Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to take a call in this Estimates debate and I particularly want to refer to pages 67 and 71 of the Education and Workforce Committee's report Vote Labour Market. Earlier today I had the privilege of receiving a petition from trustees of the Coromandel Rescue Helicopter Trust. They'd travelled from Whitianga in my electorate to the steps of Parliament to present their petition signed by over 8500 people. They did so because they're concerned about the lack of Coromandel and Whitianga facilities being included in a current tender for New Zealand's air ambulance services.Now we questioned the Minister on this very issue at the Estimates hearing and I have to say that he gave an utterly unconvincing account of himself in terms of his attempt to fudge the very real question that Coromandel people and the hundreds of thousands of people that visit the Coromandel every year want answered which is why the existing funded facilities that currently operate out of Whitianga and cover the peninsula and the Hauraki Gulf and through down into the Waikato were excluded from the current tender document.As I said at select committee at the Estimates hearing the Minister acknowledged that $3.7 million had been allocated to improve New Zealand's air ambulance services but for some inexplicable reason this service that the constituents and visitors to my electorate rely on has been excluded—but not only in my electorate; in the electorate of Taupō in Te Ānau and in Rotorua similar exclusions have occurred. And so we wait with bated breath for the outcome of this tender exercise knowing that if a decision is made to exclude existing services lives on the Coromandel will be lost. It's simply inexcusable for this Government not to participate in a way that gives the people in my electorate the confidence that they need. When the Minister was speaking in select committee on this Estimates as I said he gave an utterly unconvincing answer and wasn't able to give the assurances that the people of the Coromandel or visitors to the Coromandel seek to achieve.I want to just also raise the matter of the Government's intended changes to the industrial relations legislation environment in New Zealand. Business confidence of course continues to sink through the floor and notwithstanding the Minister's scatty response to business and its campaign to draw the public's attention and to draw the attention of businesses to these Draconian backward-looking 1970s changes when we asked questions at select committee about the changes the Minister was unable to give anything remotely confident in terms of assurances that business costs wouldn't increase that flexibility wouldn't decrease that prices wouldn't increase and that jobs wouldn't be lost.Of particular concern are issues relating to proposed changes to collective bargaining. Clauses 9 and 11 of the new Employment Relations Amendment Bill require a collective agreement to be agreed and clause 13 repeals the ability of employers to opt out of a bargaining for a multi-employer collective agreement. Now on the face of it that appears to be utterly inconsistent with the stance of article 4 of the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention 1949 (No. 98) also known as C098. The bill's provision offends the specific provision in that convention that collective bargaining should be voluntary by nature. But it gets worse. The Government also appears to have been wrongly advised in terms of the proper meaning of C098 in regard to proposals to introduce fair-pay agreements. Again when questioned the Minister wasn't able to provide answers. I suspect that the Government has been wrongly advised has received poor advice on this matter and ultimately these things will play out as that legislation works through the House.This Government has made some appalling mistakes. The Minister wasn't able to account for himself. He gave an embarrassing presentation at the Estimates hearing and he needs to improve.