Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
Hon WILLIE JACKSON (Labour):
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ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono):
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Hon WILLIE JACKSON:
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Well, what a shameful day for the—I was going to say the Opposition. They should be the Opposition—they should be the Opposition after this disgraceful day.
Hon Melissa Lee: You were self-reflecting.
Hon WILLIE JACKSON: I’m always self-reflecting, Melissa Lee. But at this time here, Aotearoa New Zealand has seen what they have dished up: this disgraceful bill, this disgraceful legislation. I was listening to Marama Davidson, and for many of us, you know, we look at our families. I look at my mother; she used to clean. She used to clean across the courts, and when she used to come to Parliament, we used to look across and I’d go, “Yeah, you used to clean over there, Mum.” And my relations that are around town driving buses; my father, who worked on the wharf and drove taxis around here—these people are all very distant to this lot on the other side. They have no relation, they have no connection, they have no empathy in terms of what we’re talking about.
Hon Penny Simmonds: Say it like you mean it.
Hon WILLIE JACKSON: I absolutely mean it, because this is something where the vulnerable are being hurt—the vulnerable are being hurt. As Marama Davidson says, it hurts us, so the Labour Party gives its commitment, in terms of this fight for our people in the communities. For our people in the communities, it is a sad day.
I think so many people are now seeing this Government as a sort of far-right Government that’s very spiteful—very spiteful. There’s no reason this legislation should be passing. I’ve talked to some of our real strong activists and they just see it as the naked greed of the bosses who want to exploit and grind wages down. There’s no problems allowing unions to represent workers and push for better conditions and wages; that’s the cornerstone of enabling working people to get ahead, yet this new Government is only concerned with bosses’ interests. That’s what we’re hearing from the other side, in ensuring they benefit.
They talk about trickle-down economics. We hear that sort of kōrero all the time from the right, this trickle-down economics, which is a myth: pretending that bosses will pay workers decent wages out of the goodness of their hearts. That’s what we keep hearing: “Oh, look, I’m a boss and pay my workers well.”—normally just over the minimum wage, and that’s “well” to them. And what are you all moaning about? I’ll tell you, I was a former union president—
Hon Members: Ah!
Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Yeah, yeah. I know that’s hard for the other side to accept, because they don’t even know what a union is, but I remember the great Helen Kelly all of our members know. She put so much time into shaping these fair pay bargaining agreements before she died. She’d turn in her grave—she’d just turn in her grave, watching this legislation go through. She would have been a wonderful MP, probably would have been a wonderful Prime Minister, but that wasn’t what she sought. She sought justice for workers, she sought rights for workers, and I mihi to her for her mahi. I didn’t know her well, but when I did meet with her we used to have a few laughs. I always admired her absolute commitment to workers, and today she’d be turning in her grave. She put a lot of work into this.
Today, too—yesterday, how people can change, so I’d hope that some of that useless lot across the other side will one day follow the lead of the great Jim Bolger. I never thought I’d say that about Jim, you know. In 1991 I thought he was a mongrel, because he brought in—and I’ve told him this, and we’ve had a few laughs—his union-bashing Employment Contracts Act, smashed us at ground level. But didn’t he change. What a good man: turned down knighthoods, and, as well as that, understood where New Zealand was going; understood where the working class were.
Carl Bates: Envious.
Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Yeah, you’d be envious of him. I think it’s his strong Irish background. He actually understood the struggle, and so you saw him leading in terms of Māori issues, in terms of that useless National Government at the time. I’m getting mixed up about the times, the useless National Government then and the useless—I shouldn’t say “useless National” because, as we all know, it’s the New Zealand First-led Government by your relation, Winston Peters. They just run around like puppies for Winston. But when you see Jim Bolger turning, maybe there’s a chance for him, and I mihi to Jim Bolger today for his work in shaping these fair bargaining agreements. And he’ll be here, probably shedding a tear today, saying “What happened to that pathetic, useless National Party that I used to lead?”.
So shame on this party. Shame on this party in terms of the 90 days. So many whānau are reliant on their wages, but now their wages are going to be reduced as the cost of living crisis keeps biting, but shame on this new right—this extreme right Government that is being led by Winston and David Seymour.
The thing is, the Treasury already warned the far-right Government that repealing the legislation would hurt our most vulnerable workers: Māori, Pasifika, wāhine—our women, our women workers. You know, I’m a person who was involved, believe it or not, a few years ago, in the mid-’80s, in the northern clerical union. Our drive was equal pay for work of equal value—driven by some of your relations, actually, Camilla. You know, when I think about Evana Belich and all the great union organisers of the ’80s and the northern clerical union and the burrows here and Murray—these were Pākehā women committed to the cause of supporting workers and Māori.
Hon Scott Simpson: A Willie Jackson history lesson.
Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Well, I need to give you fools a history lesson because you don’t know anything about equal pay for work of equal value. Government policy is supposed to benefit the many; repealing this fair pay agreement benefits so few—so few. This new Government should be ashamed of the hollowness of this move, because if Labour regain the Government benches—which is going to happen in three years—our first hundred days will be about restoring mana and rights back to workers.
Tom Rutherford: Well, you won’t be here.
Hon WILLIE JACKSON: I’ll be here, but you may not be here. We will not allow this new far-right Government to undermine workers’ rights and water down collective bargaining. They refuse to understand why collective bargaining is so important.
Tom Rutherford: Yeah, I know what’s best for us.
Hon WILLIE JACKSON: They all think that individuals can all negotiate for themselves—no, no, here’s the thing: people go to work to do their mahi, to look after their family. They don’t go to work to negotiate with the boss. You can’t have the cleaners—you just can’t do this with our security or our hospitality workers all of a sudden being lumped with this job of being union delegates and union officials. That’s only for special people like our team here. That’s what we’re trained in. But our people just want to do their job and these idiots, sadly, do not understand the whole line of collective bargaining. It all comes under market flexibility for them, “the individual can do this”. We’re not interested in that type of mantra; we’re interested in collective bargaining, teams, unions, people bonding together. That is something that is foreign to this far-right, useless Government.
ACT, National, and New Zealand First—they are bonded by their malice towards beneficiaries, renters, workers, and the environment. There’s no doubt about that. Now a country that punishes that rather than supports is a country that rules for the rich and not for the poor—that sums them up all again. Here’s one of the perfect examples just walking in: no aroha.
Hon Simeon Brown: I am a perfect example.
Hon WILLIE JACKSON: They’ve got no aroha for the people. It’s a country none of us want to be a part of, and we don’t want to be part of that filthy right agenda. We want our people to come together, and I give a commitment that Labour will keep fighting against these right-wing fundamentalists.
ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): I appreciate that members may have put too much sugar on their Weet-Bix this morning, but let’s try to keep the debate focused on the bill and the less insults.
