Parker David: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2469. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 I want the Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue to tell me what analysis of the long-term effects of undermining the work ethic of our youngest people as they first enter the workforce lay behind this measure. We are told by the National Party people that prices always matter that the amount that people get paid in real terms is what matters. Whenever we remind Government members of the fact that it is having a larger and larger wage gap with Australia they always say “Oh it’s the after-tax number that matters.” But here for the youngest people in society—for the youngest people in society—no it is not. It is a different rule for them. It is not the after-tax amount that matters; it is the pre-tax amount. What is wrong with having young people a little bit more incentivised to work by making sure that they do not have to pay as much tax as they will when they are older? What is wrong with that? What is wrong with that? 
Hon Member 
: When you’re earning under 45 bucks. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Yes limited to $45 a week. I ask the Minister whether he is aware that his Government blocked measures to protect some of these very vulnerable young workers from being not paid not just a youth minimum wage which is what the National Government wants to pay them but the minimum wage. A lot of these people who work delivering pamphlets do not get the minimum wage. They do not even get the equivalent of a youth minimum wage. They get a contract rate that is so low that I am surprised that some of them are motivated enough to do the work but they are—they are. We ought to be celebrating the fact that these people do it despite the pittance that they get for delivering pamphlets. They do not even get the minimum wage because the National Party would not back our legislation to extend the minimum wage to contract workers. And now the Government is saying that it is going— 
Mike Sabin 
: It’s a bit rich to be accusing people of not backing things. Do you vote for anything? No. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: What was that? I did not hear that. 
Mike Sabin 
: No I didn’t say anything. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Oh OK you did not say that. Actually—[ 
Interruption 
] Thank you thank you. I think the Hansard staff got that. “I did not say that.” he said and acknowledged his own comment. We will look to see what Hansard caught of that. I did not catch it but he is obviously embarrassed because he would not repeat it. 
This is short-sighted. This is mean-spirited. I thought Megan Woods’ contribution earlier was interesting: first we had the cycleways then we had the motorways and then they went after the paper round. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Paper routes. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: What was that? 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Paper routes. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: The paper routes—that is right. She put it far better than I did. They were standing around the Cabinet table and they thought: “Who can we get? Who is not paying their fair share? Who is not paying their fair share?”. And who did they not look at? They did not look at the top 10 percent who got 40 percent of the income tax cuts in the tax rounds; they went for the lowest paid for people not even on the minimum wage and delivering pamphlets for sometimes $2 an hour. It really is sometimes $2 an hour. Now not only will the employer be required to deduct income tax from that amount—compliance costs for the employer compliance costs for the Inland Revenue Department—but the people who are being paid a miserly amount and it is sometimes only $2 an hour will not be able to get a tax refund. They will not be able to get a refund of the tax that they have paid. Some of these kids are poor. Some of them are not but some of them are. This is the only money they have got perhaps— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Averages $5 a week. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: The average is $5 a week. The average is $5 a week and to some of these kids that $5 a week is the difference between their being able to occasionally go to a movie— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Oh no no. It’s half their school uniform. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: I agree; I was going to come to that. For some of them it is actually what they get to go down to the op shop and buy a few clothes. You know I think this is pretty mean-spirited. If there were not other things that the Government could have done if this issue was the last bit that was going to tip this country over the edge then you know maybe. But it is not. It had lots of choices other than this. I want the Minister to stand up and say why the Government picked this choice rather than other choices. Why is it undermining the work ethic of these kids who are already working for sometimes a piddling $2 an hour? They are being taxed on it and they cannot get a break from the Government. It is being taken off them. I hope the Minister stands and takes a call.