Donald Rod: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Donald Rod: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:609;Page:6295] 
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
: Thank you I appreciate that— 
Hon David Carter 
: The Warehouse where everyone gets a bargain. 
ROD DONALD 
: Everyone does not get a bargain at the Warehouse and Mr Carter ought to know that. People in the Third World do not get a bargain New Zealand manufacturers do not get a bargain and a lot of New Zealand’s small retailers do not get a bargain. They have all been put out of business thanks to the activities of the Warehouse and other big box retailers. That is one of the points we make in relation to this bill. We are concerned about quality not quantity. We want to get some value for money from this legislation and we will not get it unless there are changes to the functions. 
Mr Carter talked about $211 million under the control of this new Crown entity. That is of considerable concern to the Green Party because this new entity is in fact the takeover of Industry New Zealand by Trade New Zealand. It is another victory for the free traders in this Government because the new body is totally export focused. In other words Jim Anderton has been rolled on this legislation. He used to support import substitution but he now refuses to include it in this bill. We give him one last chance to support our amendment to clause 9(1)(d). We want to add a very simple provision to enable this body to contribute to increased import substitution within and investment in New Zealand. It is all about strengthening domestic linkages through trade and investment promotion and providing appropriate business and market development assistance. It is the exact mirror image of the previous paragraph promoting the same for exporting and we believe the two go hand in hand. 
We believe it is absolutely vital that this new entity does not try to fly on one wing. The Minister for Economic Development should support us in that goal because he has the evidence right within his own ministry that import substitution contributes to the economy. He knows from the material supplied to him by the Industrial Supplies Office that for every million dollars of unnecessary imports of goods we could make here we can create at least 16 jobs and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits that do not need to be paid. The Government can generate an equivalent amount of money in the income tax it collects and more spending power is put into the economy. We would urge the Government to bring some balance to this legislation by incorporating import substitution. 
We would also urge the Government to enshrine in the functions cooperation with Tourism New Zealand where appropriate. We believe that the two organisations can work hand in hand and could work a lot more closely in the international marketplace. There is obvious synergy between the two that the Government does not take advantage of at the moment and by putting it in this bill we could achieve more in that direction. In particular we ask the Government to ensure that businesses live up to the Government’s own standards. 
Clause 31(2) sets out the Government’s “good employer” criteria. We think it is incumbent upon the Government to ensure that any business that receives a grant from the new entity should itself live up to those criteria. It is pretty basic stuff to expect a business that is going to accept a Government handout to meet some minimum Government standards. They are set out in clause 31(2) but we want to make an addition to subclause (2) that should warm the heart of the Minister in the chair. We want to add that a “good employer” personnel policy would contain provisions that include recognition of equal pay for work of equal value. All members on the Government side should support that and I challenge them to vote for that amendment when it comes up. If they do not they really need to question their commitment to Labour Party principles. 
Beyond that we are seeking to introduce a few other amendments into this legislation particularly to clause 66. This clause is all about the form and content of the annual report and we are saying that the report needs to include a statement of sustainability performance covering economic environmental social and cultural outcomes. Without that we will get nowhere with this organisation because it will not have a focus on quality. It will instead be fixated on quantity. 
MARK PECK (NZ Labour—Invercargill) 
: I move  
That the question be now put 
.