Mapp Wayne: State Sector Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Mapp Wayne: State Sector Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12177] 
Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 The core of this part is section 74AA in clause 4 headed: “Commissioner’s powers when collective agreements are negotiated”. Subsection (1) states: “the commissioner has for the purpose of those negotiations all the rights duties and powers of an employer under the Employment Relations Act 2000 in respect of those employees.” In simple words that means that all negotiations are done at the behest of the Minister by the State Services Commission with the monopolistic unions the Post Primary Teachers Association and the New Zealand Educational Institute—the Labour Party’s very good friends and no doubt funders thereof as well. 
It is all very well for the member from New Zealand First to talk about the past. We ask that member to look forward because that is what this Parliament is here for—to look at the way things will be done in the future. One of the things I have always said to New Zealand First members is that they have a fond memory of New Zealand prior to 1984. It is as if the last 20-odd years had never happened. They may have a certain appeal to a group of New Zealanders who would live in the past. That is the basic appeal of New Zealand First. That is why its members are so opposed to international trade the ending of tariffs and the modernisation of New Zealand’s manufacturing and service industries. They are also opposed to looking forward in the area of education. So all they can do is talk about the period of the 9 long years. 
Actually it is worth recording that the Hon Brian Donnelly was an Associate Minister of Education for two of those years. It is all very well for him to talk about 9 years while he had responsibility for one-quarter of that period. [ 
Interruption 
] That is exactly the problem with New Zealand First. Two out of nine equals one-eighth in the eyes of Mr Mark. Does that not say so much about them? 
I want to return to the core point. How do we go forward? We go forward by empowering people. That means boards of trustees. That means teachers. It means basically negotiating at that particular level. That is how we empower people. That is how we deal with modern professional relationships. Why is it so difficult for the Government to get that fundamental point? Can it not see that every private sector employer is able to negotiate with employees? It does not cause trauma. It does not cause drama. People simply get on with the job and do it. 
I can tell the Minister that when that change was made in the 1990s—and Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith would have been Minister of Education at that time and promoted that change: the shift from centralised bargaining towards site bargaining at tertiary level; he saw an enormous flowering of diversity and opportunity at the tertiary level. Would it not be wonderful if that could also be achieved at the compulsory education level. We on this side of the Chamber are saying to the Government that a clear choice will be put to New Zealanders. That choice will be: “Do you believe in centralised old-fashioned State-controlled answers of the left or do you believe in empowering people giving people autonomy freedom and the ability to develop real relationships where people work between their real employers the board of trustees and the community and the teachers themselves breaking the cycle of restrictive unionism that virtually compels people into a union?”. That is the Labour way but our way is superior.