Ross Jami-Lee: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ross Jami-Lee: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 09 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2113. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) 
: 
 Sometimes one comes across an aged individual who is still of sound mind is able to make lucid commentary and is somebody who can wow us with their knowledge and wisdom. Sadly the speech from the Rt Hon Winston Peters was not one of those occasions. [ 
Interruption 
] Ha ha! I say to Brendan Horan that he should not have yielded his 5 minutes to the Rt Hon Winston Peters because the House gained nothing from that 5 minutes.  
Today is liberation day. Today is liberation day for New Zealand workers who are members of unions that have not yet embraced the democratic principles of holding a secret ballot when strike action is being considered. I say it is a shame that members of the Opposition are not supporting this bill the Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill.  
They made a wise choice to support the bill at its first reading. In fact I was going through the  
Hansard  
and saw a relatively cogent speech from the Hon Trevor Mallard one of the few of that type of speech you hear from him. But they bottled it in the second reading speeches they are bottling it today in the third reading speeches and it is clear that rational thought processes were dropped by the wayside when they came to considering whether to support the bill at the second and third readings.  
Today is the day when members opposite need to decide which side of this issue they support. Do they on the one hand stand by the very workers who will benefit from this bill—stand by and support workers’ rights? Do they stand for giving workers the opportunity to vote on a question of going on strike free from intimidation free from coercion and free to make up their own minds? Or are members opposite instead going to be standing by their union masters by opposing an absolute and genuine pro-worker piece of legislation?  
We know what the Labour Party thinks about employment relations. We know what Andrew Little thinks about employment relations. In fact I am looking forward to the speech that we are probably going to get from Andrew Little. I am looking forward to him telling the House what he thinks of employers. The fact that he said on Facebook that the only parasites out there are employers—that is what the Labour Party thinks of the very people who give New Zealanders jobs; who create the jobs for New Zealanders to work in. [ 
Interruption 
] Those members do not like hearing about what their own members are saying out there in the community. Their own members are out there calling employers parasites. Well I say that is appalling.  
This bill is a pro-worker piece of legislation because it says to workers that we value them having the ability to determine their own destiny. We value Joe Smith worker being able to assess for himself free from any outside influence his own personal situation and deciding for himself whether going on strike is the right thing to do.  
Going on strike cannot be easy. It can be financially and morally devastating. It is not a decision that should be taken lightly and it is not a decision that a worker should have to make without having the freedom to do so without someone standing over the top of them. It was a shame to read a number of the submissions to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee from folk who tried to say they supported the concept of having secret ballots but then said they do not support the bill—a bizarre situation that the Labour Party is finding itself in as well.  
 I know why we are getting interjections from members on the other side. I know why they do not support this bill. They are concerned that one day they might have to have a secret ballot for their leadership vote because the only way they are keeping David Shearer in there at the moment is by using the bully-boy union tactics that they are concerned this bill is going to stop.  
The submitters who found themselves in a position where they were saying they supported the secret strike concept but could not support the bill really should ask themselves this question: is giving workers the ability to decide for themselves without someone standing over the top of them a good thing or not? It absolutely is and I say to the Labour Party that it should be supporting this piece of legislation today.  
We have learnt a few things this afternoon. We have learnt that the Labour Party does not support individual freedom. It does not support freedom of choice the Green Party does not support freedom of choice either and the New Zealand First Party does not support freedom of choice. If they did support freedom of choice they would be standing up in the House today and supporting this bill.  
If members want to stand in this House and say that they do support the concept of secret ballots which is what a number of speeches have been saying in both the first and second readings—and we have heard it a few times this afternoon as well—and that they think it is a good thing that a number of unions already have secret ballot provisions in their rules then they should go the step further and support this bill and do the right thing by giving workers the freedom that they deserve.  
I want to address the comments that we have heard about an imbalance between employers and employees because the people who have been making those comments clearly did not read the first drafts of the Employment Relations Act. They did not read the Employment Relations Act as it was passed by the last Labour Government. If you want to talk about balances between employers and employees you can see absolutely that the Employment Relations Act moved the balance so far in one direction that it has taken this Government a number of years to move it back towards equilibrium where it should be.  
I want to also touch on the Ports of Auckland for a moment because I think it is important that we talk a little bit about what has become the key and well-known industrial dispute this year. It is fair to say that the Ports of Auckland dispute probably would not have got as bad as it did if there was the opportunity for those Ports of Auckland workers to have a secret ballot for their strike.  
Hon Members 
: Oh! 
JAMI-LEE ROSS 
: They do not like to hear it but the fact of the matter is that dozens and dozens of Ports of Auckland workers have left the union and gone back to work. A lot of those workers wanted to go back to work. A lot of those workers wanted to get back on the cranes they wanted to get back on the straddle-trucks and they wanted to get back and serve the Auckland community on Auckland’s port but they could not. They could not do so because there was not the opportunity to have a secret ballot on the question of whether they should go on strike. They had people there intimidating them and coercing them into voting for strike action. They were not able to make their own minds up free from intimidation free from coercion— 
Darien Fenton 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just seek your advice on that because the matters the member is raising are actually currently before the Employment Court and they are a matter of facilitation and also a court case.