Cullen Michael: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee Recommittal Third Reading 
Cullen Michael: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee Recommittal Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:460] 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Labour) 
: 
 We are sitting under urgency to consider the Employment Relations Amendment Bill that comes into force on 1 April and I ask why. It is because this is part of the 100 days of action. The 100 days of action comes to an end on 25 February and the House meets on 10 February for 2 weeks so basically anything that needs to be done to legislation in the 100 days of action needs to be done this week or next week. 
Let us refer to the Speech from the Throne which stated that the Government is “going for growth”—a slogan recycled from Ruth Richardson. What is the secret of growth? What is the National Party’s answer in this 100 days of action? It is a $10-a-week tax cut for some people the ability for employers to deny employees the right to a personal grievance claim if they are dismissed within 90 days of employment and for teachers it is having to tell parents whether little Jimmy is in the second or fourth stanine in reading. Most of the members opposite will not even know what a stanine is so we will try to enlighten them about that later on today or tomorrow. 
This adds up to “going for growth.” This is the growth strategy of the National Party. Temporary and part-time employees could be taken on after coming out of prison. I do not know how they will get out of prison under National Party policy because they have been told they will be staying in for ever. Eventually they are finally let out of prison at 73 years old and “rock up” as Mr Key would say to their local baker and say: “Can I do some dough for you?”. The employer will take them on for 90 days and then will tell them: “Sorry we don’t actually like the bread you made and we don’t feel you are happy here and anyway you only get crumbs if you are a member of the Labour Party so you are going to leave the job.” And this is going to turbocharge the New Zealand economy—[ 
Interruption 
] Turbocharge I say to Mr Bakshi. 
No reason for dismissal has to be given. All this bill does is take away the right to a personal grievance claim. It does not create a provision for a probationary period—that is already in the law. It actually makes the law more rigid. It confines the probationary period to 90 days. That is what the bill does. 
I take the case that my colleague Mr Cosgrove put forward of the person working in a sawmill who does not like the safety procedures. We now have a whole new slogan from National—it is now “a hand off not a hand up.” It used to be “a hand up not a hand out.” Well if employees are not prepared to have their hand off they cannot keep their job. An employer will say to an employee: “You are clearly not happy here. You do not like the idea of having a bleeding stump—you had better go somewhere else where you are not at risk of that happening to you.” That is the National Party approach to this area and it is going to turbocharge the New Zealand economy. People know that their kid who is 6 years of age is in stanine 2. Is that going to make something turbocharge the economy? Maybe in 25 years’ time. People know they can have their jobs taken away from them in 90 days. That is not going to happen so much in highly skilled jobs where people have bargaining power. It is going to happen in the unskilled jobs. And this will turbocharge the economy? I ask what else will turbocharge it. Well people might get a $10-a-week tax cut next year and that is going to turbocharge the New Zealand economy. 
After 9 years in Opposition this is all that the intellectual giants of the National Party have managed to think up between them as an economic strategy. It is no wonder that Gerry Brownlee has been the secret master behind National Party planning strategy and tactics both in the House and in terms of policy over that period of time. Meanwhile over in the cathedral Mrs Tolley is still in sanctuary still not wanting to come out and admit the fact that she got it wrong that teachers will be covered by these changes and that small rural schools will have trouble retaining teachers. Teachers will not want to be put at risk of being sent down the road again because oh my God here they are in the back country in Hawarden or somewhere like that in Canterbury and their employer has found out that they voted Labour in the 1984 election and that is not something teachers should be allowed to do. After all we all know what happened when the local teacher was the one Labour Party voter in the area and the witch-hunt that went on to find out who that Labour Party voter was within that area. Now that employer will be able to tell that teacher: “Sorry about that. Down the road. Off you go. That’s the finish of your job. We will turbocharge the economy by bringing somebody else in.”