Simpson Scott: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Simpson Scott: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 09 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2123. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 What an honour and a privilege it is to conclude and be the final speaker in this the third reading of the Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill so capably introduced by my colleague the Hon Tau Henare and guided through the House by him with such style and grace.  
This is an important piece of legislation. On the face of it it appears to be quite a small piece of legislation—simple in principle; simple in action. But it is very important because it strikes if you will pardon the pun at the very heart of our democratic process and our democratic institutions and of one of the things that we hold dear in our society and our community. That is the right of people to make decisions on important matters in group collectives but by secret ballot. That is something that we all hold dear; it is a very fundamental part of our democratic process. And if it is good enough for every other aspect of our society why is it not good enough for unions? Indeed most unions actually already are enlightened and do conduct secret ballots on important matters such as strikes. So this simple piece of legislation simply codifies this very foundation stone of democratic process: that when an important matter such as a strike is to be considered that the ballot about that decision should be held in secret. It is a simple effective and time-honoured process.  
The bill supports the creation of a positive workplace environment and that is important because these days we live in enlightened times where we know that positive constructive collegial workplace environments actually benefit employees and employers. They create a great environment for business and enterprise to prosper and succeed. So this bill encourages that. As I have already said many unions already do adopt a secret ballot process in matters to do with strikes. So the question I ask and the question that this bill seeks to remedy is: why not all of them? That is what this will do. I am very very pleased and proud to be able to speak in support of this legislation today. Unions do it already because they know it is the right thing to do. They do it already because they know it is the right proper and correct democratic thing to do. It is only the rump a few minor less progressive and less enlightened unions that do not have secret ballots. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: The EPMU. 
SCOTT SIMPSON 
: TheEngineering Printing and Manufacturing Union the Hon Tau Henare tells me is one of them and I am sure that is right.  
This is not about union bashing. It is not about attacking unions. It is not about having a go at unions. It is not about being vindictive or attacking unions. It is about democracy and about what is important not about being punitive or punishing unions. It is about democracy and freedom and it is about a basic fundamental right of any organisation and any member of any organisation in our society. It is for freedom of choice. That is what we on this side of the House hold dear. That is why we are members of the National Party. Even though I am a new member in this House it has been obvious to me through listening to the debates that on this subject the Labour members are very clear: they do not like choice. They do not like freedom of choice and they do not like democracy when it does not suit them.  
In a less enlightened time and more years ago than I care to remember I was a member of a union. It was in the days of compulsory unionism and I was a member because I was compulsorily made to be a member of the union. I was working in a holiday job while I was at university and I was working for a chartered club. It was the Commercial Travellers Club actually. My job was in the bottle store. [ 
Interruption 
] My job was in the bottle store. Andrew Little may well have been the union rep and my job in the bottle store involved spending most of my working day in the beer fridge—in the chiller. What would happen was that once a week a big truck would arrive and offload 25 or 30 pallets of beer—quart bottles in wooden crates; the sort that we used to drink. My job then was to unload those box by box crate by crate and store them in the chiller. Then over the rest of the week my job was to bring them out of the fridge and put them on the counter or into the boot of the customers’ cars.  
What I did not know was that just before Christmas at the busy time for chartered clubs the union would usually go on strike. It would usually go on strike to cause the maximum impact and damage to the employer and they would do it just before Christmas when customers were celebrating Christmas festivities and at a time designed to cause the most strife and concern to those employers. I was very keen to go to work. I liked the dignity of work. It was a holiday job and it was in the days before we had student loans and what have you so I needed the money and I wanted to work. But the union that I was compulsorily a member of wanted to go on strike. So we had a stopwork meeting which I was duly forced to attend. We went to the stopwork meeting; I remember it well. It was held in the public bar of a fairly seedy pub in South Auckland and there gathered several hundred people. And guess what? After some rousing speeches by the union organisers calling on the brothers and the sisters to strike what happened was that a vote was called for to strike.  
At first there was a voice vote—voices were asked for—so the overwhelming number of people there voted in favour of the strike by voice. There were only a few of us who actually voted by voice against going on strike. I remember it well. What I remember then was that after the voice vote was taken somebody called for a show of hands—and it was not the people who were in the minority; it was the people in the majority who asked for a show of hands. They wanted to know who had the temerity to vote against them. So then a show of hands was called for. What happened then was that even fewer of us had the intestinal fortitude to raise a hand when a show of hands was called for. So we went on strike. I lost several days’ pay the employer was incredibly inconvenienced and I had a personal situation where we had standover tactics—the intimidation language and physical abuse that followed.  
I am the first to admit that that was a less enlightened time. It was a less enlightened time and now we have unions that are more modern in their view and their aspect and they do handle things more appropriately. But if it was not for a few old-fashioned unions that still insist on a show of hands vote—standover tactics—then that would mean that we would not have to have this legislation. So I want to thank the Hon Tau Henare. I want to thank him for bringing this piece of legislation to the House. I want to thank him for his work and for being an advocate for open and free democracy.  
I am told even though I was not a member of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee that there was vigorous debate there and that Labour members tried everything they could to halt the progress of this bill through the select committee. That is shameful. That is very shameful. Tau Henare did an excellent job. National is focused on ensuring that there is a fair and flexible employment environment. Democracy is a good thing. Democracy is a good thing in all that we do and it is amazing to see Labour members who normally take such a high and mighty moral high ground on such matters try to argue on the head of a pin that in this case democracy should not occur.  
This bill is about transparency it is about freedom it is about democracy and it removes the potential for criticism of the ballot process. No decision is more important in the lives and day-to-day activities of union members than the decision to go on strike or not to go on strike and so the few remaining unions that do not have secret ballots need to be brought into order. This is a bill for freedom from intimidation freedom from coercion freedom to choose and freedom to vote. Today as my colleague Jami-Lee Ross said this is “Liberation Day” it is “Freedom Day” and it is “Democracy Day” for New Zealand workers. In the words of Martin Luther King already quoted in this House by the Hon Tau Henare: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last!” [ 
Interruption 
]