Harawira Hone: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:633;Page:4819] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora tatou te Whare.There has been a lot of debate in the media about whether we can afford to increase the minimum wage. Earlier this year we saw a big debate over Sue Bradford’s bill to amend the minimum wage order in order to stop employers setting low youth rates and now we have this bill to amend the Act to ensure that contractors are also covered. The questions are how much will it cost and can we afford it? In fact the real question is whether we can afford not to. The minimum wage is $10.25 an hour and the minimum youth wage is $8.20. That is simply not enough. 
Just a couple of weeks back while the House was in adjournment the Government tabled the  
Social Report 2006 
 which showed what we have been saying for yonks—that is the number of poor people in this country has nearly doubled in only 6 years. The proportion of the population with low incomes shows that 19 percent were living below the 60 percent threshold in 2004 compared with just 12 percent in 1998 and that those experiencing severe hardship had greatly increased as well. The same report also pointed out that the proportion of poor people who spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing has more than doubled in that time. 
It is not just about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to work out that those who are suffering are those who live in Mangere and Northcote rather than in Remuera and Takapuna. In fact the New Zealand income survey shows that the average income for Maori is $471 per week compared with $598 for non-Maori—a difference of $127 per week. Maori’s history as the lowest-paid group in the workforce and the problems that result from that poverty. are the reasons why on many many occasions in this House the Maori Party has condemned low rates of pay as a form of economic violence. 
It was with that knowledge that we went into last year’s election with a bid to raise the minimum wage to $12.50 per hour because when we feed the worker we feed the whanau nurture the well-being and safety of children and offer hope for their future. Yet this is not a call from the Maori Party. In a country that likes to pride itself on its growth and its wealth it is to our enduring shame that we can even have an organisation called the Child Poverty Action Group. Yet we do. That group has also supported the call for a rise in the minimum wage in order for our poorest children’s life chances to improve. The key aim of the fast-food workers’ “Supersize my pay!” campaign is to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour. Unions have been pushing for it for years; so have the Greens. So we are in good company in supporting this bill today. 
There are many workers in forestry construction courier services transport labour hire pamphlet delivery and other such services who may be exploited through unfair contracting. So the changes proposed by Darien Fenton to ensure that contractors must be paid a minimum rate are a positive move for both youth and adult workers. But I have one word of caution for the select committee. We note the results of a major study carried out by Gail Pacheco a senior economics lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology which suggested that Maori and Pasifika will be the ones most adversely affected by a rise in the minimum wage. In her study she noted that Maori and Pasifika made up more than 20 percent of low-income workers and that if the increased minimum wage were approved it would be they who got the sack first if employers were forced to lay off staff. How sad that is but unfortunately how true as well. 
The Maori Party supports this bill because it is part of our campaign against the wages of poverty and the deprivation that poor people suffer. But we caution against any move that may further jeopardise the standing of the workers in  
bro’Town 
. Kia ora tatou.