Little Andrew: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: General Debate[Sitting date: 30 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19678. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Labour):Well there are none so blind as those who will not see and of course the blindest in the House right now would be Mike Sabin after putting on his tie this morning. The rest of the National caucus constitute a major health and safety risk that requires hearing protection because their ties and shirts are far too loud.This is a great day for working New Zealanders because now they have hope. Working New Zealanders have seen Labour’s policy announcement on work and wages and now they know that help is at hand. Help is at hand because they are the ones—the 50 percent of wage and salary earners in New Zealand—who have struggled to make ends meet year after year of this Government. Year after year they have struggled to make ends meet and now they finally see there is a chance that their wages will go up. Sure those on the minimum wage will get an immediate lift and they will get another lift next year—$15 before Christmas $16.25 next April—and then the rest of working New Zealand will know that in Labour they will have a Government that is committed to sharing fairly the economic gains of this country.The Government talks about rising wages but it turns a wilfully blind eye and ignores the 46 percent of working New Zealanders who did not get a pay rise last year. It had nothing to say about it because it does not care and it does not understand it. It does not understand the modern workplace and the modern labour market. That is this Government. Put aside the 46 percent who cannot get a pay rise—what about the others? What about the rest of the workforce who have added to the productivity gains of this country? There has been a 50 percent improvement in productivity in the last 20 years and yet wages have not kept pace. If the average wage had kept pace with productivity improvements the average wage today would be between $7 and $8 an hour better than it is now. But that Government does not care. It does not care that 40 percent of children living in households that are below the poverty line have working parents. They live in households that have working parents. That is how bad it is. Working parents are going out there doing two three four and sometimes five jobs and still cannot make ends meet. That is how bad wages are in this country for far too many people and it is time it changed so we will lift the minimum wage.We will do away with the retrograde laws that this Government passed that prevent people from negotiating pay rises through collective bargaining or other means and we will get rid of the laws that treat people shabbily and appallingly—the 90-day law is just one of them. We will get rid of those laws. Then we will have a conversation. We will have a conversation with all those in the labour market—working people wage and salary earners the so-called dependent contractors the people who are employed by labour hire agencies. We will talk to their employers and we will ask them why they cannot get a pay rise why they are being treated unfairly why they are being sent down the road and kicked out of a job with no notice and no compensation—why is that happening? We will get that information we will hear from the people who matter and the people who care and we will make changes that reflect a modern 21st century labour market not the 19th century version that National believes in and not the antediluvian policies that National will visit on this country because people want better.People expect fairness and they no longer look to National for fairness. They look to National for graft and unfairness and for looking after its big mates but working people do not look to National for fairness any more. They look to Labour. The 50 New World workers in Hāwera who have lost their jobs today will not look to Chester Borrows for help; they will be looking at Hamish McDouall and Andrew Little for help because that is where it is going to come from. The 250 skilled engineering workers who lost their jobs in New Plymouth this year are not looking to Jonathan Young or National to help; they are looking to Labour for help because that is where they will get it. They know that the people in Labour understand working people and they understand the labour market. We understand what is going on and we will make it better. People will know that under Labour they will have a better chance of getting a fair share. Not when Tau Henare is in the House—no no no—that is long gone. They will look to a Labour Government because that is the way you get a fair share in this country.If you want to be paid fairly for what you do you vote Labour. That is what New Zealanders are lining up to do. They will be lining up to do it come 20 September. They will not be looking at that mob. They want jobs and they want a reduction in unemployment not the 6 percent that they have got right now.