Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I will start with raising a comment that the previous speaker Clayton Mitchell made at the start of his speech commending the coalition Government for bringing this bill together within its 100-day plan. And absolutely they've brought it together—in haste. They're brought it together based on an ideological whim and it's based on the 1970s.It's based on the bad old days where they are amending a set of tools in our industrial relations tool box that are pragmatic and have had the effect on the ground—on the ground. I have heard from my constituents because we're real MPs—we go and we listen to businesses we go and listen to employees. They are amending tools in the tool box that have had the effect of growing this economy and allowing businesses to take chances on people in a tight employment market and growing job supply and allowing people to get ahead. I think that's pretty rich from a coalition Government that say that they are the champions of the most vulnerable. Well I say to them that if you cannot create jobs in New Zealand and enable people to have the skills to get into work to earn some money to feed themselves to house themselves to look after their family then you cannot call yourselves champions at all.When we were in Government we made pragmatic changes to our industrial relations law that created 245000 jobs in the past two years and part of that was the 90-day trial. I absolutely oppose the fact that this coalition Government is going to make amendments to the 90-day trial period. The reason for that is because we have such low unemployment in this country.We've heard from previous speakers on this side that the 90-day trial period is about giving young people a chance—absolutely. Absolutely it is. When a young person enters the workforce they are unproven. They need to be given the space and the time to prove themselves so that an employer can say Yes I need this person I want to take a chance on this person let's give it a go."But also when you have an unemployment rate in New Zealand that is less than 5 percent and let me allude down in Southland and Invercargill it's less than four percent you are scraping the bottom of the barrel with regard to skills—sorry Madam Deputy Speaker—and finding resource which is the human beings that we need to work. Part of what employers do is they create attractive employment opportunities and they give people who want to have a change in career a chance. The 90-day trial period is exactly what that is about—so people that may be in one industry and have absolutely no experience in another can put together their CV modify it so that they can highlight their transferable skills and they get given a chance. And that's wonderful because it means that they can be employed be valued—obviously feel reward from their work—earn money and keep their family. That's what a fair society is about. But here we go based on a whim the coalition Government is starting to make these changes that are unproven and have absolutely no regard for small medium and large sized businesses.The other thing I want to talk about in this bill is the changes to the rest and meal breaks. I'm going to highlight the problem with this with a story. In Invercargill I know a young hairstylist a very good young hairstylist that has won awards. She's very very good—Hon Tim Macindoe: Ria Bond?SARAH DOWIE: No it's not Ria Bond unfortunately. It's another lady. She's won awards and she took the chance to start her own business. I think that that is fantastic. She's very young but she was exceptionally good—and still is exceptionally good—at her trade. She started this business. She—let's face it when you start your own business—was working herself to the bone. Hairstyling—look I'm not trained but when you put a colour on—I'm going to break it down in very simple terms. When you put a colour on you have to go away and leave it for a time but when it's time to come off it's time to come off. So you need flexibility—sorry Madam Deputy Speaker again. The employer needs flexibility in the workplace to make sure that operations can run smoothly.Getting back to the 90-day trial she's taken on people on the floor—young people—to help her out. But again with those rest and meal breaks she needs the flexibility to be able to say to the young person that's working "Look you"—sorry Madam Deputy Speaker I've done it again—"Please employee. You go and take the colour off. I'll take my break." She comes back she does her work and within that lull time the employee will go away and take her meal break. Now if that has to be structured I'm not sure how that's going to work when she's got more than one client in her chair.Stuart Smith: People will end up with green hair.SARAH DOWIE: They will end up with green hair Mr Smith. You joke but that is a practical example as to how our changes when the National Party was in Government have helped business to innovate and be flexible and achieve. Because of that she thought "Right well I'll give it a go. I'll start my business. I'll take on extra people but I can modify my operations to make it work." So I think in select committee the coalition Government are going to find themselves held to account on several of these changes because we know what business is saying and we will test them as to what they think works.Some of the other changes—I would like to talk about forcing businesses into contracts across an industry. Well I can hear what the fishing industry are going to say about that straight away. I work quite closely with the fishing industry down in Southland. Given the size and shape of the fishing industry yes the fishing industry is very wide but within that there is so much variation as to how the fishing industry operates. If collective bargaining and terms and conditions are forced on employer to employer and business to business—whether it be small large or medium or with respect to pāua or finfish fishing—I can see what the answer is going to be with respect to my constituents. What they'll do is they'll go to ground. They'll shut down. They won't take that chance on that extra person.Hon Stuart Nash: Oh rubbish!SARAH DOWIE: Well they won't Mr Nash—they won't. They'll go to ground and they'll consolidate and they'll make sure that the core functions—if they can protect the core functions they will protect the core functions. They won't focus on growing while this coalition Government is in power—they won't focus on growing. They'll go to ground Mr Nash. You know it too. I'm looking into your eyes Mr Nash and I can see the doubt. I can see the doubt in your eyes—absolutely Mr Nash. They'll go to ground and they won't be taking on those extra people and they won't be expanding.What we will see is that this economy will go to rack and ruin. Jobs won't be created; jobs will be lost. Our families will not be able to get a job they will not earn money they will not be able to house themselves and they will not be able to care for their family. And that Mr Nash is not a fair society."