Dunne Peter: Employment Relations Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
Dunne Peter: Employment Relations Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:16069] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
: 
 This Employment Relations Law Reform Bill goes too far. When the Employment Relations Act was passed early in the life of this Government many people were prepared to give it a chance. They saw that the one thing that has to be avoided which this bill ensures will now occur—namely industrial relations becoming a game of ping-pong that changes every time the Government changes—was something that we should put a stop to. This bill by actually taking these measures a step further simply places industrial relations law back on the political agenda and that is no good for any of the businesses in New Zealand—exporters manufacturers and producers—because they will now live with uncertainty knowing that the only certainty is that a future Government will change the law and set the whole spiral off once again. 
I want to speak to Supplementary Order Paper 276 which stands in my name and which inserts new clause 9A “Issue of certificate of exemption”. The Committee will be aware that sections 23 and 24 of the principal Act deal with the issue of union access to workplace sites being denied on grounds of conscience particularly on religious grounds provided that certain certificates of exemption are in place. The amendment I am proposing by way of this Supplementary Order Paper clarifies that provision in respect of members of the Brethren Church in so far as their educational and business organisations are concerned. What the amendment does is to carry through a principle that has been long recognised in industrial relations law from the time of the Labour Relations Act of the late 1980s right through the Employment Contracts Act days and through to the Employment Relations Act regarding the right of conscientious objection. The amendment simply deals with the situation that now occurs as a result of moves by in this case members of the Brethren Church into the education field. 
The amendment very particularly circumscribes the group to whom it applies. I want to quote from the amendment and I will explain it a little further in a moment. The operative part of the amendment is that individuals trustees or directors are being exempted where an individual is a practising member or all the trustees of the registered trust concerned are practising members or all the directors and shareholders of a private company are practising members of a religious society or order whose doctrines or beliefs preclude membership of any organisation or body other than the religious society or order of which the employer is a member. There is only one group in that category in New Zealand. It is a group that has long been respected in industrial relations law and it is the Brethren Church. Its members some of whom are here in the gallery this evening to support this amendment have long had an assurance from successive Governments that their rights of conscientious objection given their particular beliefs would be respected. 
The reality is that unless this amendment is passed we will be removing in particular in respect of education but also in respect of some of the business operations the Brethren Church is involved in a significant portion of that right of individual conscientious exemption on religious grounds. That is a backward step and it cuts right across assurances that the Minister the Prime Minister and others have given from time to time that those rights will be upheld. Whatever one’s view about the particular organisation that is not the point. The reality is that a long-held principle of industrial relations law is being tampered with and is going to be put in a position whereby those individual matters of conscience will now have to be dealt with in a different way. That will create hardship for that organisation—in particular in respect of its educational activities. The Brethren Church is now involved in establishing schools up and down the country where it employs teachers who meet all the standard registration procedures and those schools meet New Zealand Qualifications Authority standards and other standards etc. Those operations which I understand educate around about a thousand children will be put under some risk as a result of this bill being passed without this amendment being adopted. 
So I say to the Committee and to the Minister that if this amendment fails then what we are doing is sending a signal that the industrial relations law is being changed in a way that is not only detrimental but is also discriminatory.