6. Question No. 6—Workplace Relations and SafetyHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel) to the Minister for Workplace Relations and SafetyQuestion No. 6—Workplace Relations and Safety6. Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel) to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety: Does he stand by all his statements and actions in regards to workplace relations?Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice) on behalf of the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety: On behalf of the Minister yes.Hon Scott Simpson: Does he stand by his statement yesterday we've made good progress in this House on the Employment Relations Amendment Bill" and if so does he define "good progress" as the Government ignoring the voice of nearly all businesses at the select committee stage of the bill?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Yes and this Government has good quality—SPEAKER: Order! Order! No. Sorry I'm going to rule the question out. It's not an area the Minister's responsible for. Hon Scott Simpson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Well does not the Minister have responsibility for relationships between trade unions and businesses? I would have thought that the question was in order. SPEAKER: Yeah absolutely but he doesn't have responsibility for changes at a select committee that either did or didn't happen. Hon Scott Simpson: Could I rephrase the question Mr Speaker? SPEAKER: You can have another question. I'm not giving you an extra one. Hon Scott Simpson: Does he accept that a gulf has emerged between the business community and the trade unions over the last 12 months and if so why? Hon ANDREW LITTLE: There has been a gulf between workers and employers since the time of the Tolpuddle martyrs that in the course of history sometimes is closed and sometimes widens. The challenge for Governments of any country where there are relations between business and workers is not the size of the gulf; it's the quality and strength of the bridge to bring parties together to get fair good outcomes for everyone. Hon Scott Simpson: Does he agree with the organiser at Unite union Joe Carolan's criticisms that their workers hold "huge anger" and that the Government has not done enough over the last 12 months to improve their lives and that this is why they have threatened a "big round of strikes in 2019"? Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Well I know Joe Carolan very well and regard him as a friend. He is sort of the Jim Larkin of the New Zealand union movement and a firebrand at that and he has his view. What I do stand by is the actions of this Government to bring back justice to workplace relations in this country so workers can look to their employers with a sensible framework to get fair pay increases fair pay and conditions and safe workplaces. Hon Scott Simpson: If as he said yesterday employment law settings haven't changed and there were so few people on strike over the last nine years compared to the 65000 on strike in the last 12 months isn't it true then that the only thing that has changed in the last 12 months is the Government? Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The underpinning sort of principle to that question is typical of a time when the National Party was led by people like Sid Holland as opposed to the progressive labour Ministers of that party like Jim Bolger and Peter Gordon. But the reality is workers in modern liberal democracies have the right to withdraw their labour and have that protected and to press their case for better pay and conditions. The fact that workers in New Zealand wanted to do that is a good sign and we need to have a good legal framework that protects them but ultimately gets agreement not only on fairer pay and conditions but on what really matters and that is—Hon Jacqui Dean: Speech. Hon ANDREW LITTLE: —lifting productivity across businesses from which everybody—Hon Jacqui Dean: Speech. Hon ANDREW LITTLE: —shares the gains. Hon Jacqui Dean: Mr Speaker. SPEAKER: The member would like to have a call now—Hon Jacqui Dean: Thank you. SPEAKER: —would she as opposed to a minute ago?"