Woods Megan: Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Woods Megan: Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8635. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) 
: 
 I am happy to carry on from the previous speaker Tracey Martin and to respond to some of the calls from members on the other side talking about how they talk to young people and how their constituents are unemployed. One of the things that Chris Auchinvole outlined very well is that there is something that we can all agree on in terms of this legislation the Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill and that is that we have a massive problem with youth unemployment. It is actually really good to hear National finally admit to that point because we have been saying it for many years that we are at a crisis point when it comes to our young people and their ability to find work. What we have had from members on the opposite side of the Chamber this afternoon are crocodile tears around the rates of youth unemployment and talking about the lack of engagement of young people. 
But this bill is the only solution they have got to put up. Slashing young people’s wages is not a solution to youth unemployment. It will accomplish absolutely nothing. What we are having as my colleague Sue Moroney pointed out in her very fine speech are members opposite give up on even advancing the arguments that this legislation will do anything to create jobs. Instead what we are having are members falling back on telling us: “Don’t worry employers do not have to do it.” This is their one great solution and they are reassuring the nation that it is OK that it is voluntary and that employers will not have to do it. It is just ridiculous that this is all they have got when we are at a time of national crisis in terms of youth unemployment. We have 90000 young New Zealanders who are not in any form of education employment or training and the best that Government members have got is voluntary wage slashing as a solution to it. It is absolutely no wonder that the Salvation Army gave this Government a D—a fail—in its recent report when it came to youth unemployment and its ability to deal with this pressing national problem. 
This is a Government that is failing. This is a Government that has absolutely nothing to offer on what we have which is a crisis point of massively high rates of unemployment in New Zealand. Forty-five percent of these people are aged between 15 and 24. The unemployment rate for 15 to 19-year-olds is 30.9 percent. We are getting up there with the worst countries in Europe in terms of this age group and unemployment. This is not something that we can sit back on and say “Well this is all we’ve got but don’t worry you don’t really have to do it. It is only a voluntary piece of legislation anyway.” Youth unemployment is at a point where it requires a real solution. 
It is not only we on this side of the Chamber who believe this. It is quite interesting to read back over National members’ comments in previous debates on this question in this Chamber. If we go back to Paula Bennett in March 2010 she said in response to an oral question: “we are not convinced it would reduce youth unemployment plus it would be a distraction from the really important work of improving productivity and growing the economy in order to create long-term jobs which will keep young people in New Zealand.” Fine words Ms Bennett. We agree with you entirely. 
Then we come to the chair of the select committee that heard submissions on this bill the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. There were 61 submissions and 54 of those were opposed— 
Darien Fenton 
: 531. 
Dr MEGAN WOODS 
: There were 531 but overwhelmingly— 
Darien Fenton 
: Only nine in favour. 
Dr MEGAN WOODS 
: Only nine out of all those submissions—thank you Darien Fenton—were in favour. But if we listen to what the chair of that select committee David Bennett has previously said on the ability of youth rates to address this real crisis we have in New Zealand he says: “We should be promoting to them”—that being young people—“the need to get education and training not encouraging them to take the easy option of temporary employment which may provide some financial gain at an early age but will not deliver long-term benefits for them as we go forward as a country.” Then we had David Bennett again in April 2010: “It is important that we do not set the bar too low in the sense that our young people who work hard must not find that they get no reward for their efforts.” Well these are fine words from the chair of the select committee from only 3 years ago. It would be great to hear him address some of these matters more fully on this and to take a call and address some of these matters because the fact of the matter is that we have a Government that has done very little. In fact it has done nothing and it has got a fail mark. 
We had money set aside in 2011 by this Government to train young New Zealanders. In November last year only $8 million of that Skills for Canterbury money had been spent. We lost two crucial years of training our young people to work in the rebuild of Canterbury and what do we see now? We see Christchurch being flooded with migrants coming in to do that work instead of our own young people being 2 years into their training. We have a Government that is not committed. It is not backing education throughout New Zealand. We have rural polytechnics all over this country that are in real danger. Taking away the foundation-course funding from them has made many of our polytechnics be in a precarious state. Labour knows that if we are going to address this real and pressing issue of youth unemployment where 45 percent of all those who are unemployed in New Zealand are youth and where we have youth unemployment rates of 30 percent then we have to do something other than offer voluntary legislation in terms of slashing wages. We have to do something to create jobs and that is what Labour is committed to doing. Labour is committed to being a hands-on Government that will get out there that will back young New Zealanders and that will say to young New Zealanders: “You have a future in this country and you can stay here.” 
In September last year we had the Prime Minister make this great announcement about how he was going to write personally to 175 employers and ask them to take on the graduates of the Limited Service Volunteer scheme where we have only an 80 percent completion rate. We have very low completion rates on the Limited Service Volunteer courses anyway but the Prime Minister made grand gestures. I think there were some unemployment figures released around the time and the Prime Minister wanted to be seen to be doing something. The Prime Minister promised to keep doing this—to follow up. As of the beginning of February this year he had not done one further thing on this. The Prime Minister had not followed through on his commitment to young New Zealanders. He had written to zero further employers asking them to take on the graduates of our Limited Service Volunteer courses. 
 This all just goes to show that this is a Government that has no solutions when it comes to our young people. It has no solutions to tackle the real thing. All we have is insidious legislation that is intent only on cutting wages. It is asking our young people to live on not even the minimum wage or a living wage—it is below that. We are at a point in our history when we are debating what it takes someone to live on. We are talking about $18.40 an hour and we are asking that our young people get paid $11 an hour. This is not the kind of New Zealand that Labour wants to offer to young New Zealanders. Labour wants to offer young New Zealanders a real reason to stay here and slashing the wages of young people will do nothing to create employment. Government members opposite have even themselves given up on that argument. We have not heard it today and all we are hearing is a chorus of “Oh don’t worry. It’s only voluntary.” They do not believe in their own legislation. They know it is not going to work and all they have got to offer now is to tell us “Don’t worry not all employers will need to do it.” Labour is not supporting this legislation. It is opposed to it. We want to see real solutions to the very real problem of youth unemployment not legislation like this coming before this House.