Ross Wilson to 2002 Labour Party Congress.

It is my honour and pleasure to once again bring warm greetings from the Council of Trade Unions.

This is election year; a time to acknowledge here what has been achieved by Labour in Government, to celebrate the excellent working relationships we have built, and, most importantly, to plan for the future.,/p>

I can assure you that, despite the favourable polls, the CTU is taking nothing for granted.

We want the programme of this Government to continue to build into the future.

It is worrying that there are some strong parallels between the situation we faced in 1990 and the situation we face in this election.

In 1990 we faced apathy borne out of disaffection with the 4th Labour Government. This year we face the danger of apathy born out of an overwhelming support for the Clark Government, and an assumption that it will be returned to power regardless of whether a particular individual votes or not.

It is our challenge to shake our people out of that complacency.

For working people the stakes are high, because there are also other parallels with 1990.

In 1990 we had Jim Bolger talking about "the Decent Society". This year we have Bill English as pretender to the middle ground.

In 1990 Jim Bolger was, as we all found to our cost, obscuring the most extreme right political agenda in New Zealand history.

Ruth Richardson's "mother of all budgets" plunged NZ into a recession from which we took years to recover.

We saw massive tax cuts which deprived the Government of necessary revenue for health, education, and social development.

Well Ruth is gone but Don Brash is back.

Look at his speech to the North Shore Business leaders on Friday:

- tax cuts for the rich - cuts to the minimum wage - abolition of school zoning - privatization of the public education system - time limited social welfare benefits

and to that you can add, from his Knowledge Wave Conference speech, an increase in the eligibility age for N Z superannuation.

That sits comfortably with the announced National Party economic policy......and with the policies of the ACT Party!

We have been told that a National Government wouldn't repeal the Employment Relations Act ........ but it is clear from their policy statement that they would disembowel it!

What they are planning is an ECA Mark 2 in drag.

And that is just the National Party policy...... without the demands from ACT which will have to be agreed to in any Coalition deal. Will Richard Prebble insist on being Labour Minister or Finance Minister?

It is becoming increasingly clear that National has chosen to pick up where it left off in the 1990s.

That is a disappointment for us, and should be for most New Zealanders.

It takes us back to the beginning of the last decade.

At that time the CTU published our policy vision for a better New Zealand in a publication... "A Quality Future; Working Together for Growth in New Zealand."

The report identified the following commonalities in successful nations and enterprises:

- An emphasis on co-operation and consensus - Recognition of competition and change as a challenge - Changing technology - Quality at all levels - Less Hierarchical management - Flexibility in the face of a constantly changing world - An educated and engaged workforce - Innovation and creativity at all levels

It also noted that:

New Zealand needs a clear sense of direction. A government which sticks to a rigidly "hands off" approach to economic management cannot provide the necessary leadership".

The National Government contemptuously rejected that offer. Instead it chose the extreme policies of the new right.

Those policies were a complete failure. New Zealand at the end of the decade was weaker economically, had high levels of debt, large income disparities, and massive infrastructural deficiencies.

Apart from the inequality, bitterness and conflict it created the ECA was a spectacular failure in its primary objective............ to promote efficiency in the labour market.

The rate of increase of labour productivity under the ECA was actually lower than before it. The Australian average, in a non-ECA environment, was more than 6 times as high.

Professor Paul Dalziell's comparative study demonstrates just how disastrous the policies were.

His study shows that although the NZ & Australian economies tracked along the same prior to 1984, they diverged markedly after that. If the New Zealand economy had grown at its previous trend rate, or matched Australia over the same period, output would have been a third higher at the end of the 1990s.

The amounts of personal and public income associated with this are staggering.

If New Zealand had continued to match Australia's growth the extra income would have generated, at the end of the last decade, an extra $11 billion of tax revenue per annum - enough to halve net government debt, or double spending on health and education.

The CTU has for many years advocated a high wage, high skill policy environment. This would involve:

- interest and exchange rates that support employment growth, - industry policy that promotes quality exports and import substitution, - a more active role for government, and - significant investment in skill development.

Such an economic policy needs to be underpinned by an adequate floor of rights in the labour market, and improvements in the social wage.

But one of the keys to growth from our perspective is skill development.

Given that over 80% of the workforce of 2010 are already in the workforce of today, we ignore their skill development at our economic peril.

Put simply, workers need to be seen as an investment, not solely a cost.

The new Apprenticeship Scheme has been a huge success. It is tremendous news that 6,000 more young New Zealanders will have the chance to take up new apprenticeships under the Budget increase announced by the Prime Minister yesterday.

This week the "Work in Progress" Conference on vocational education and training, jointly sponsored by Skill New Zealand, the CTU and Business NZ will be held in Wellington. We have almost 500 registrations. A training culture is emerging.

For the worker of today - job security is not just about the current job. It is about lifelong learning ensuring that the combination of relevant skills and experience ensures employability in a global labour market.

So how do we bring all of this together in a strategy for growth? How do we build faster economic growth in our country for the benefit of all New Zealanders?

The Government has shown leadership in promoting social partnerships, and Helen spoke of this again in her excellent address yesterday.

And there is no doubt that there cannot be a successful growth strategy without tapping into the rich resource of innovation and experience already there in our workforce.

It was no surprise that the labour productivity rate under the ECA was so low. The ECA was seen as oppressive and unfair by most workers; they were treated as commodities, and conservative and dull management was entrenched.

