The organisation that I am proud to
lead, the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber), plays a
vital role in lobbying and advocating for businesses to be able to operate in a
supportive environment. This is one of the critical functions of the Chamber
ably assisted by its affiliations with the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (NZCCI) and BusinessNZ.
The lobbying role often goes unnoticed
and is sometimes taken for granted. However, if we did not have business
support agencies such as the Chamber and its associated entities there would be
no coordinated voice for business and we would be on the receiving end of rules
and regulations that would work actively against the ability for businesses to
operate.
The Chamber for many years has been
lobbying and advocating for sensible employment legislation, realistic health
and safety laws, the sustainable use of water in our region, simple and
transparent tax regimes, and issues around energy usage and climate change both
directly and through our other relationships. For example, BusinessNZ is currently
advocating on the issues of taxation of employee share schemes, competition
law, Holidays Act problems, anti-dumping legislation and has recently, together
with the Chamber, been advocating against the Minimum Wage (Contractor
Remuneration) Amendment Bill.
The Minimum Wage (Contractor
Remuneration) Amendment Bill known as the Contractor Bill was a potential piece
of legislation promoted through a Private Members’ Bill that had the ability to
blur the difference between a contracting relationship and an employment
relationship. Contracting relationships and employment relationships are both
legitimate forms of utilising labour. In late August, there was a real
possibility that the Contractor Bill would become law and create a massive
amount of confusion for the business community at large. Despite the fact that
BusinessNZ, which is partially funded by the Chamber, opposed the bill as far
as back as September 2015, it had reached the stage that it had a majority of
political support to be passed by Parliament. That would have resulted in a
bill that was impracticable, uneconomic and breached basic legal principles.
The Private Members’ Bill was put
forward by the Labour Party and supported by the Greens, New Zealand First and
Maori Party. It was also originally supported by the MP, Peter Dunn. The
combined voting power of that group would have given it sufficient votes to be
passed through Parliament.
The business community through business
support agencies such as the Chamber made it clear that the bill was poorly
drafted and would result in confusing the employment contracting interface. It
was obvious that it would cause significant damage across the contracting
sector. We went on to assert that contracting is a legitimate method of
providing services and the bill attempted to draw more closely together the
contracting and employment relationships. We maintained that if passed it would
result in confusion and be impossible to regulate. We insisted the bill needed
to be dropped to avoid a wide range of destructive unintended consequences and
that we could do much better for our employment and contracting communities.
Our view was shared by business support
agencies across the country who lobbied hard to ensure that the bill did not
become law. As a direct result of that intense lobbying the voting shifted to
the extent that the Minimum Wage (Contractor Remuneration) Amendment Bill was
defeated by one vote in Parliament in late August.
This is just one example of the importance of
lobbying and it is great to see how effective we can be if we work together in
the interests of business and the wider community. Good legislation is
critical; poor legislation can be incredibly destructive. The Chamber is a strong
advocate of transparent mutually beneficial, high quality, employment and
contracting relationships. We strongly oppose poor legislation that would
undermine either or both relationships.
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