Bennett David: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Bennett David: Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
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DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise and speak to the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill (No 2). We are seeing from Labour members classic fear tactics with regard to their arguments in support of this legislation. They are trying to create fear in the public’s mind that the National Party is out there to change the way we engage in looking after vulnerable people in the workplace and that the National Party is not there to look after all members of our society. Well that is not true. The Labour Party constantly brings up this fear tactic at election time. It preys on the weakness of people’s inhibitions about what can or cannot happen in an election campaign. It fights campaigns on fear on mistrust and on trying to take advantage of people’s unknown futures. 
Well let us think about this for a second. If the Labour Party was so fair and principled it would be doing what the Green Party has been talking about doing. If Labour wanted to cover the full ambit of this legislation it would not cover just those who sustained a mental injury in a work situation it would cover those who witnessed the cause of the injury and it would cover those injured retrospectively as well in that period of time where there had been no coverage. But no Labour will not do that. It will not stand for its principles. Labour members go out there creating only more fear. They go out there saying they have done something about this in year 9—it has taken them 9 years. If these people are the people they actually wanted to look after why has it taken those members 9 years? 
Why has it taken the Labour Government 9 years to look after its own people? It is because Labour members do not care. They just want to win elections. Michael Cullen has told us that; that is all they are interested in. This is just something they can go on the hustings to say they have done—at the eleventh hour. They will probably take the provisions away next year anyway. It will be like those tax cuts—here today gone tomorrow. The provisions will not be around. The Labour Party has no principles. It is desperate to get back into Government and it will do anything any time anywhere this year to get that place. It is unfair. It is unfair on New Zealanders because New Zealanders trust in this institution. They expect that the Government of the day will act in the best interests of all New Zealanders. They do not expect a Government that just acts for political expediency and that is what the Labour Government does. This is political expediency from Labour because all the examples that came before the select committee—and there were some very touching examples—are not covered by this legislation. The people who were the examples of what the Labour Party says it wants to cover will not actually be helped by this legislation. 
Darien Fenton 
: Oh they will so! 
DAVID BENNETT 
: They will not because this legislation is not retrospective and it will not help those people who stood in front of the select committee and told their stories. Those stories were just for Labour members to go out and use in their presentation of fear tactics over the next election campaign. That is all they were after; they were not after helping those people. 
Sue Moroney 
: Rubbish! 
DAVID BENNETT 
: They were not. They are not going to help them. Those people who came before the select committee will get nothing out of this bill because this bill will not help them. That is the reality of what is going on in this legislation. 
This is legislation that even the select committee knew had some serious flaws. There are some real questions about the differential between being in employment and not being in employment. There is the question of what we do with someone like a visitor to a worksite who sees something happen that could cause mental injury. Such people are not covered are they? There are all these gaps in the legislation that the Labour members did not deal with. If they really wanted fairness if they really wanted equity and if they really wanted to provide for people who had mental injury they would have covered the whole ambit. But no—they know it would cost too much to do that. They would not do that. They have put a different price on somebody’s mental injury depending on whether the person was in or out of work. They have put a different price on somebody’s mental injury depending on whether the person was a visitor to a worksite or somebody who worked there. They have put a different price on the mental injuries of somebody who was a volunteer compared with somebody who was an employee. 
Labour has put different prices on the same mental injury because of one thing—because they are only looking after paying back the people who support them. This legislation is payback for the unions. That is why it deals only with employment. It does not cover volunteers or visitors because they are not covered by the unions. That is what this legislation is about. It is another payback for their old supporters who need to see something as we go into an election campaign. That is the Labour Party for us! If those members were really principled generous and looking after people who had suffered a mental injury they would cover all those other situations. They would not limit the legislation to just those in employment. They would not worry about the size of the cheque book. Labour members say they are there for people. They say they are there for people with a mental injury so why do they limit that by cheque book size? What cheque book size can they put on those mental injuries? That is what Labour members have done. They have gone out there and they have blatantly chosen whom they want to support. They have picked the groups. They have not gone out there and supported everyone who has had a mental injury and then they have come into this House and talked about fairness. They have talked about policy. Well let us see some Labour Party policy that is fair and equitable and just because that is not what we are getting in this case. What we are getting in this case is a payback for Labour’s mates—and they are not even paying back the ones who were injured and are now suffering and who came before the select committee. They will be paying back some people in the future—some taxpayer in the future who will earn some money in this country before leaving to go to Australia. That is who they want to pay back in some foregone vision of New Zealand. 
Let us get to the reality. The reality is that if they are to be so visionary they will have to extend the legislation to cover all circumstances. If those members want to be so visionary and do that then they will have to cover those other costs. But they cannot even work out what the costs of being in employment will be. So how will they work out the cost of including all other situations? They simply cannot do it and they know they cannot do it. This bill is just some ploy for them in an election campaign. It has taken them 9 years to get to that ploy but it is too little too late and it does not help the people who need it. 
If we look at the cost of this piece of legislation we see that it is not spread fairly. The cost is all on the employer. Why would members if they are in the Labour Party put the cost on to the employer? Because they do not care about those people. They do not care that they are the people who actually make this country strong by building the businesses and giving the jobs. Labour members do not care that employers are taxpayers who go out there and build businesses that keep New Zealand strong. Those members do not care about that if they are in the Labour Party. They just see employers as things they can kick around and tax and then they put more charges and costs on to their businesses. 
Labour members are reaping the rewards of that approach now because in the world economy some things are going dog for the Labour Party. Those members can talk about fuel prices and the cost of commodities—and it is true that they are going up around the world—but this Government’s economic management has meant that it has not delivered a strong economy to get through these hard times. They have kicked businesses around as they are kicking them around again in this piece of legislation and the payback is coming now. We are seeing greater unemployment high interest rates and an economy that is slowing incredibly. 
A lot of New Zealanders are hurting and they are hurting because the Government does not care about all New Zealanders. It does not care about business; it cares only about so-called employees. It does not care about volunteers. The Government does not care about people who go on to a work site and are injured but then it puts a price on mental injury. That is its price of caring. This Government is not there for all New Zealanders. This Government is there for the groups it wants to have at election time. This legislation did not even cover the people who came before the select committee and that is a disgrace. It is a disgrace to the Labour Party and a disgrace to this Government.