Bennett David: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Employment Relations Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 22 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:171. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East):It gives me great pleasure to speak on the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. I would just like to acknowledge the Minister in the chair Michael Woodhouse who is a very fine Minister and he has done an excellent job on this bill as well as members of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee from both sides of the Chamber who actually worked hard to make this bill the best that it could be. I acknowledge members of the Labour Party who were on that committee who actually had a lot of experience—people like Andrew Little who is very experienced in negotiations and labour relations law. Their roles were pivotal in making sure that we got this bill to the stage we have today.I would just like to clear up a few things that the Labour Opposition members have been talking about today. The first thing is that unions have a very vital role in our economy and in our workers’ representation and the National Government understands and acknowledges that. Collective bargaining has a very important role as well. That is something that many unions engage in and it has given good results for workers in New Zealand. That is something that is not attacked in this bill contrary to the Opposition members’ claims.Opposition members are claiming that this bill is an attack on collective bargaining. It is not. This bill provides fairness and flexibility in the workplace. That is what this bill does. If you look at it in collective bargaining there is a duty of good faith. Underlying all employment law is the duty of good faith and that applies to both parties in the negotiations. They have to approach those negotiations in good faith.Sue Moroney: That’s already in there.DAVID BENNETT: Yes it is Ms Moroney—it is in there. This bill enshrines that in the sense that in collective bargaining you cannot just withdraw as the Opposition says because that overriding duty of good faith is still on the employer. So the employer cannot just withdraw because they do not like the idea of this collective bargaining. They are still under that duty of good faith and that is an important thing. At the moment in the current situation the employee through the union can withdraw at any stage but the employer cannot. The employer even if they have that duty of good faith and go through that collective bargaining process cannot withdraw. They still have that duty of good faith.The problem with this legislation is that it brings out the worst in the Labour Party. When you have legislation like this it shows the true colours of the Labour Party. Those people over there are not there to protect workers. They are protecting themselves because they want to be in the privileged position of representing unions and workers’ rights. They see themselves as some kinds of gods for workers who can tell people what they should do. The 10 of them who are left over there tonight represent all workers in New Zealand and know better than workers and that is not what we are about in this Parliament. We want to give flexibility and rights to workers.I say to the Labour Party members that while most of the Labour Party leadership is out doing their election campaigning for their new leader why do you not give each worker the ability to vote for your leader? Why do you make it so that only the union delegates can vote on behalf of the unions? Why do you not give every worker that ability to vote? Because they cannot. Did you know that? Under the election campaign that is going on now—Sue Moroney: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I would ask about the relevance of that to Part 1 of this bill but would also ask the member to answer the question that I asked him about what the example is of where this has gone wrong.The CHAIRPERSON (Chester Borrows): Order! You are not going to use a point of order to bring about that sort of political comment.DAVID BENNETT: Collective bargaining is the crucial part of this legislation. What we are saying is that this legislation gives flexibility and rights to workers. It does not encourage what the Labour Party wants and that is a privileged few demanding and deciding for workers. I was just using the example of the Labour Party and its selection process and how it does not give every individual worker the ability to vote. It is only the privileged few who all want to sit on those benches at some point who have the voting base. That is why the Labour Party is against this bill. The Labour Party is against flexibility it is against freedom and it is about having control over workers. It is about controlling collective bargaining. That is what the Labour Party is about.