Fenton Darien: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Fenton Darien: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:671;Page:17496] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I think next week brings to fruition the changes that were being considered during the period of the financial review of the Department of Labour. On 1 April there will be many changes for New Zealand workers. While this House is adjourned New Zealand will go backwards. This Government has no plan other than to attack workers’ rights and take their rights away from them in a pathetic attempt to try to prove to the rest of the country that it actually has a plan. 
Next week on 1 April the “90 Day No Rights (Fire at Will) Employment Bill” brought in by the Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson will become law for every worker in New Zealand. Every worker in New Zealand when they change jobs from next week 1 April will be subject to a period where they have absolutely no rights. If dismissed they will have no right to ask why they have been dismissed and no right to challenge that dismissal. This measure has been put forward by the Minister as some kind of economic plan some kind of reason to take the country forward. Government members are so out of touch with this country that they have no idea. Ordinary Kiwis who are struggling to make ends meet will simply find that this makes their lives harder. It will make things worse not better. National members have forgotten how to talk to ordinary people and their families. 
During this period—and everybody knows this has been a very heated debate in the Chamber and it will continue to be a heated debate—Labour members have been going out and talking to ordinary people. What they are telling us is that this Government is not working for them and their families but for its mates and foreign interests. We had a ridiculous situation where the Minister claimed from a very very unsupportable report from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research that 13000 new jobs were created under the 90-day no-rights trial period for workplaces of fewer than 20 employees. When we look at the research and unpick it we see that that is simply ridiculous. The Government took one statistical period and said that it must be an indicator somehow that small businesses are creating more jobs because there was a difference between workplaces with fewer than 20 workers and workplaces with more than 20 workers. The Government did not take into account any other things that were happening at the time such as assistance that was being targeted at small business other stimulus measures that could have assisted small business and upheaval in the economy. When the Minister makes claims about the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research report and says that 13000 jobs were created well certainly I will look forward and Labour will look forward to seeing the creation of a huge number of jobs. National members claim that when their policy is applied in all workplaces we will see suddenly see many more jobs created throughout New Zealand. It is a very weak argument. 
In addition to that during this financial review period we have seen other changes to labour laws. There have been many but I want to concentrate on a few. One of them is the denial of union access to workplaces. Union representatives now have to ask permission from an employer and wait up to 2 days for it to be granted. Apparently it cannot be unreasonably withheld. I am really interested— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Sounds oppressive to me. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is right particularly in light of recent events: the awful situation in Christchurch and the Pike River Coal mine. I am really interested in the proposal that was taken to Cabinet last year where the Minister’s department said that this consent should not have to be applied for when it involves the health and safety of union members. That advice was taken by the Minister to Cabinet—it was from her department. I want to know what happened to it because it never turned up in the bill. I think that she will live to regret the decision that union representatives will have to wait up to 2 days to get consent to enter a workplace particularly when it is in regard to health and safety matters. 
Then there are of course the other things that have happened in this period like the so-called law change from  
The Hobbit 
.  
The Hobbit 
 law change was absolutely disgraceful. This Government was completely run over by— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Hollywood welfare. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: —that is right—multinational interests. It was terrified by the film makers of America who came here and threatened to remove their industry. It was never about the actors’ union. It was always about a multinational company trying to dictate to New Zealand what employment rights should be in this country. What happened in that debate and in that law change is that a whole category of workers—not just actors but cleaners drivers and catering workers anyone who works in the film and video production industry—no longer have rights as employees. They no longer have the right to challenge the fact that they can be employed without rights under the Employment Relations Act. That is what has happened. Mr Macindoe should not look puzzled. 
Tim Macindoe 
: You know that’s nonsense. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: No—of course it is true. It makes Labour extremely worried about who will be the next category of workers on the list. 
Then of course next week on 1 April the changes to the Holidays Act come into force. We have a country where workers are working longer hours than ever. In fact productivity has gone up because they are working longer hours than ever and getting paid less not because we have improved productivity and the Government is saying we should reduce their rights to holidays not increase them. 
The other thing that happened during the last period of the financial review was the meals and rest breaks legislation. Do members remember that? Do members remember those dreadful air traffic controllers who were so unreasonable about the fact that we had a meals and rest breaks law that said they were entitled to a break after 8 hours and after 4 hours? It was so unreasonable according to this Government that the whole country had to be stopped so a law had to be rushed into Parliament—and where is it now? Where is the Employment Relations (Rest Breaks and Meal Breaks) Amendment Bill? I think it is about No. 16 on the Order Paper. I would like to know from the Minister in the chair the Minister for Ethnic Affairs what happened to that legislation. A year and a half ago it was so urgent that the Government had to remove from the whole country all the rights to meals and rest breaks and water the legislation down so much because of those dreadful air traffic controllers. Well something happened obviously. Of course it could be negotiated which was always the intention of that bill and it is now way down the track. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: They don’t believe in negotiation. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: No that is true. Now it is right down the bottom of the Order Paper. 
The other thing that has happened in this period and it is mentioned in the financial report is the situation of the IDEA Services workers. For the last 3 or 4 years they have appeared before three courts including the Court of Appeal where the Government joined the appeal to try to stop them from getting the minimum wage for working overnight looking after our most vulnerable citizens. Three courts have now said that they are right it is work and they should be paid the minimum wage. What has the Government done? Absolutely nothing. We called on the Government to sit down and negotiate with the stakeholders with the union and with others who are completely willing to find a durable solution to this issue. The Government has done nothing. Instead we now have IHC going to the Supreme Court and wasting money that it does not have money that was allocated by the Government for the care of vulnerable people. It is treating workers absolutely like rubbish. Here we go—yet another group of low-paid workers will have to put up with this for the next little while. 
Then finally the minimum wage rises by 25c an hour next week. The Minister’s own advice was 25c an hour but 50c an hour was affordable. The Government could have done that. It could have put up the minimum wage to $13.50 an hour. Actually the Government could have put up the minimum wage by 75c an hour. It was affordable; that was the Minister’s advice. It is not about losing jobs; it is about jobs that might be created. It would have had negligible impact on employment. The Minister’s own department’s advice was that that 25c an hour is no increase at all. It is not an increase in real terms. It is insulting. Those workers are trying to make ends meet along with everybody else. It just shows how completely out of touch this Government is. Labour will give everybody a fair go. We will make sure people will pay their fair share.