Bob Simcock
Opposition Employment spokesperson
23 April 2000

Arrogant Government ignores advice again

The Prime Minister should cut short her European junket to talk to employers back home about how her employment policies are crippling their businesses, says National's Employment spokesperson Bob Simcock.

"In the last 10 days, one employer has told me that he will not proceed with building a new factory, and another will not proceed with employing five extra staff - and that's just in Hamilton. Both employers consider the risks associated with the Employment Relations Bill too great to expand their businesses," says Mr Simcock.

At the same time we learn that the Government has ignored reasoned Treasury advice against its Employment Relations Bill simply because it didn't agree with Labour's position, he says.

"This is becoming a pattern for Helen Clark and her new Government. Any sound and reasoned official advice against a Labour or Alliance policy is ignored."

Papers that National obtained under the Official Information Act show that Treasury advice on key aspects of the ERB were totally ignored.

* Treasury Report on the ERB, 20/01/00:

* Time limits on claims arising in collective bargaining - IGNORED.

* Making the information disclosure more manageable - IGNORED.

* Treasury Report on the ERB, 9/2/00:

* "We have not found evidence that a serious problem exists with bargaining in bad faith.." "...the scope of the principle may be too broad.." and should be applied only to "the bargaining process" - IGNORED.

* Letting the parties to an individual employment agreement be free to negotiate any terms and conditions, (i.e. "need not be consistent with a collective agreement") - IGNORED.

"This is proof that the new Government is hell-bent on imposing their ideology on New Zealanders at any cost and even when their own advisers point out the faults.

"The ERB is totally out of step with modern businesses and today's generation of workers, and in Hamilton we are already seeing how bad it is for businesses and New Zealand families," says Mr Simcock.

Ends

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