Bennett David: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bennett David: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 27 February 2007. Volume:637;Page:7705. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 Today we have heard a series of statements made by the Minister in the chair the Hon Ruth Dyson in which she indicated a complete faith in the comments made by individuals—Paul Hutchison and Gordon Copeland—and in which at the same time she rejected their concerns. That has also been the situation with the legislation we are debating today. The Government has gone about saying how this is good for New Zealand how it is about equality and treating employed and self-employed people together and how employers have nothing to fear from this legislation. But the reality is that this legislation will have a dramatic effect on many employers and some self-employed people. It will increase many of their costs of doing business through the increase in the levy amounts. It is part of a plan that this Government has had all the way of treating everything as being equal. It thinks that there is no difference between business entities—there is no difference in the reasons why people go into self-employment or into employment relationships. We are seeing that through other parts of the employment law legislation as well with the intention to treat contractors the same as employees. 
That is all part of the mentality of this Government. It talks of removing the employers’ account and the self-employed work account and inserting a definition of a work account by omitting all references to the employers’ account and the self-employed work account and replacing them with references to a work account. We see that all through Part 2 “Transitional provisions”. That shows an intention by this Government to try to make everything the same—its kind of level playing field. The Government believes that everything is the same in this world. The reality is that it is not all the same. There are different business interests and there are different ways of structuring one’s business because people take different actions and have different responsibilities. 
Some of the implications of what the Government is doing in this grand vision of equality will have a major effect on many businesses. Businesses have paid a large sum of money into these accounts over a number of years. The employers’ account has reserves of over $500 million and in the self-employed work account there are reserves of over $115 million. These people have paid money into these accounts under the genuine understanding that this money would be used for the purposes for which they paid it. Employers did not pay that $500 million on the basis that it would be put together at some place and point in time as part of some grand plan for equality thought up by a Government that believes it knows best. Employers paid that money in over time because they were doing what they thought was the right thing under their legislative requirements. They expect that a Government would also repay that money if over time it was needed. This Government has not shown the good faith that the employers have shown. Instead it has used that money for its own ulterior motives. It has taken away the element of good faith that is essential for business to grow and prosper. 
This Government has no intention of looking after the self-employed or the employed. When the business community whether self-employed or employed has made submissions to this Government they have been pretty well ignored and dressed up. The Government has said: “Oh we’ll look at them as part of some review at some point in the future.” This is one of those kinds of reviews and it has been shoved under the radar in a very short period of time. The Government has not given people the time to adjust to make submissions and to see what the Government is doing in this case. All it is doing is pushing this through in a very short period of time with the intention of taking away the hard-earned money that employers have put into that account over a number of years. 
That will hurt employers. It will also hurt the self-employed. Some large self-employed revenue rate increases that we have seen in the documents provided to the select committee include increases for the police. If their 2006-07 rate of $1.03 were separate it would be 73c for 2007-08 but under the merged ratio they are paying $1.08 in 2007-08. That is a percentage change of 48 percent from having a separate account to having a merged account. The police are going through a pretty tough time at the moment with this Government which will not resource them. It is a Government that will not stand by the police in time of need and a Government that blames them for any driving infractions that may happen if travelling from Timaru to a game of rugby in Christchurch. But at the same time the Government is willing to shaft the police by putting up their levies.