Roche Denise: Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 10 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1442. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): I rise to take a short call on the Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2) and I join my colleagues on this side of the House in opposing this bill’s passage through the House. There is no doubt that the stated intention of the bill is worthy. It is meant to introduce measures to address the exploitation of migrant workers and there is no doubt that we definitely need to do this. However on balance and after careful consideration of the evidence and the advice the Greens cannot support this bill because we do not believe that this bill will stop the exploitation of migrant workers.We agree with some submitters like the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions who advocate for better employment conditions across the board and an employment relations legislative framework that enables migrant workers and all workers for that matter to challenge bad employment practice without fear. However the laws that this Government has introduced—laws like the ability to fire workers at will during their first 90 days on the job and more recently the legislation that was passed at the end of last year that reduces workers’ access to a trade union or to bargain collectively—have placed all workers in greater insecurity than ever before. On top of this many migrant workers fear deportation if they speak up about being ripped off because the employer who is ripping them off holds all the cards because the temporary work visa is attached to that job and that employer and in many cases those employers have sponsored that worker to come to this country in the first place. So the employment relationship is far more intense and far more tipped in the balance of the employer than in normal employment relationships.In the submission from the Union Network of Migrants which is the union network for migrant workers it advocates for a broader application of an open work visa so that in the case of worker exploitation the worker can be assured of some security while their case is investigated. And we note that this issue has not been resolved during the select committee process. The union also outlines how the bill could be strengthened to ensure that employers who do exploit migrant workers are brought to justice by removing what they call the corporate veil. Basically that is where an employer is caught exploiting workers—you know breaching minimum employment standards in New Zealand law—and essentially they just wind themselves up so they are unable to pay any penalties or in fact frequently back-pay the workers what they are owed. So what the union suggests is that the law be extended as it is being extended under the current Health and Safety Reform Bill that is in front of the House so that the responsibility for all employment standards breaches includes officers or persons conducting a business or undertaking—what it is calling “PCBUs” under the health and safety legislation.We note the recommendations from other submitters that more emphasis should be placed on enforcement so that there is a deterrent for employers against them exploiting their employees and we do not see a lot of that happening currently. I understand from the submissions and the research that there are only about 40 labour inspectors in the country at the moment and they are under-resourced and have only just got to the tip of the iceberg of the many many cases of exploitation that are happening in this country. We reject the idea in this bill that Immigration Service officers be given extended enforcement powers because it mixes up the rights of the worker with the immigration issue completely and adds another layer of fear on top of what those exploited workers are already feeling. We are greatly disappointed in this bill. It does not set out what we thought it might do and it is very disappointing. Thank you.