Moroney SueSUE MORONEY (Labour): I think that last speech just personifies the struggle that National members are having trying to justify why they think it is OK for people who are working hard in New Zealand to be paid below the minimum wage. That is what the National Government is arguing here in this Parliament—that it has such a strong future in mind for this country that its brighter future actually involves people being paid less than the minimum wage for working hard in this country. Well that is not the vision that we have on this side of the House. We actually want people to be paid well. We want to improve wages. We want people to have decent living standards and that is what this bill is all about. I want to congratulate the Hon David Parker on bringing it in front of the House but I also want to commend former colleague Darien Fenton who was absolutely passionate about this and was the original drafter of this bill. If National is trying to pretend that it wants to fix this issue but it just has not thought of the right way to do it yet it has had many years to think about how to do that because this bill has in fact been before the Parliament before. So no one is going to believe that bit of nonsense from the National Party.I want to agree with Labour leader Andrew Little when he said earlier in this debate that we are after the road to prosperity not the race to the bottom that the National Government seems intent on taking this country down. Government members were trying to pretend that this is about a question of choice. What choice is there in someone working hard and being able to be paid less than the minimum wage because that is what the National Government is arguing for. That is what it is arguing for. And that is the very reason the Labour Party has brought this bill before the House. As it stands right now in New Zealand it is legal to pay an independent contractor a self-employed person below the minimum wage and in this day and age in 2016 in Aotearoa New Zealand that is morally and ethically wrong. The fact that the laws book allows this to happen under a National Government is ethically and morally wrong. Forty percent of the children living in poverty in New Zealand are actually living in families where there is a parent in paid employment. I will say that again because it is a national disgrace. In terms of the 40 percent of children living in poverty in New Zealand one of their parents actually goes out and works hard and tries to earn a decent living. But it is because of the attitude of the National Party that those parents often cannot make enough money to actually ensure that they are paying the rent that they are putting decent food on the table for the children that their children are going to school with a pair of shoes on their feet and going out with a warm coat in these cold temperatures that we are suffering right now in New Zealand. These are the effects of that Government and its inability to actually address issues like the one we are putting in front of this Parliament this afternoon. So what are we asking for? We are not asking for a lot. It is the fact that anyone who may be employed as an independent contractor has the right as every other worker does in New Zealand to be paid the minimum wage. It is an audacity for the National Party to argue that this would be far too onerous because it might require that employers have to understand and know the hours those people are working. It is just an outrage. It is not that long ago that that same Government passed a piece of legislation to improve health and safety in this country and I say good on it. But for goodness' sake if Government members think it is OK that employers can pay people a paltry amount without understanding the number of hours they are going to have to work to earn that paltry amount then they have no understanding of the issues that drive bad health and safety practices in this country either. They talked about piece rates. I want to say that the piece rates that are paid in the forestry industry are probably one of the main drivers of bad health and safety in that sector. That is right Mrs Goodhew—do not raise your eyebrows and look like it is the first time you have heard it because you will know all about it. The fact that people have to chop down X-number of trees—Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Tēnā koe e Te Whare. Tēnā koutou e te whānau o Te Whare Pāremata. Kia ora mai tātou tēnā tātou katoa. Members when we adjourned for the dinner break we were debating the Minimum Wage (Contractor Remuneration) Amendment Bill. Sue Moroney was speaking. She has exactly 5 minutes remaining.SUE MORONEY: I do not intend to take the full 5 minutes because this is a members' day which means that the really great legislation is in front of the House today because it is largely from the Labour Party. So the things that are really relevant to New Zealanders are being debated on members' days. The good news is that next year the New Zealand voting public can make members' day become Government bill day where the really relevant issues will be debated. Tonight it is about ensuring fairness—fairness in work. That is the sort of thing that the New Zealand public can expect to see from a Labour-led Government. What we are talking about tonight is the right for people who are self-employed independent contractors to be paid at least the minimum wage—not a big ask. That should just be a basic entitlement but not according to National members. They are voting against this because they do not believe in fairness at work and they do not want self-employed people to be paid at least the minimum wage. But the rest of us do and I am hoping that the Hon David Parker will get this bill through its second reading because he certainly got the support of the House on its first reading. I believe that he is going to get majority support again. I certainly hope that he will because I think that most New Zealanders would agree with the Labour Party that it is just a basic right for people to know that when they work they should expect to be paid at least the minimum wage. National members brought back the ghost of Bill Birch before the dinner break. They brought back the ghost of Bill Birch. Apparently they are voting against this because it is all about choice; the choice to be ripped off the choice to be exploited the choice to work hard but not even get the minimum wage. Well the Labour Party is on the side of hard-working people. We are on the side of the self-employed people of this country. We are on the side of the families who want to feed their children and make sure that they can go to school with shoes on their feet and a warm coat. We are on the side of hard-working New Zealanders who believe in justice who believe in fair pay for a fair day's work. We are on the side of the majority of New Zealanders.