If ever there was a week in parliament to make the business sector a little itchy, this week might just be it.
Among the legislation MPs are to debate this week is the Fair Pay Agreements Bill, whose aim is aptly summarised in its title, and the Matariki Public Holiday Bill, which would create a new public holiday in the calendar.
Workplace Relations Minister Michael Wood Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
If the thought of workers getting more pay and another public holiday troubles you or your business model, you’re not alone. The opposition National and ACT parties are opposed to the first Bill and distinctly uncomfortable with the second.
Fair pay mechanism
The Fair Pay Agreements Bill would establish a new system for collective bargaining in what Workplace Relations Minister Michael Wood has touted as an attempt to address low wages and other imbalances in New Zealand’s rather deregulated employment relations system.
National and ACT have described the Bill as being too inflexible, unfriendly to employers and emboldening for unions. Some businesses have warned that it will drive up costs in a struggling economy, costs that ultimately the consumer will be lumped with.
It’s a debate primed for a bit of heat in today’s first reading of the Fair Pay Agreements Bill, and also one likely to be an issue heading towards next year’s general election, with National promising to repeal the legislation if it comes to power.
Paul Goldsmith Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Matariki Public Holiday
While the opposition parties have in essence agreed to the establishment of a new holiday to mark the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar, the Matariki Public Holiday Bill has found them scratchy as a head full of nits.
In last week’s debate on the Bill, National’s Paul Goldsmith worried about the impact on businesses and productivity from having yet another public holiday. One of the other public holidays should make way for it, National argued. Labour Day was the obvious one, they suggested, with Goldsmith and others like ACT MP Simon Court musing - perhaps only half in jest - on why it was that the ruling party has a stat holiday named after it.
This week the Bill is set for its third reading. While Labour’s Kiritapu Allan has clearly laid out the cultural significance for marking Matariki as well as the case for the holiday being beneficial to the economy, National is likely to continue picking at the legislation and maintain its push for the holiday to not have a Māori name. It’s not only business interests that National says it’s concerned about with this legislation, but “cultural diversity”.
Labour MP Kiri Allan during the General Debate Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Business interests of politicians
Rounding out a parliamentary week where business interests of some sort or other may be at stake, MPs will also debate the second reading of the Local Government (Pecuniary Interests Register) Amendment Bill.
The Bill would require local authorities to maintain and publish a register of business interests for members of authorities at the local government level.
It was a matter of discomfort for some Members of Parliament almost twenty years ago when they had to begin declaring potential conflicts of interest, something which is now commonplace. Will MPs have any objections to being joined by their local body cousins?
