Bennett David: Employment Relations (Statutory Minimum Redundancy Entitlements) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Bennett David: Employment Relations (Statutory Minimum Redundancy Entitlements) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 The Employment Relations (Statutory Minimum Redundancy Entitlements) Amendment Bill goes to the heart of what Labour stands for and what it tries to do to New Zealanders when it has any ability to set direction over somebody’s life or even a country and the way it dictates employment relations. In the previous speech made by Darien Fenton we heard the classic Labour mentality: the fear tactics the inability of workers to determine their own future and how workers need Labour to give them direction. That is the Labour mentality. Labour does not trust its own people. It cannot bet on people making their own decisions and setting their own directions in life. That is the heart of Labour. It wants to keep everybody down. It wants to be in control and keep the same rules so it can dictate what those people can achieve and their direction. 
I think it is sad that Labour still does that in this House to New Zealanders. Labour does it to the people from whom it has tried to get support in past years. Labour uses the jealousy technique when talking about Telecom chief executive officers. It uses the fear tactics on ordinary Kiwis out there who want to get jobs and want to work hard. It is about time that Labour woke up and backed New Zealanders. The heart of that mentality was mentioned by the previous speaker because she wants to make everybody a union member. That is Labour’s purpose for this bill. Labour says that people in a union will get a redundancy payment. This is the heart of what Labour is doing in this legislation. It is not about workers’ rights it is not about helping workers and it is not about providing for them in their time of need; it is about providing more union members. This is what it is about: Labour wants to make everybody a union member. Labour needs to look at its heart and soul and at the reality of what it is saying instead of the rhetoric it brings to the House. 
I would like to see Labour stand up and deliver. It had 9 years in Government but did it bring this legislation forward? No. Where was it? I ask where it came from because Labour did not bring this legislation forward when it had the chance. Now that Labour is in Opposition it says this bill is the best thing since sliced bread. Why is that? Labour knows the reality of this legislation. It is not good for New Zealanders and it is not good for Kiwis. That is why Labour did not bring this legislation to the House when it had the chance. Now Labour puts the blame on us. That is Labour’s fear tactics. It says that National is the big bad wolf that will not pass this bill. Labour had the chance but it never passed the bill and it will never get that chance again because the public does not trust it. Labour— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Sorry I thought you’d finished. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: The only person finished is Trevor Mallard. 
The Labour Party does not want to give people choice. At the moment we can give workers choice and we do that because it is to the benefit of workers. If we look at this bill we see that it sets minimum requirements. If there are minimum requirements employers will stick to them. They will not give people more than the minimum and this will hurt some employees who could have negotiated for more than that but who will be held to minimum requirements. Some of Labour’s own people whom it believes it represents will be hurt by this legislation. They will be held to the minimum requirements when they could have negotiated for something better. What is the matter with negotiating for something better? What is Labour’s problem with that? 
This will have a huge cost on businesses. This will hurt workers because businesses will be reluctant to take people on reluctant to promote people and reluctant to give them any opportunity because employers fear the cost that this legislation would impose on them. This legislation will hurt the workers. Why would we want to pass a bill in the House that hurts workers in a time of a recession? Why would we want to do that when we have unemployment rates at the current rate? Why would we want to make it harder for people to get a job? There is no commercial reality in what the Labour Party is looking at here. If anything it is taking a total disregard to the practicalities of the economic environment we are in. The Labour Party is ignoring how hard it is to get a job. It wants to make it harder for New Zealanders to get a job. Labour wants to make it harder for Kiwis to stay in work and to get promotions. That does not make any sense. It is not in the best interests of the people of our country or the future economic growth of this country. 
When we look at redundancy provisions we see that they are already in place. There are personal grievance provisions under the Employment Relations Act. There are plenty of opportunities for people who feel they have difficulty in taking advantage of those kinds of legislative regimes. The Labour Party passed the Employment Relations Act when it was in Government and said that it was a universal panacea for deciding employment relations. It is available now and it deals with those issues when required. 
Let us look at the Public Advisory Group to the Minister of Labour on Restructuring and Redundancy which the Labour Party said was the great source of directive for this bill. There are some downsides that the public advisory group noted and I will read these out for members so that they are aware of them. The public advisory group felt that there would be disincentives to hire more staff there would be reduced wages there would be more temporary and contract workers and there would be additional stress on businesses that are already struggling which would result in further job losses. It felt that the bill would put business viability at risk and would reduce international competitiveness. Not one of those things whether one is in National or Labour would anyone want to see happen at the moment. Who wants to have disincentives to hiring more staff? Who wants reduced wages? Who wants more temporary workers? Who wants additional stress on businesses? Nobody does but the Labour Party is willing to put legislation before the House that would achieve those things. That is not in the interest of New Zealanders or of our working people. 
I think it is sad that the Labour Party has to put this legislation up come to this House and take the emotions of New Zealanders and portray them as defenceless and unable to negotiate for themselves so that the big red bus can come along and deliver to those people the safety and direction that they want. It is really sad. It demeans New Zealanders who are working hard and negotiating their future. It shows the mentality of the Labour Party. It does not trust our people it does not trust individuals to negotiate and it does not trust the unions because now it wants mandatory requirements. That is very sad in this time and this day. Labour does not take into account the economic reality that we now face. 
The Transport and Industrial Relations Committee would hear this legislation if it passed its first reading but I doubt it will. I am sure that most parties in this House will be of the opinion that this legislation is not in the best interests of workers or our country. It will go down in the history of a Labour Party that tried to control and hijack personal ambition and that tried to direct people because it thought it knew best at a time when people needed to be given the strength and ability to take advantage of their opportunities. That is the difference between National and Labour. We bet on our people and we want them to succeed. We will not tell them how to live their lives through an institution that sets mandatory rules. We will provide the instruments for people to achieve their full purpose. With that National will not support this bill. Thank you.