Fenton Darien: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFenton Darien: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate[Sitting date: 26 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11314. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Supplementary EstimatesDARIEN FENTON (Labour):Well I must say that I feel sorry for the National backbenchers. I know that they have to stand up and spout the party line and the lines written for them by the research centre but they are getting a little bit boring can I say. Can I also give the National backbenchers and in fact the front bench a bit of a warning. They are sounding more arrogant by the day and arrogance is the first sign of a Government that is going to lose. The fact is that this Government has turned its back on the unemployed on the underemployed and on New Zealand families and that iswhat happens when politicians talk only to themselves. That is what the National members do. They talk to themselves they talk to their research unit they get the lines and out they come.The fact about this Budget is that the biggest con job that has been imposed on Kiwis is the promise around creating more jobs.Andrew Little: What a joke.DARIEN FENTON: What a joke. John Key promised New Zealanders 170000 jobs not once not twice—Iain Lees-Galloway: How many times?DARIEN FENTON: Three times—three times: once in the election in 2010 once in Budget 2011 and once in the election campaign. And look there have been mass redundancies. We are not seeing jobs created. In the last year there have been mass redundancies at Dynamic Controls Rakon Solid Energy Norske Skog Tīwai Point Axiam Metals—[Interruption ] Yes I am getting there—and mass redundancies at Nuplex Industries and Aquaheat. Look I could go on and on. But today in the saddest announcement we heard that job losses at New Zealand Post will result in the loss of 130 jobs in the Waikato 160 in Wellington 75 in Dunedin and 125 in the heartland and satellite sites. So today we have got a lot of New Zealand Post workers feeling very fearful for their future job prospects. They know that it is not a good time to be looking for another job with secure hours and good rates of pay. Have we had any sympathy or any mention of that from any of the National Party speakers? Have we? Any sympathy? No. Silence just silence. The tragedy is that these are good jobs decent jobs well-paid jobs where workers can earn a living and support their families. We cannot afford to lose jobs like these but we are.This is a time when inequality is growing and Kiwis are struggling. And what is the Government’s answer?Sue Moroney: They haven’t got one.DARIEN FENTON: Well no it does actually. It does have an answer: cut wages. Let us cut wages of course. Let us cut the wages of Kiwi workers by taking the axe to Kiwi workers’ rights and wage negotiations. I have been wondering whether the National Party thinks that the wage gap of 30 percent with Australia is not big enough. Perhaps it wants to make it bigger.Sue Moroney: Bill English said it wasn’t big enough.DARIEN FENTON: Well he did—that is right. And actually John Key said: “We would love to see wages drop.” We have not forgotten that.If National thinks that the gap is big enough already why on earth would it be proposing changes to employment law that will have a knock-on effect on jobs and wages right across this country? This Budget is meaningless until the National Party starts to understand that. Why on earth would the Government be proposing laws that mean that employers can refuse to negotiate collective agreements? They can walk away from them. But even worse why would the Government be proposing to cut the rights of Kiwi workers to meal breaks and tea breaks with a miserable provision? We all know that John Key and John Banks enjoyed a cup of tea.Iain Lees-Galloway: They like a cup of tea.DARIEN FENTON: They had a cup of tea. They had a cup of tea. They got their heads together to plan to cut the wages and the tea breaks of New Zealand workers.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: All day.DARIEN FENTON: All day that is right.Today Statistics New Zealand released its Survey of Working Life for the December quarter and it makes very interesting reading. There are two things about the headline results. First of all Kiwi workers are positive about working despite the NationalParty’s insistence and the picture it tries to paint of Kiwi workers as being lazy ungrateful and unmotivated employees who have to be forced out to work by Paula Bennett and her police people in Work and Income. But buried in the statistics are some other things that tell us a lot more about the issues that are facing Kiwi workers. The first thing is that one in every 10 jobs is temporary. That means that those jobs are casual or they are fixed term or they are jobs working for a temporary hire agency or they are jobs for seasonal workers. These are really hard jobs. These are the hard jobs where families cannot get ahead.I want to share an email I had recently from someone I am going to meet. I think he sent an email to most politicians and it said: “To whom it may concern or help or desperately searching for someone who gives a toss. After more than 3 years of working as an independent contractor with my own courier business I am at my wits’ end and stress is killing me. I work a 60-hour week and haven’t had a day off other than weekends and unpaid statutory holidays in more than 3 years. I earn $8 an hour.” This is John Key’s New Zealand people. This is John Key’s New Zealand—$8 an hour. That is just absolutely and utterly shameful. He is a contractor—Nicky Wagner is looking puzzled over there. He is a contractor.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: She always does.DARIEN FENTON: Yes that is right.The second thing that was interesting about the survey was that 18 percent—or nearly two out of 10 workers—feel more stressed at work. Ten percent have experienced discrimination bullying or harassment and nearly a quarter are working between 41 and 59 hours a week. In fact 6 percent are working more than 60 hours a week. Two in every 10 workers thought the chance of losing their jobs in the next 12 months was high or almost certain. So there is real insecurity and real issues out there.But the fact is that the National Party never talks to real workers. I heard Nick Smith say today that it was “only $2” when he was talking about prescription charges. That was a great “let them eat cake” statement. Go back to McGehan Close Mr Key and tell them that. And we have now a Minister of Labour who has never had to face an employer trying to cut his pay. And to make it even worse he does not even understand his own law. Here is a beauty. A couple of weeks ago Simon Bridges told bFM: “at the moment you must belong to the union for the first 30 days [of employment]. We’re saying no actually the employee has a choice.”Sue Moroney: What? That’s not true.Iain Lees-Galloway: That’s not true.DARIEN FENTON: Of course it is not true. Fact check Mr Bridges. You are the Minister of Labour. Get your facts right. No one is forced to join a union in this country in their first 30 days or otherwise. In your new job your employer cannot pay you less than a union agreement rate whether you are in the union or not. But of course Simon Bridges wants to take that provision away.And then of course there is Jami-Lee Ross’s bill the Employment Relations (Continuity of Labour) Amendment Bill. Jami-Lee Ross has been given the job of running up the more extreme agenda of the National Party when it comes to workers’ rights. Simon Bridges and John Key like to pretend that they have got this moderate approach this—what do they call it—moderate law. But Jami-Lee Ross has been given the job by the National Party to run up this extreme bill which shows the worst of the National Party. It shows that in the beating heart of the National Party it still hates workers hates unions and wants to punish them by making it impossible for workers to strike and by giving employers the right to lock workers out replace them with temporary workers and starve them into submission. That is absolutely Orwellian. It is—what is the word?Iain Lees-Galloway: Dickensian.DARIEN FENTON: Dickensian and Orwellian.So despite this Budget we are heading for a very divisive phase in New Zealand. The constant grinding down of families and workers is not going to help build our country and that will continue under this Government. You would think that after 5 long years of this Government we would have got to a point in this Budget where it would provide assistance for people who lose their jobs and to help build higher-value higher-wage industries. We are just seeing the destruction of that. We are seeing the Government completely ignore what the manufacturers are saying.Andrew Little: They don’t care about them.DARIEN FENTON: It does not care about them. That is right. Because it knows best.So I go back to what I said at the beginning: watch out for arrogance. It is creeping into your speeches and it is creeping into your Prime Minister. People are noticing it. They do not like it. They do not like being told that their issues do not matter that they should not be listened to that the National Party knows best and that people who oppose its views should be ignored or in some cases even punished. Unfortunately this is a Government that talks big hangs out with its mates in the boardrooms and ignores those who work hard to make a living but just cannot get ahead—just cannot get ahead. Thank you.