Henare Tau: Employment Relations (Workers’ Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Henare Tau: Employment Relations (Workers’ Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I move  
That the Employment Relations (Workers’ Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. First of all I thank the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee for a sterling job and I also give immense thanks for the assistance that I received from the clerks of the committee and the chairperson Mr David Bennett. 
I say this is a very very non-controversial bill—very very non-controversial. It does not set out to take rights away from anybody and it does not set out to give people something that somebody else in the community does not have. It codifies what is in a lot of union rules already and that is that when a group of workers—for whatever reason—decides to withdraw its labour all that my bill says is needed in order to do that is that they should have a secret ballot. What more could a democracy ask for than a secret ballot? 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: A change of Government. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well that was asked 2 years ago and I am afraid to tell the previous member for Rotorua that the members opposite lost. We won it has been 2 years so let us move on. 
All this bill says to people is that if they are going to withdraw their labour they have the right to have a secret ballot. Without any intimidation either by the union organisers or even by employers people will be able to have a secret ballot. It is interesting that Labour is supportive of secret ballots and I want to thank it too for its input into this bill. But I am perplexed that the minority report in the bill states: “The Labour Party is supportive of secret ballots for strike action because it largely reflects current practice among unions.” but in the next sentence the minority report states: “However in New Zealand union membership is voluntary and unions should be free to run their organisations according to the rules democratically agreed to by their members.” That says that although Labour members believe and accept that there are union rules out there they do not think that people should be covered by this legislation if they are not covered by it already. On the one hand Labour members are saying that yes they agree to a secret ballot if it is in the rules of the union already—that is not a problem; workers can have that right. But other workers who are not covered by a secret ballot cannot have that same protection; they cannot have that same right. 
So my bill clearly and in a simple way says to all workers who are members of unions that if they decide to withdraw their labour they can do it with the full knowledge that their decision will be made by a secret ballot. We have a secret ballot when we go to the polls. Is that wrong? Of course it is not wrong. Do we say to all the Third World countries and all the despots around the world that they should be democracies? Of course we do. We say to all of those African countries and from wherever around the world— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: African countries are from Africa not from wherever. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —“or” from wherever I said—that we are about making sure we are right behind democracy and it is a democratic right for a person to cast his or her vote in a non-threatening environment. All the bill does is to say to workers who want to withdraw their labour: “By all means go for it and you can also have a secret ballot.” Thank you very much.