Mackey Moana: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMackey Moana: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 05 May 2009. Volume:654;Page:2861. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MOANA MACKEY (Labour):That was yet another very interesting contribution from Mr Tau Henare on clause 28. Is it not funny to hear National MPs get up and talk about how much they care about workers and redundancies what with the slash-and-burn job they are doing across the public sector at the moment? For Tau Henare to get up in this Chamber and claim to care about workers after being largely regarded as one of New Zealand’s worst union organisers and then to have him supporting a Government that has slashed and burnt the public sector and has told public servants that they are not allowed to be part of the 9-day fortnight plan as only the private sector qualifies—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): We are on Part 2.MOANA MACKEY: Mr Chair I am responding to the points made on clause 28 by the member who spoke before me. Tau Henare claimed to care about workers and he has asked the Minister in the chair the Hon Dr Pita Sharples to respond to what he said about this clause. My understanding of this clause—and I am sure the Minister will correct me if I am wrong—is that this provision is to ensure that any workers who are transferred over to a new job do not get redundancy pay and the new job at the same time. It is just to make it clear that even though they technically lose their job in one place it is a technical redundancy as they are picking up a job somewhere else. This clause is just to make it clear that they do not get the redundancy pay and the job. I look forward to having the Minister clarify this point and I think it is fair to say that I look forward to hearing his contribution far more than I looked forward to hearing the contribution of the member who spoke before me.This part of the bill deals with transitional provisions and my colleagues have spoken earlier about the need to get on with this legislation. We are very pleased that National has come on board with this legislation. We were not quite sure where it would be on it. There was a long period of time when we were not sure how it felt about Māori development and I wonder whether the clauses in this legislation outline National’s transition from not caring about Māori development to its suddenly wanting to embrace it wholeheartedly. In considering this part of the Māori Trustee Amendment Bill I was reminded of the Local Government Act and the discussions we had around Māori development in that context which are very relevant to the issues raised here. In particular when it was clear that we wanted Māori input on issues of land and waterways the Hon Dr Nick Smith said it was “apartheid” to suggest that Māori should have to be considered and that Māori rating should be dealt with separately under the Local Government Act. In Hansard it shows that he even attacked the then Minister Tariana Turia along those lines. I think it is interesting to hear National debating and wholeheartedly endorsing the transitional provisions of this bill in the Chamber today considering that when we looked at similar provisions in the Local Government Act Dr Nick Smith said: “This damn law that we are being required to pass is nothing less than apartheid. It offends National’s principle of one standard of citizenship and I say to Tariana Turia that she should take a call and explain to me and to the people of New Zealand why one sort of people have a rates remission policy and others do not.” Well of course here we are with an entire bill that deals with Māori development.Chris Hipkins: How things have changed.MOANA MACKEY: How things have changed. I wonder whether the Minister in the chair can point to the clauses in this part of the bill that deal with National’s enormous transition on issues of Māori development and how we can be assured that in the next term of Government this will not be completely changed around and that we will not go back to the “one standard of citizenship” type of rhetoric that we enjoyed for a long time.Hon Tariana Turia: You had 9 years. You had 9 long years.MOANA MACKEY: I say to Tariana Turia that I think she did a very good job on the Local Government Act. She was a Minister for 6 years in previous Labour Governments and she did some very good work while she was with us. We very much want to work with the Minister to ensure that we can further that work. But again I raise the point that this sudden “road to Damascus” situation that we are being faced with from the National Government is slightly hard to believe given the comments National members have made in the past relating to legislation that is specifically to do with Māori. I restate my point on clause 28. I think it is an important issue. I am sorry that the member Tau Henare just got up to make fun of the situation.Hon Tau Henare: No I got up to make fun of you.MOANA MACKEY: Oh he is over there now. I am sorry I did not see that he was there. I ask him to reconsider his position on this bill in light of the cuts that his own Government is making in the public sector. I say that if he cares about workers as much as that he might need to go a little bit beyond a very political speech made in jest. I would be very interested to see a Supplementary Order Paper put up by that member if the Minister in the chair stands and confirms what Tau Henare has said which is that this provision will mean redundancies across the board with no payout. Tau Henare has indicated that he might be interested in putting up a Supplementary Order Paper. We would always be prepared to consider that. But I think we do need clarification because that certainly was not my understanding of clause 28.