Mark Ron: Volunteers Employment Protection Amendment Bill Defence Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
Mark Ron: Volunteers Employment Protection Amendment Bill Defence Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
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RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise to speak with a bit of a glad heart but also a warning. I feel a warning is absolutely essential at this point in time 
  
because 
of the 4 years that the legislation has taken to get to this point. 
I have to acknowledge the very good work that has been done. I myself wanted to mention Graham Kelly personally but I note the Minister of Defence mentioned him. Graham did a very good job in facilitating much of the work that happened behind the scenes both with the Minister’s office and through membership on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. I hope that if Graham is listening to the radio in Canada he is taking a tipple and celebrating this moment because it has indeed been long in coming but is very welcome. I want to mention Tim Brewer of course and I do not think Air Marshall Carey Adamson can go without a mention because this all started off in his time. 
I want to say a couple of things. Firstly this legislation is welcome. New Zealand First has had both myself and Peter Brown working on it: Peter Brown because of his expertise in labour law and the employers’ perspective; and myself because of my 20-odd years of military service. 
I have to say that time that the Regular Force and the Territorial Force spend together is not always pleasant. Many times the Regular Force very much acts like the big brother with a kid brother hanging around whom it does not want to know. The “weekend warriors” who come to soldier who take up a lot of time and are a pain in the backside are often looked down upon by Regular Force officers and NCOs as second-class soldiers. I want to put it on record that when I and a number of my mates in the New Zealand Army were Regular Force soldiers we went out of our way to volunteer to exercise every year in the South Island with a Territorial Force unit there that unfortunately has been disbanded. [ 
Interruption 
] The answer is a very solid “No”—3rd Infantry Workshops of the Royal New Zealand Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. The fact that it was a field force deployable unit that was entirely staffed by Territorial Force personnel was interesting. I acknowledge the sterling work of those “weekend warriors” as they were often referred to by Regular Force guys because those people still today celebrate their time in the New Zealand armed forces. I just regret that that unit has fallen by the wayside. I think something happened under a National Government. actually but we will not go into the details of the politics right now. 
I also want to say that the pay issue is still with us. The words here today are good but we ignore what we have done. When Territorial Force soldiers were recruited to go to East Timor and were taken into camp to spend weeks and weeks training in build-up for deployment they were paid Territorial Force wages. They were paid Regular Force wages only on the day they deployed and their families bore the cost. Some young men serving in the prison service who busted their gut to get into that deployment had to suffer fiscal hardship. For what? For wanting to serve their country on operational service overseas. When I raised that issue in this House I was ignored. We did not leap to the fore and immediately— 
Hon Mark Burton 
: It’s been fixed. 
RON MARK 
: Well it took time and people told me I was grandstanding. There was another issue. Territorial Force soldiers were told on their overnight becoming Regular Force soldiers in order to go to East Timor that they were eligible for a grant to assist with their mortgage payments. What happened when they came home? They all got a letter from Defence Force headquarters saying they were not eligible for it and had to pay it back. We fixed that because Ron Mark raised it and embarrassed the hell out of the Government in a newspaper article and my compliments to Jerry Mateparae who moved swiftly to put his foot on the throat of the senior officers who had been so stupid—and it was fixed. But those signals and failures do one thing: they denigrate Territorial Force service which is precisely what we should not be doing. 
I have a personal friend who is a band 5 grunt soldier in the Canterbury Infantry Regiment. Until recently his average daily wage—and this is the reward he gets for serving his country—was $65 a day. Do members know what his private wage is in the company he works for? It is $200 to $250 a day. This young man whose talents have been recognised by the army has recently been commissioned. But this House needs to deal with Territorial Force soldiers’ pay. It is totally inadequate. It needs to reflect reality and the Government needs to take into account the hardship that the families take on when suddenly dad or mum gets it into his or her head that it is a good idea to take a pay cut and go and help the Government and has to say to the kids: “Sorry kids there is no going to the movies this weekend.” or: “Sorry bank manager. We are struggling to meet the mortgage.” 
This Government has to follow up with this matter and go one step further. If it can throw money around like a one-armed octopus to hip-hoppers all over the planet then it can do better on the pay scales. Three pay rises is not enough I tell the Minister. 
Hon Mark Burton 
: Every year there has been a pay rise. 
RON MARK 
: The Minister should get out that report he is hiding that shows the pay was 26 percent below market rates in some areas and tell members that he has closed those gaps. 
Hon Mark Burton 
: Every year a pay rise. 
RON MARK 
: The Minister should not sit there and have the House believe that he has closed the gaps because they are still too wide. It is a pittance. If that Minister wants to go to the next election on that pittance I say he must beware because the truth will out. 
Opposition Member 
: Bring it on. 
RON MARK 
: “Bring it on!” I say to the Minister. I acknowledge the promotions brought about through my campaigning but he has not gone far enough. I want it to go on the record that what is being done today is good but it should not hide the fact that the pay rates still need to be addressed. I want the Minister to answer a question. 
I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. Is it appropriate for me—without losing my spot—to ask the Minister to answer one question and get him to answer it? 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No. 
RON MARK 
: The Minister knows he has a report that states that the pay gap with the market rate was in some trades up to 26 percent yet the Minister sat here and told me that he closed that gap right up. I say to the Minister that there is a porky pig flying through the House and that he should close the 26 percent gap. I ask the Minister to take a call after my speech and answer that. 
Hon Mark Burton 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I cannot take a second call in a third reading debate. 
RON MARK 
: I will give leave. We will all give leave. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: You cannot give leave. 
RON MARK 
: If the Minister seeks leave I will not object to his taking a second call. I am sure that one of his members is going to take only a 2-second call anyway. He has plenty of time. I want to talk about what these Territorial Force soldiers do. 
Hon Mark Burton 
: Can’t you be gracious for once in your life? 
RON MARK 
: Gracious? This is the Minister who said that we should all value Territorial Force soldiers for what they do. This is the Minister who interfered in Exercise Tasman Reserve and stopped local Canterbury MPs from going there as invited guests. I ask the Minister who went. Yes the Minister did. I know that Canterbury MPs like Brian Connell and me were wanted by the Territorial Force unit. The Minister intervened and guess who went? 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: What’s he got to hide? 
RON MARK 
: What does he have to hide? The Minister did not want us to talk to the Territorial Force soldiers. It was a sales pitch. He sent Damien O’Connor as the Government representative and he deliberately stopped every South Island MP who was not a Government member from attending. I ask the Minister to say that it is not so that he did not issue that instruction and to tell us why. The employers group that went along had a great day. Ngai Tahu had a great day. Everybody said that it was what people should have been seeing for years. Where were the local MPs? Who stopped them? Who interfered? Whose political manipulation stopped that from happening? The Minister sits there so red-faced because he just got snapped. It is exactly the sort of manipulation that this Government is heavily involved in and we as MPs have a right to see our South Island Territorial Force soldiers at work under training and on exercise. If that Minister thinks he will get goodwill from me for carrying on like that he has another think coming. 
This is good legislation. New Zealand First supports it. We welcome it but there is a lot more yet to be done. A very red-faced Mark Burton who just got snapped has a lot of work to do before New Zealand First will be happy with what the Territorial Force soldiers and servicewomen receive. The Minister is looking red over there.