Adams Paul: Status of Redundancy Payments Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Adams Paul: Status of Redundancy Payments Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:615;Page:11547] 
PAUL ADAMS (United Future) 
: 
 As an ex - racing driver I am always very quick off the mark. Madam Chairperson you are correct; I was the first one on my feet. 
United Future will not be supporting the Status of Redundancy Payments Bill. The report from the Commerce Committee is of considerable concern to me. It states: “We considered the issues raised and on reflection felt that the financial dependence of employees on their employer is greater than that of other creditors who are likely to have many sources of income.” I was very concerned when I read that passage written by members of the Commerce Committee. I believe that the statement that creditors are “likely”—that is a key word—“to have many sources of income” is a ridiculous statement to have come from the Commerce Committee and committee members should be ashamed to have made it. 
Let us talk about that issue. What is a redundant worker? A redundant worker is one who is deprived of his or her job because it is no longer necessary. In contrast a creditor is a commercial enterprise or a person to whom money is owed. 
Brian Connell 
: Are you opposing the bill? 
PAUL ADAMS 
: Yes we are. Will employees be paid for all the work they have done up to the point of redundancy? Yes they will. Will those employees have many other sources that they are likely to be able to apply to for work and then again to receive payment from for work that is done? 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Including welfare. 
PAUL ADAMS 
: Yes the member is correct—including welfare. But what about a poor old sole trader who becomes the creditor of a failed company? I agree with Mark Peck that nobody likes to see a company fail. But here we have sole traders—in other words people who have chosen to work for themselves and take the risk of undertaking work for a company. Just as a worker expects to be paid for work that is done a sole trader also expects when he or she quotes for a contract to be paid for the work that is done. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: And is the bank sympathetic? 
PAUL ADAMS 
: No the banks are not sympathetic. Will sole traders be paid for the work they have done when this legislation is passed? No they will not. In most cases a small sole trader will not have many sources of other income—absolutely not! What is worse is that the sole trader will possibly be so financially crippled that he or she will be unable to continue working as a sole trader and may in fact face financial disaster. 
I ask the sponsor of this bill Mark Peck where his mercy and compassion is—I hear about that so often from this Government—for those people. Any leader must maintain a good balance between two things: truth and mercy. Both of those factors are totally missing from this legislation. The qualities of being true genuine actual or factual are important—not wondering what one can say that people may perceive as being true. Mercy is the compassionate treatment of a person who is in our care. I believe that this legislation discriminates between a wage earner and a contractor. Both the employee and the sole trader are human beings with families to feed and both want to work for a living. Discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person based on prejudice. 
I have seen it time and time again that in the Government’s eyes there are two groups of people in this country. It is discriminating against one of the groups and I believe that must stop. Both groups are made up of New Zealanders who are trying to earn a living and trying to feed their families but one group has made the big mistake in this Government’s eyes of deciding to go it alone and call themselves self-employed. This Government has a totally mistaken view of what being self-employed is all about.