Simpson Scott; Tolley AnneHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well like the Minister's voice this is a Government that is running out of oomph. The Minister really got up tonight and tried to justify a piece of legislation that's actually going to do terrific harm to the film industry and sector in New Zealand—an industry and a sector that we as New Zealanders have become enormously proud of over the last decade or so. It is an industry that has been able to advance New Zealand tourism New Zealand enterprise and the New Zealand economy and provide jobs work employment and income for literally thousands of New Zealand's most talented and creative people.This is a bill that actually seeks to harm all those gains. It's a bill that really just characterises in the most obvious way how little understood the economy is by this Government. This is a Government that actually doesn't understand how the New Zealand economy works doesn't understand how the film industry works and doesn't want to create opportunity for New Zealanders who want to be earning an income working in the sector earning an international reputation and doing good for New Zealand Incorporated" and of course themselves.This is a bill that actually is payback for non-delivery of a whole raft of promises that were made to the trade union movement by this Government upon their election. They haven't been able to deliver so many things. But they want to in the last 198 days of this Government try and finally deliver at least something to their union mates. This seems to be the prize that they want to deliver. Well there is no prize for those hundreds if not thousands of people who are currently employed as independent contractors in the film sector in the screen sector who are earning good money and producing good quality product. Now this Government this Labour-led Government wants to unionise on behalf of their union mates this piece of legislation and return back to the bad old days when industry film makers decided that they didn't want to come to New Zealand. They didn't want to be here because the environment didn't provide an opportunity for them to be competitive. They will take as they did previously that investment opportunity and the work that goes with it offshore. And that's because this Government puts their union mates and their ideology ahead of prospects and good opportunities for New Zealanders to earn a decent income in a sector where we can and have been incredibly good and received not only domestic acclaim but international acclaim.This is a Government that wants to repeal what we put forward and what has been working exceptionally well to the great benefit of the thousands of people working in the sector and of course the film sector and earning export dollars as well. They want to repeal what we called the "Hobbit law" and they promised actually to do it. This was their promise. They actually promised to do it within the first 100 days and they failed hopelessly on that. Now in the last dying days of this administration they're going to try and push it through ram it through as fast as they can. So even after nearly three years in office finally they've come to try and get it through.One of the things that concerned me about the Minister's speech was what appears to be a truncated and shortened report back process for the select committee. It's looking like—I think if I heard the Minister correctly—he wants a report back to this Parliament by 2 June and that's not even three months. It means that they're trying to push this through absolutely as fast as they can.The amendments that we made to this legislation back in 2010 have worked exceptionally well. They were pragmatic sensible changes that worked not only for those people who wanted to work and be employed in this sector but also for the movie and film makers. Now Labour is attempting to do little more than appease their union mates yet again because what National knows is that a thriving growing economy which this Government seems not to be remotely concerned about is dependent on a flexible labour market—a flexible labour market. That's the kind of market place that was generating 10000 jobs a month—10000 jobs a month—under the last administration. And what have we now? A piece of legislation designed only to stifle an opportunity for jobs to be created—to stifle opportunity for New Zealanders to be employed and work within a thriving and growing environment and an opportunity. This Government wants to shrink that down so that there will be fewer New Zealanders working in an area where we know we have good creative skills and opportunity not only for New Zealanders here but internationally as well.This Government's own advice showed that the 2010 amendment actually worked and that it has been working. The fact that it's taken them so long to get to this point I think is an indication that actually in their heart of hearts they know that it's working and they know how damaging this will be. They also know that in 198 days when the election is held the prospect of this legislation being turned over is very high and they know that the damage that they'll be doing will be neatly contained to probably only a few months because it will need to be fixed—fixed in terms of growing our economy.This Government—really all they want to do is just push some more power to the unions and we know about how that connection works. The history—we know the history. We know the relationship that exists between the parliamentary Labour Party and the trade union movement in New Zealand. We understand that connection. It's historic and it's political and it's all based on a relationship that goes back a very long period of time and they try and wrap it up as being some kind of benefit to New Zealanders. Well nothing could be further from the truth. This is a piece of legislation that is doing little more than shrinking a huge opportunity for New Zealanders and for our economy.Now one of the most important things about the legislation that was changed in 2010 is that it had built into it a respect for the rights of individual workers to negotiate their own terms of employment and their own working rates their own pay rates. This is something that we know this Government doesn't like having. They don't like people having an ability to negotiate on their own behalf; they like this collectivism. They like everything to be neatly put together and controlled by the union bosses in Wellington and they like big unions big control and big Government. We take exactly the reverse view. We think that New Zealanders are at their best when they have the ability to negotiate for themselves to create flexible working environments that create opportunities for growth and for more people to be employed.What this piece of legislation will do is simply reduce the availability of opportunity for New Zealanders to be earning an income from a thriving film and screen sector. I think that's an appalling indictment on this Government. This is without doubt the most hopeless Government that we've had since the last one-term Labour Government—that one that was tossed out in 1975. They are showing all the same hallmarks of that Government back then. They were out of touch with reality. They wanted to shrink the New Zealand economy down. They were completely dominated by the trade union movement and the relationships historical and political that exist between them.In this case billions of dollars—billions of dollars—of potential revenue to New Zealand is going to be lost because the film makers the people who want to invest their capital in New Zealand are simply going to take that offshore and go somewhere else. That's what this Government wants. They seem to want to just turn their face on the opportunities that exist and have been working so well. So this is a very poor piece of legislation. It's a result of one of the innumerable working committees that this Government set up. They promised it within the first hundred days. They've only been able to get a bill introduced into the House in the last few months—if not weeks—of this administration. It's a poor piece of legislation that we will oppose at every opportunity.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Just before I call the next speaker I just want to remind those members that are not sitting in their normal seats that it is against the Standing Orders to move your seat closer in order to interject—so just a warning."