Fenton Darien: Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Fenton Darien: Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I want to take a fairly brief call on Part 2 of the Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill in relation to the title and commencement clauses. 
Hon Dr Wayne Mapp 
: A brief one does seem like a long one though! 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is Mr Mapp’s opinion and anyone who has to listen to that member speak would probably echo exactly what the member just said. 
In relation to the title l want to talk about the Protected Disclosures Act. Let us talk about what protected disclosure actually means. It is disclosure in the public interest of serious wrongdoing. The member who just resumed his seat Paul Hutchison talked about different titles whistleblowing and so on but let us talk about the serious nature of the title and when we unpack it what protected disclosures are. A “serious wrongdoing” includes unlawful corrupt or irregular use of money or resources. These are serious issues. The members opposite may not think so but I think it is worth putting on the record what protected disclosure means particularly under this National Government and particularly for those 6000 workers in Auckland who are employed by local government and may be thinking about this issue as they go through very uncertain times over the next couple of months. “Serious wrongdoing” also means conduct that poses a serious risk to public health public safety the environment or the maintenance of law; any criminal offence; and gross negligence or mismanagement by public officials. So protected disclosure is a serious matter. It is more than whistleblowing which is one example. I want to put on the record exactly what we are talking about when we talk about protected disclosure. 
My other comment is in relation to the commencement date. The commencement date is the day after the bill receives the Royal assent. I have a serious question about that and it relates to the 90-day trial period bill. What will happen to somebody who seeks to make a disclosure under this legislation—when it is passed—who has been employed under the 90-day bill? How the heck will that person have the courage to step up and make a disclosure about serious wrongdoing when he or she is under the threat of the sack in 90 days and has no personal grievance protection—no protection? In that 90-day period awful things can happen in public sector organisations. 
Right now the country is going through a period of pandemic preparedness. We have a serious situation. I am thinking about the workers in hospitals whom I know very well. I am thinking of the contract cleaners the ones who clean the wards the workers who prepare the food and so on. They are all probably the most vulnerable workers when it comes to the 90-day bill. How on earth will those workers be able to step up and under the Protected Disclosures Act say that they think their hospital rest home or disability service is taking shortcuts? How will they be able to say that they are worried about their employer opening up the rest of the population to infection? Those workers will want to use this legislation but where will they find any protection and how will they have the courage to do that? This is a very serious situation that we face right now—we all know that. Luckily it seems that we have a swine flu that is not particularly virulent. It is virulent but it is certainly not affecting our people in the way it is affecting people in Mexico. But if we put ourselves in the situation where we have a bird flu pandemic which we contemplated when we did the pandemic preparedness legislation— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Can we just come back to the bill. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Let us think about what this might mean under the commencement date and the title of this bill. [ 
Interruption 
] I am just making an appeal to those members over there who think this is very very funny. They do not think about these important things when they bring in their mad ideas such as sacking workers after 90 days. 
The commencement date is very very important. Let us be aware that the bill we are passing is important. There will be consequences for workers in vulnerable workplaces who provide health services education services and other services and who have been employed under the 90-day bill. Thank you Mr Chairperson.