Woodhouse Michael: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Woodhouse Michael: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3886] 
MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) 
: 
 The quotation of that great American President Abraham Lincoln by the Hon Tau Henare was inspirational. The discussion has been a very interesting one but without relitigating the response from the Opposition the reference to slavery following Mr Henare’s quotation of Abraham Lincoln was ironic in the extreme. It has been a fascinating debate on the Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill but it will be ultimately defeated because it is not supported by the Government. It is not really supported by the Labour Opposition as Mr Bennett said. If it was it would have been introduced as part of the previous administration’s agenda. 
The question is not about whether National supports a minimum wage as the other side has suggested but where that level should be. That seems to be a question that Labour is asking itself and it seems to be all over the place on this issue. The member for Hutt South and Labour’s shadow Minister of Labour Mr Mallard said last October that he could not commit to large increases in the minimum wage due to the economic conditions—conditions that have got worse since then. The Leader of the Opposition Phil Goff demanded a rise in the minimum wage to $13 yet the Labour Party’s election manifesto promised an increase to $12.65. So I am not quite sure where exactly Labour members are on their own policy. 
The most interesting and confusing thing about this bill is that in the estimation of all but the most extreme left-leaning economic commentators this bill if passed would actually be very bad for the people it purports to help. It will be bad for the young it will be bad for those who are in their autumn years who lose their jobs it will be bad for the less than fully able it will be bad for ethnic minorities and it will be particularly bad for those people who are on income support and are looking to augment their incomes. We know—and Jacinda Ardern said as much in question time today—that the problem of youth unemployment is serious with 10300 extra people unemployed in March. We now have one in five 15 to 19-year-olds looking for employment. So what will we do? People who have employed staff—and sadly there are precious few on the other side of the House with that sort of experience otherwise they might have a little more empathy with the issues—know that young people lack experience. They lack the work habits and the level of productivity that employers look for but they are employed anyway because employers know that eventually they will come up to speed and be productive members of the workforce. Employers will often put the needs of their employees first as the employment legislation in this country requires them to but they are not social workers. So they will not employ the inexperienced the young or people who need to be given a chance when the choice is between doing that or paying exactly the same wage to people with the experience the productivity levels and the work habits. 
The bill might be well meaning but it is ideologically flawed. It is bad for the very people that the member in the chair Darien Fenton is trying to help. It would also further reduce productivity at a time when this country badly needs a lift. It is bad for the hard-working and the hard-hit small businesses that are already telling the Government to take it easy because these times are tough compliance issues are drowning them in paperwork and accident compensation levies are going up. 
Lynne Pillay 
: Yep and this Government’s responding. It’s cutting everything. 
MICHAEL WOODHOUSE 
: This Government is responding by reducing the degree of burden on hard-working employers many of whom are saying that members on that side of the House have burdened them with issues for 9 years and red tape has gagged them for so long. This bill is just another example of those burdens and it is a bill that Labour members know deep down they do not support but it is a really good opportunity for them to stand up and say that they support workers. Well this bill does not support workers because if Labour members really believed in it they would have passed it themselves.