Douglas Roger: Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Douglas Roger: Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
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Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS (ACT) 
: 
 The ACT Party— 
Hone Harawira 
: He wasn’t going to speak. 
Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS 
: No I was not going to speak but the member got me so excited. 
ACT supports the Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 2). In particular I want to talk about just one provision and that is the extension of the 90-day provision. What we have on the other side of the House—it is really interesting to listen to the Labour Party—are the unionists advocating protection for existing workers and locking out the disadvantaged. That is essentially what the Labour members’ argument is. They wrap it up but essentially they want to support and extend the privilege of existing workers and they want to limit any possible competition from disadvantaged people. They want to lock out young Maori people and they want to lock out our Pacific Island people from getting one foot on the ladder. 
We know from the provisions that have already been passed that 40 percent of the people who got a job would not have got a job otherwise. In other words those people got a start; they got a step up on the rung. Labour and the unions want to lock out the most vulnerable people in society so that they cannot get a step up on the ladder. They do not want to allow them to get a start. 
We know what they said about youth rates. Labour members were not in favour of youth rates. They are not in favour of a young Maori boy being able to work for $300 a week. No those members say in the name of so-called justice— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am sorry to interrupt the member. We do not have interjections from members on their feet. Members should interject from their own seats. 
Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS 
: I was enjoying the interjections. I certainly was not worried. What Labour members say in terms of those young people is that they are not happy for them to work. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I want to check that we are debating the Employment Relations Amendment Bill (No 2) and not the youth minimum wage legislation that the member moved. I think he might be slightly stuck in the past. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Thank you for those comments. 
Hon Sir ROGER DOUGLAS 
: I am making the point that their objections are similar in terms of this bill. They are saying to that young Maori boy that he is not allowed to work for $300 a week but that they will be very generous to him and give him $160 a week so he can stay home. Labour is saying that if those people want supplementary income they should join a gang or if they are female have a child. 
The simple point is that this bill aims to allow the disadvantaged the most vulnerable people in our society to get a step up on the ladder. When they get that step up they can go anywhere. They can climb. That is what Labour wants to deny. Labour wants to protect existing workers at the expense of the unemployed and the disadvantaged. So when Labour members come in here and cry crocodile tears we should not take any notice of them at all.