The ERA has the potential to create more democratic, satisfying and innovative work environments where the real potential and innovation of workers is unleashed.

That will require leadership from business and from unions, as well as the Government.

Whether the CTU can commit to a particular growth strategy depends whether we can develop more cooperative relationships, not only in the workplace, but also in the broader economic and social-policy making bodies and labour market institutions.

An ILO study published two years ago documented the remarkable economic and labour market recovery made by four small European countries; Austria, Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland.

The study shows that social partnership and the efforts of social partners and governments to arrive at new solutions played a critical role in their economic and labour market success.

If there is to be a social partnership approach we have to put it up there in black and white. What are we committing to and what are the expected mutual obligations and returns?

In countries like Ireland the partnership objectives and commitments are formalized into quite detailed national agreements which are then debated and ratified by workers in votes at workplace level.

But there is no "best model" and we have to develop our own.

So the CTU supports the Labour commitment to a social development approach based on social partnerships.

We support the Labour commitment to economic and skills development. Business NZ Chief Executive Simon Carlaw has publicly welcomed the Government "transition from unthinking hands-off to helping hands". Employers generally are telling the CTU they want to work together on skill and industry development strategies.

But where is the National Party on this critically important policy? Skills development gets one sentence in its economic policy, and not a mention in its "Creating a Better Workplace Policy".

We support the Labour commitment to an industrial relations framework based on International Labour Organisation human rights conventions ---- a framework which respects worker choice, fosters good faith behaviour and fairness, and promotes collective bargaining.

We need to increase the focus on, and support for industry initiatives which build on the tripartite industry development and injury prevention models already underway in industries such as the wood industry, the TCF sector, and the health sector. Industry collective bargaining should complement those initiatives.

The National Party policy signals a return to the conflict and unfairness of the ECA. We can only conclude that the National Party policy was written by some of the 400 employment lawyers, (up from about 40 in 1990), whose Employment Court practices have evaporated because of the lack of legal conflict under the ERA.

More seriously the National Party policies have the potential to create a very bitter industrial relations sideshow; a diversion from the real challenge of rebuilding our country.

The CTU does not seek out conflict but I can assure you that I will do everything I can to lead the CTU unions, and the quarter of a million union members we represent, to take every action possible to prevent the return of an ECA Mark 2. Working people in this country do not want a return to the 1990s.

The CTU also supports the Labour commitment to a minimum code of employment rights and welcomes the continual improvements made by our Government in the first term.

And we have worked together on some really important improvements to the social wage.

The increases in the minimum wage and paid parental leave are a tremendous step forward in workplace equity.

The upgrading of the Holidays Act is in the pipeline and we can look forward to extra pay for working public holidays, improved sick, domestic and tangihanga/bereavement leave, and (perhaps) 4 weeks annual leave.

But we won't have truly left the ECA workplace behind until we have protections for vulnerable workers on contracting out, and family friendly workplace policies which ensure that there can be a reasonable balance between work and family life.

The CTU has also campaigned hard to support the toughening up of the workplace health and safety laws.

With a work-related death toll higher than the road toll, and the OSH recorded workplace deaths this year the highest for a decade, I find it incredible that some employer spokespeople can go before the Select Committee and say that "workplaces are safe enough".

We also support the Labour commitment to maintaining and improving our national public fund accident compensation scheme.

Why National is re-committing itself to once again throw injured people to the mercies of private insurance companies is beyond comprehension.

Didn't they notice that one of the promoters of ACC privatization in 1998, HIH Insurance went bust last year in one of the biggest financial scandals in Australian history?

Private insurance premiums are sky-rocketing worldwide; ACC re-nationalisation saved New Zealand from that.

And, finally, we support the Labour commitment to social policies which provide the social environment, housing, health, education that give everyone a real opportunity to succeed. That work must continue.

What we are seeing are very clear policy differences emerging between National and Labour. Despite suggestions sometimes made to the contrary, we are not just a chorus for the Labour Party political act The CTU is a coalition of diverse interests with our own policies and objectives.. We have started a policy dialogue with Labour and other parties and will continue to assess the policies of all political parties as we move towards the election.

The National Government made a deliberate choice in 1990, and it is making the same choice this year.

At the beginning of my speech I warned of the dangers of apathy. A low turnout under our MMP system would be a disastrous for us.

So the job for all of us here, and in the wider labour movement, is mainly an educational one. But also to instill a sense of urgency and awareness of what could happen if we don't all vote.

The CTU has begun that process.

The first stage is to:

- remind people what has been achieved by the Labour Alliance Government in the short space of two and a half years, - to ensure that our union members, and their families, are enrolled to vote - to remind everyone of the essential features of MMP and the critical importance of the party vote

The second stage is to refine our campaign message somewhat. Those decisions are made democratically by our affiliated unions and, with an early election possible, they will be made at its next meeting on the 29th May.

The political scene is complex but there is no doubt that that our strategy will include campaigning for the return of Labour to Government to continue the journey we have embarked on together......to build a better Aotearoa New Zealand.

I feel very proud that union candidates have done so well in your selection process. I am not surprised. They are tremendously talented people, each and every one of them. We shall miss their contribution, but it is a case of accepting our own union principle of "the greatest good for the greatest number".

We are all soon going to be immersed in preparation for the Election. Let us make sure it is a respectful debate on issues and that we do our bit to enrich democracy in our country.