Today is a Member's Day, the last one of the Parliamentary term. Its also the day Heather Roy's Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill is finally going to pass into law. I do not think the bill is a good idea; student associations (which are better thought of as student government) fill a vital role in interfacing between students and the university, and if they did not exist, it would be necessary to invent them. It also doesn't help that the bill is so obviously motivated by malice on the part of ACT, trying to eliminate something they see as a recruitment centre for their political opponents. But Roy has the numbers, and so its going to be inflicted on us. I'm just glad I am no longer a student to suffer the consequences.
After that, its the committee stage of Tau Henare's Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill, which contrary to its title isn't about promoting democracy, but undermining it, by allowing employers to interfere in democratically-reached decisions which don't suit them. Politicians don't let unions challenge their list-selections (which by law must be made democratically), so why do they think employers should be allowed to challenge a union's internal decision-making? But I guess its one rule for them, and another for the peasants. And then they wonder why we think they're all hypocrites.
