Banks John: Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Banks John: Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8582. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon JOHN BANKS (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I want to address what the Labour member Darien Fenton has raised. She has raised two very important issues. She raises the issue of so-called sub-minimum wages and she talks about hitting young workers. The ACT Party supports this Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill and supports this young Minister of Labour. It is an opportunity for young people to get their foot on the first rung of employment opportunity. We support the intention but the ACT Party is on record as saying we need to go further. Since Labour and the Greens abolished youth minimum wages in 2008 youth unemployment has reached crisis levels. This is the key point I want to put to the Labour Party Opposition today. 
The member talks about sub-minimum wages. I want to talk about the $4.50 an hour paid every fortnight electronically at midnight from Work and Income to the 40000 young people between the ages of 15 and 19 who get the dole—$4.50 an hour on the dole. This is an opportunity to pay young people a fair rate of pay for the dignity of a working opportunity. Statistics New Zealand put youth employment in December at 30.9 percent. That is the highest rate we have had in three decades. Over 40000 young people who want to work cannot find a job and I rise in this Parliament today to represent them. It is worse amongst young Maori it is worse amongst young Pacific and it is worse for young Asian. Forty percent of Maori aged 15 to 19 are on the dole 47 percent of Pacific youth are unemployed and on the dole and 55 percent of Asian 15 to 19-year-olds are consigned to the dole—55 percent. So we are talking about 48 percent of Pacific Maori and Asian youth on the dole. Of course it also has encompassed in that young European and others. 
But we cannot sit back as a Parliament as a country and pay so many people 30 percent of our youth aged 15 to 19 $4.50 an hour to do nothing—$4.50 an hour. I say to the Labour Party list member opposite who resumed her seat Darien Fenton what about talking about and thinking about the 40000 young people aged 15 to 19 who desperately need the dignity of work and a job opportunity to get on with their lives? Too many of these young people are starting lives with poor education no jobs no hope and few opportunities. 
Le’aufa’amulia 
 Asenati Lole-Taylor 
: Whose fault they’re getting poor education? 
Hon JOHN BANKS 
: I say to the yapping member opposite that I have been in business for 50 years this year. I have employed tens of thousands of young people in the restaurant chain that is 50 years old this year Tony’s at 27 Wellesley Street. 
 In December 2007 before Labour and the Greens abolished youth minimum wages Maori youth unemployment was 22 percent. Maori youth unemployment before Labour and the Greens abolished youth rates of pay was 22 percent. Today it is double that figure and the member who resumed her seat has the temerity to criticise the Minister of Labour for trying to do something about getting the dignity of work for so many people who feel helpless and hopeless without a job. Deliberately legislating to stop young people from making a successful transition from school to jobs is a violation of their right to make their own decisions. Deliberately doing that by legislation is a violation of young people’s right to make decisions for themselves and have a working opportunity. The Labour Party’s short-sighted policy has had a devastating effect on our young people’s morale and sense of self-worth. Morale and self-worth—any member in this House who has had a young boy or girl between 15 and 19 sitting at home desperately wanting a job and without the dignity of work knows exactly what I am talking about. 
Do not be hypocritical I say to members—please do not be—by suggesting that this is not going to work because we pay $4.50 an hour to 40000 young New Zealanders between 15 and 19 every second Wednesday night from Work and Income by way of the dole. We believe that 80 percent is still too high as a minimum rate. In the UK the rate for 16-year-olds is 60 percent. In Australia the rate for 16-year-olds is 48 percent—much lower than what is proposed today. I would pay those 40000 young people looking for work $25 $30 or $40 an hour if we thought we could afford it. The fact of the matter is the country cannot business is struggling working opportunities are not there so what we are trying to get here is a measure of sensibility. 
Andrew Little 
: Make the young people pay for it. 
Hon JOHN BANKS 
: That member across there has witnessed a doubling since the Labour Party and Greens abolished minimum rates of pay. There are twice as many young Maori on the dole—twice as many young Maori on the dole. 
David Bennett 
: It’s a shame. 
Hon JOHN BANKS 
: It is a shame. These countries that I am talking about obviously understand that it is important for youth to get their feet on the employment ladder. We want to see every young man and woman with their feet on the employment ladder and with the dignity of training of work of opportunity of earning a living and of making a contribution. Members on the other side of the House have as statistics have proven wiped out so much of our youth. Not only is the proposed rate too high but the conditions of this bill are too strict. The 6-month limit is not long enough to gain work skills and experience. It is not long enough. As someone who has been in business employing people for 50 years I say it should be 12 months or longer. Forcing people to be on a benefit for 6 months before they are eligible for a starting-out wage again is far too long. Why would this Parliament force young New Zealanders to stay on a benefit for 6 months before they are eligible for the starting-out wage to get some dignity in their lives? Why would it do that? 
ACT strongly supports a return to the situation pre-2008 before we doubled youth unemployment for Maori before we doubled youth unemployment for Pasifika and before we doubled youth unemployment for Asian people. These people opposite these members of Parliament opposite have never employed anyone have never had to pay a wage to anyone and have probably never had the indignity of joblessness. I say to the yapping members opposite that they should think about the indignity of joblessness—think about the indignity of joblessness. For once in their lives they should think about the 40000 fifteen to 19-year-olds in this country who are crying out for an opportunity to work. They look to Labour and the Greens and what Labour and the Greens have left us is a legacy of doubling unemployment for Maori youth doubling unemployment for Pacific youth and sending unemployment for Asian 15 to 19-year-olds to 55 percent the highest in any OECD country. And now they do not want to give employers the opportunity to give them some training and some work. We believe it is important that youth have the opportunity to work to learn to gain skills and to gain habits and experience that will set them up for their future careers and for a more prosperous future. Why would these people opposite vote against that?