Bennett David: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bennett David: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 09 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2103. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 The last speech from the Hon Tau Henare finished with a quote from Martin Luther King and I just want to give a few more quotes from Martin Luther King that will assist the members of this House. Martin Luther King Jnr said: “A right delayed is a right denied.” Martin Luther King Jnr said: “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Following on from the good work of Tau Henare I think one of the quotes from Martin Luther King Jnr that actually relates to Mr Tau Henare and is also important is: “I am not interested in power for power’s sake but I’m interested in power that is moral that is right and that is good.” It is the member Mr Tau Henare who is leading the charge by putting up a good bill that is in the interests of workers that is in the interests of the New Zealand public and I think we should congratulate him on bringing this Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill forward to the House to its third reading and look forward to it passing through the House today.  
This is good for workers it is good for New Zealanders and the Labour Party members should be supporting it. The Labour members on the other side say that workers have freedom of choice that they are not coerced. I am sure that they have freedom of choice when it comes to political donations and all other things that unions engage in. There is no freedom of choice. The union is there as a mechanism to uphold and represent workers. That is good in many ways but it also needs to have a degree of individuality and a degree of anonymity—I guess—in making some of the decisions so that the workers feel that they have the freedom to stand and make the decision that they believe in rather than the decision that they are told they should believe in. That is the fundamental difference I think between the Labour Party and the National Party. The National Party lets people believe in things wants them to believe in things and gives them the opportunity to show that they believe in things. On the other side of the equation you have the Labour Party with their colleagues in New Zealand First who do not want to let people believe in things who do not want to give people freedom of choice who do not want to give people the ability to stand up for their own opinions but want to have them coerced to be represented by one group and to be led and to be told what they should do. That is the difference in this debating chamber. That is the difference that this bill represents. This is good legislation because it represents the fundamental values that the National Party stands for and the fundamental values that this House should stand for.  
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: You remind me of Heydrich. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: And what are we getting from the New Zealand First Party? There is a lot of calling out and bickering over there. I want to see those members being constructive in this House and voting for good legislation so that the New Zealand First Party actually represents the views of the public not the views of the Labour Party. When it comes to the Labour Party its members are very good to tell everybody what they should think and they love unions to be able to tell everybody what they should think but when it comes to giving people individual rights the ability to think by themselves or the ability to even act by themselves—which would be even worse than thinking by themselves—that is not allowed. This bill goes to the heart of the problem with the Labour Party and the New Zealand First Party. They do not give people the ability to be the individuals that they need to be. This bill is good for human beings in this country. It is good for our workers and I commend it to this House.  
I just want to pay especial credit to the leader of this bill the person who has brought it forward the Hon Tau Henare. He has a strong background within the union movement and he has a strong background within the political movements of this country and he has seen a gap that is out there. He has seen an issue that needs to be addressed and he has dealt with it in this manner through the House. It is very good to be on the committee that Tau was a member of last year the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee where we had submissions on this bill. During that time his work was very constructive in getting this bill to the stage it is at today. The Labour Party also had a few members on that committee. They tried to stop it and to be disruptive to that process but in the end we found that common sense prevailed and that everybody got the result we needed.  
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Come on Heydrich make it more interesting. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: So the New Zealand First Party wants it more interesting is that right? Maybe we could sing it for you. Would that make it more interesting? We look forward to the New Zealand First Party standing up in front of this House. I know what those members are going to do. They are going to come in here and they are going to say everything that you want to hear but then they will vote against it. They will say they believe in individual rights but then they will still vote with the Labour Party.  
When it comes to this bill there were some changes made at the select committee. I think those changes are very important. The select committee listened to the suggestions that were put forward and it looked at what the opportunities were to make this bill the best legislation it could possibly be. There have been a number of changes. They go to the requirement for unions to hold a secret ballot before a strike. There were changes with new section 82A in clause 7 to clarify the intent of the bill and set out the process relating to the requirement for a union to hold a secret ballot. That is important and was one of the things that the select committee came to a conclusion on that helped make this bill better. There was a new clause 8 which was put in in regard to having a strike taking place in breach of proposed new section 82A and whether that is going to be unlawful or lawful. The determination of that was an important part of what the select committee was working on through that process.  
The select committee looked at the title of the bill as well. When we look at the title Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Act its context is something that does not define it as being anti-worker or anything like that that the Labour Party may try to portray. This is about giving the ability to workers to have freedom of choice and to express their freedom of choice in a secret manner and as the promoter of the bill the Hon Tau Henare said it is good enough for us to have elections every 3 years in secret ballots where everybody has that choice but it is not good enough for union members to have that when they want to vote.  
It is very sad that the Opposition takes that approach. There are two standards: one in regard to what those members want to see happen in regard to their own positions and one in regard to what they want to see happen in regard to ordinary New Zealanders who are working hard to make the best of their endeavours that they are undertaking. 
 The Labour Party talked about how they wanted to see shareholders make similar decisions. Well it is not really up to shareholders to make such decisions because there is a fundamental difference in a company between management and governance. Management decisions are made by the management of the company whereas in the case of a union it is the individuals who are the ones who are striking; the workers are the ones striking so it is only fair and relevant that they have that ability to vote on it. It should not be left to their union representative to make that choice for them because it is fundamental to their workplace and their desire. The difference between shareholders and companies against unions and union advocates is quite distinct and quite different. The argument put forward by the Labour Party that they are the same is just not the case. 
Phil Twyford 
: OK so make the board of directors vote then. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: So we will have the board of directors vote. That suggestion came from Phil Twyford. I just want to mention to him the difference between management and governance: the board of directors provides governance. Phil Twyford obviously does not understand that. It is a management decision Phil; the board of directors is not the management of a company. The board of directors appoints the management which is the CEO. It is good that Phil made that comment. It is always good when Phil makes a comment in the House because then we can correct him and just let him know how things go. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! The member should know now that he cannot refer to a member by his Christian name. It must be the full name. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: That was Mr Phil Twyford. I am not sure what seat he represents but he is in this House trying to make comments about governance and management and they simply do not stack up. This bill is good for our workers. I would like to thank the Hon Tau Henare for putting it forward and we look forward to seeing the New Zealand First Party voting with the Government this time on this bill.