Davis Kelvin: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavis Kelvin: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 05 May 2009. Volume:654;Page:2866. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KELVIN DAVIS (Labour):Part 2 of the Māori Trustee Amendment Bill is really about the transition from the old Māori Trustee regime to the new regime. But first of all I will touch on the generalisation that my whanaunga the Hon Tau Henare made about collection agencies and about how easy it appears to be for the likes of the collection agency Baycorp to collect money. That really is just a generalisation and it is a bit of a fallacy. I know from talking to constituents up in the far north that they are having trouble getting money owed to them by other members of the community. They have had collection agencies going around and bailiffs trying to find the people who owe them but they are finding it quite difficult to get that money.Moving back to Part 2 the whole transition side of things is just to ensure that the transition from the old regime of the Māori Trustee to the new regime is smooth and that it ensures that work conditions and other parts of people’s employment move smoothly into the new regime. In particular in relation to the transfer of employment rights the legislation makes sure that just because an employee has worked for the old Maori Trustee and then moves to work for the new Maori Trustee there is no degradation of his or her work conditions—things just tick over and make that transition nice and smooth.There is also the part in clause 28 about compensation and redundancy issues which the Minister clarified for us. The clause basically states that if somebody is transferred over just because he or she finished working for the old Māori Trustee and moved over to work for the new Māori Trustee his or her work does not actually cease there. Employees should not receive redundancy from shifting from the old regime to the new regime but if their work in the old regime finishes then they might be entitled to redundancy.Clause 26 “Protection of employment conditions” states that if “a transferred employee … is employed on an individual employment agreement the transferred employee must be employed by the new Māori Trustee on terms and conditions no less favourable than those applying to that employee immediately before …” the transfer. It is really important that people have that security in their employment and know that although there will be changes their work conditions will remain the same.The effect of the Act as outlined in clause 23 is that “(1) Nothing done or authorised by this Act—(a) places the old Maori Trustee the Maori Trust Office the new Māori Trustee or any other person in breach of contract or confidence or makes any of them liable for a civil wrong;”.Hon Tau Henare: Take your time bro!KELVIN DAVIS: I thank the Hon Tau Henare. As I said it is important that the transition goes smoothly and that under people’s conditions of employment they are not liable for things that occurred before they moved into a new regime or for any acts or omissions from it. It is important that people have the security of knowing that the transition will be smooth for them. It is important that employees know that their employment conditions will ensure that they will be looked after. So with that I say that this is a short call. I thank the Committee. Kia ora.