Young JonathanJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): I am very pleased to stand in support of this bill as Andrew Little is as well. I believe that as the previous speaker Iain Lees-Galloway has said there is an opportunity for the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee to do some fine work in bringing some additions adjustments and perhaps some improvements to this bill. Then the people of New Zealand will see the great work this Parliament can do if we work together.One thing to say in terms of the aspect of human rights which the member raised: we do have a letter from the Ministry of Justice from the chief legal counsel who stated that they have considered whether the Employment Relations (Allowing Higher Earners to Contract Out of Personal Grievance Provisions) Amendment Bill in the name of Scott Simpson is consistent with the rights and freedoms affirmed in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. They did state the comment that if the option is taken—and it is an option; it is not mandatory like the Australians have made this same provision in their law—whatever the employee and the employer have agreed to concerning the application of personal grievance provisions in their employment contract stands provided specified conditions are met: We have concluded that the Bill appears to be consistent with the rights and freedoms affirmed in the Bill of Rights Act."So what the select committee will be able to do is dig deeper and find out what those specified conditions are to ensure that the rights and the freedoms of New Zealanders are maintained while at the same time giving this provision in the employment Act. We understand and know that people in the market place and people in the political sphere including the previous speaker's leader state that this is a sensible and useful proposal that would save taxpayers money and help free up court time especially for those people who desperately need it those people who find that employment exploitation happens in their lives—some of the people whom I know that member advocates for. Business New Zealand said the exclusion makes sense. The then CEO Phil O'Reilly said that currently a senior employee on a fixed-term contract whose contract was terminated would be paid out the remainder of the contract and would also be free to take up a personal grievance which could be seen as excessive.We are living in a period of time where employment law employment contracts are changing around the face of the world. It is important for us to consider these things and to be adaptive. Certainly it is important that we understand that the idea of fixed-term contracts is happening more and more in the workplace in the market place. In fact the OECD said that there is a more intensive use of fixed contracts and this provision in the law would apply particularly to that. It says that young workers have a twice-higher risk of leaving their job than older workers but they also have a higher probability of finding a job when out of employment. This higher rotation rate is likely to be related to young workers trying to find the best match for their career development but it is also because of a more intensive use of fixed-term contracts. What this bill does is give greater certainty to the employer and employee relationship. It is optional. It is it an opt-in provision so that an employer and an employee can know what will occur if that employment relationship terminates.Let me just finish in these next 30 seconds with a quote from Mr Blair Scotland Principal at Dundas Street Employment Lawyers in Wellington. He said this: "If you think about it from an employee/employers' perspective if I'm the CEO of a company and I have a falling out with the directors I really don't want to harm my future employment prospects by splashing that out across the countryside. Likewise if you're the board of a company and you don't like your CEO if you treat that person poorly and it gets made public how difficult is it going to be for you to recruit someone of a similar quality or better quality to come into your organisation …"."