Fenton Darien: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Fenton Darien: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2467] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take a call on the financial review of the Department of Labour in this Committee stage. I will focus on three or four areas in the review report from the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. Those areas were interesting to the Labour members of the select committee because they are about issues that have arisen in the operational period since the National Government was elected. 
I will start with the 90-day bill on probationary employment. One of the questions the select committee asked is what is happening with the 90-day bill. It asked what protection there is and what measurements there are for ensuring that the 90-day legislation is having if you like the desired effect although on this side of the Chamber we would say that the desired effect of the legislation is opposite to what we want. The select committee asked what protection and what advice the Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson and her department are giving workers on this legislation. As far as we could tell from the answers from the Department of Labour the answer is none. Employers are certainly getting plenty of attention and advice including a make-up contract or employment agreement on the website about how they can implement this very very unfair and unreasonable law which by the way was passed under urgency before Christmas without select committee input. We on this side of the Chamber say the law is completely unnecessary and unfair. 
The other thing is that there are still many many outstanding questions about the 90-day bill—or about the resulting Employment Relations Amendment Act 2008. I must say that at the select committee the National members got quite upset when I called it the fire-at-will bill. However that is how it is known in the community by workers and that is what they will continue to call it. As I said I am concerned that there is nothing for workers. As far as we could tell there is no advice and no monitoring of how this Act is affecting workers. We cannot see anything and that was confirmed by the department. 
There are still many questions around the operation of the 90-day bill—or the fire-at-will bill. One is about its impact. This question has certainly been raised by members of the public coming to us and discussing with us issues around immigration and work permits. They have asked what happens if someone gets a work permit and then they get fired under the 90-day legislation and no reason is given because the boss does not have to explain what it means. What happens to those workers? We still have not had a satisfactory answer from the Minister about what happens to workers who are fired under the 90-day legislation who then go to Work and Income to apply for the benefit—or perhaps the wonderful ReStart package that we have heard so much about but that nobody seems to qualify for. What happens to them? The employer does not have to give a reason for why a worker has been fired. Under the current situation those workers are classed as “dismissed” and therefore have a 13-week stand-down period. 
The second issue I want to mention that came up in the report was the New Zealand Skills Strategy. We have heard in this House after questioning by members on this side of the Chamber that the Government is completely up in the air about this strategy. The strategy was carefully worked out between the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Business New Zealand the Industry Training— 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: That is so last year. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: There we go. I invite the member to tell the Council of Trade Unions Business New Zealand and the Industry Training Federation that the strategy is so last year. The Minister Paula Bennett thinks everything is so last year because she has no new ideas of her own. That is disgraceful. 
The select committee asked the Department of Labour about what has happened to the New Zealand Skills Strategy and it was told that the department was holding resources on the strategy and awaiting advice from the Government. In fact that was the department’s answer on many of the strategies and things that the department has been working on. The Government has no idea. It does not understand skills implementation. It does not understand the need for skills development as part of our future. It was quite amazing; we have heard the Minister confirm that. 
The third thing in the report that I will mention was questioning from Labour members about the Pay and Employment Equity Plan of Action. If we cast our minds back those who have been around a while—and I have been around a while—will remember that the first thing the former National Government did when it was elected in 1991 was to get rid of the pay and employment equity legislation. Under this administration they have done exactly the same thing.