking and behaviour. 
We are encouraged because we in the Maori Party who view the world through our particular cultural eyes—for we cannot do otherwise—have a number of sayings that capture the idea of flexibility. One of the examples I want to read to members goes like this: “Na te ngutu kura ko te hinengaro; na te hinengaro ko te mahara; na te mahara ko te whakaaro; na te whakaaro ko te korero; ma te korero ka tu he tikanga.” This translates to something like: “Engaging the senses stirs the emotions; engaging the emotions stimulates the intellect; stimulating the intellect commissions the memory. From the memory comes the thoughts; from the thoughts come the words; from the words we construct customs.” Therefore from a Maori Party perspective it appears that the members of the select committee were stirred to do something differently and this they did. 
The motives—and no doubt there were probably different motives for each of the parties involved—are actually not of concern. What was important was that something different was tried. Time was made available and this legislation—the whakapapa of which like the whakapapa of many in this House originates from the United Kingdom—will very soon become law in Aotearoa. For that acknowledgment must go to the Green Party member of Parliament Sue Kedgley—and I say tena koe to Sue—who through skill and persistence in crafting winnable arrangements with her colleagues within this House has overseen this bill through to it soon becoming an Act. 
My perusal of the bill and the subsequent debates in this House certainly show that despite members of the select committee agreeing in 2006 to show their own flexibility goodwill and cooperation by having the bill delayed for a year old habits do indeed die hard. I say that old habits die hard because judging by the unfortunate number of times the word “majority” accompanied the select committee’s recommended amendments it seems the members of that committee and of this House continue to occupy oppositional positions. When cooperation actually occurs whistles and trumpets are blown and a press conference is called as we saw with the bill to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act. But the normal modus operandi is oppositional. How sad is that? 
The Maori Party will be supporting this bill because in our view it is eminently sensible as well as being whanau worker and employer-friendly. We see in it so much that is good for whanau and it does not in and of itself penalise employers or other workers. We are not concerning ourselves with the modus operandi of polarised oppositional politics; our interest is in the macro level with the belief that what is good for Maori is good for Aotearoa. Even the title of the bill with the words “flexible working arrangements” indicates a relationship based on goodwill while having the guidance and protection of a legislative framework. 
The Maori Party is aware that often particularly with employment issues there is a cry that issues can be worked out between the workers and the employer. We know however that this is often not the case as the issue of the power imbalance between the two groups is not properly recognised and acknowledged. Although some would say that the employee has the power—with mention made of employee’s representatives and unions being indicative of that power—and the employers and their federations and associations are the weaker entities our experience and those of our whanau tell us a different story. 
We remember the ravages of the mid-1980s through Rogernomics and the 1990s too where no doubt a bill of this nature would never have seen the light of day. That period and its ongoing after-effects are a constant reminder to Maori of the vulnerable position of Maori workers who become the collateral damage under a more streamlined cutthroat neo-liberal economic philosophy which still remains as healthy as ever today. This bill is but a soft concession from that philosophy. It is a little gain for whanau and for respectful arrangements between workers and employers. Make no mistake it is a welcome departure from neo-liberalism but like the opposition inherent in the parliamentary system that philosophy has remained the modus operandi of all Governments subsequent to 1984. Again the Maori Party as a keen student of both history and power is forever mindful of the whakapapa and origins of legislation passed in this House and of those who will be the beneficiaries of it. 
In ending I congratulate Sue Kedgley most sincerely for continually keeping the Maori Party members informed of the stages through which this bill was passing and for continually making herself available to discuss any concerns that we might have had about the bill. Again I say that we support this legislation. No reira tena koe Sue. Kia ora tatou.