Mitchell Clayton: Minimum Wage (Contractor Remuneration) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: Minimum Wage (Contractor Remuneration) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5747. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I have to say that I know the real reason why Maurice Williamson will not support the Minimum Wage (Contractor Remuneration) Amendment Bill to go to select committee. It is because it would go to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and we know how work-shy you can be sometimes Mr Williamson. So I understand your standing up and being opposed to this coming on. We have also in the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee gone through a very long-winded process to get the Health and Safety Reform Bill put together but that is the real reason. If you are going to be honest mate you should just say it nice and loudly. I would like to while I have got the floor commend David Parker for bringing this bill forward and putting it in as a member’s bill. But more important for the first time in 10 years I believe this is the first opportunity he has had to have his bill pulled out and called. So congratulations.Hon David Parker: 13 years.CLAYTON MITCHELL: Thirteen years—goodness me. That is a big deal in itself. New Zealand First will support this bill to the select committee. I think it is very important that we actually hear from submitters about the concerns they have. I see Mr Bayly nodding in agreement which would say that we want the work in our select committee do we not Mr Bayly? He is nodding in agreement but of course his party is going to vote it down which means that it is going to go nowhere back into the ether.This bill is really on the surface of it about getting a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. That is what it comes down to. We have got to look after our workers to ensure that they are actually getting remunerated fairly for the work time effort and energy that they have taken to do the job. They have got to get paid and remunerated properly. We have some reservations with the bill Mr Parker I have to say and there is a little bit of trepidation but I believe that through the select committee those little areas can be ironed out. I will particularly just bring your attention to probably three of the areas in the contracts for service department that you have alluded to out of the 14 that have been listed in the bill and that we have some reservations about—in particular and I know that Ms Moroney mentioned it to do with pamphlet deliveries.Understanding how pamphlet deliveries work and having been a young man once when I used to go out there and deliver those pamphlets myself—Sue Moroney: Still young.CLAYTON MITCHELL: Thank you very much. I will take that as a compliment Ms Moroney; I am still young. But the reality is that this is a job that is designed for young people before school after school—doing newspapers handing out those flyers. Goodness me when it is electioneering time who are the young people who come around to your neighbourhood to put those flyers in your box? Some people I am sure would like to see that practice be removed because you see all the “No circulars” signs. The whole point is that a big sector of that market is done by young people. The other people who are actually filling this void are the elderly. Elderly people are taking up this job—some in their 70s some in their 80s and some in their 90s whom I have been speaking to—and take sometimes 4 days to go and deliver pamphlets quietly. They take it as a social engagement outing—a little bit of social intercourse with their neighbours by getting themselves around the neighbourhood to go and deliver those pamphlets. So what is reasonably expected of them if all of a sudden the pamphlet-delivering companies have to say: “Well look—I expect this job to be done in 2 hours. You’re going to take 4 days to do it.” They will miss the opportunity to get employed—to get gainful employment. That is the reality of the downside and the unintended consequences of the bill which will have some dire effects on the people who actually work.Hon David Parker: Not for you. Under-13s.CLAYTON MITCHELL: No well—youth will continue but what will happen is that the youth will continue to pick up that void. This is a great opportunity for elderly people within our communities to get these jobs that children and young people on their pushbikes can go and do in 2 hours and the elderly take 4 days to do them. That will actually remove them from being eligible to work because of course it will not be financially viable for those pamphlet companies to employ them.The other area that we have some concerns about is public entertainment services: actors musicians and singers. The reality is that—and emerging artist I am not but many of my friends are—the best way to get yourself out there is to give your time and be support to some of those up-and-coming bands. The reality is that the likes of the Wellington musical theatre and the operatic societies give gainful employment and pay less than the minimum wage but they pay for costs and some of the time that is spent. We could not afford to have that industry. The industry would actually go to sleep and disappear into the ether. We are not big enough to say that we can afford to pay a minimum wage to everybody who is working in those sectors of the market. A lot of them do it for love a lot of them do it for practice and we need to be very mindful of that.I just want to finish off by saying that the manufacturing of clothing footwear or textiles is another area that we have concerns with. All the other areas we actually support you on particularly around pizza deliveries truck driving etc. etc. I am getting the hurry-along—5 minutes is not long. Thank you; we will support this bill to select committee and we look forward to ironing out some of those unintended consequences.