Ardern Shane: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Ardern Shane: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5149] 
SHANE ARDERN (NZ National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 I rise to speak on the commencement date of this bill and I think it is probably time that somebody pointed out to the Committee that despite the fact that the Prime Minister the Rt Hon Helen Clark can have a view on major international events I do not think she has the ability yet to put in place legislation—which we are debating in the Committee here today on 29 April—that has a commencement date of 30 November 2001. I see there is a Supplementary Order Paper and I think that that is absolutely why the public of New Zealand need to know what it is that they have governing this country at the moment. The commencement date of this bill has well and truly passed and we have Supplementary Order Paper 245 to amend that date to a time that hopefully the Government might be able to achieve. That Supplementary Order Paper states “the day after the date on which this Act receives the Royal assent” which could be anywhere in the never-never—who knows? 
My colleague has put a date on this legislation of 2005 and another member has amended that to 2006. I think that is sensible because at least people will have some indication of when this bill might become law even though most people will be opposing it. They will at least have some idea of when it might come into law. 
But this bill demonstrates to the Committee today that we have a Government that introduces great socialist ideas and goes out and puts up a kite to find out what the public polls are saying. During the knowledge wave conference in Auckland Labour members sampled the business sector to see what it was saying. They found out that the business sector was not very happy with where the Government was going so they buried this legislation somewhere on the Order Paper and forgot about it. Then in the middle of the night when they did not think anybody would be taking any notice—and certainly nobody is listening on the crystal sets in Taranaki - King Country or on the cowshed communication systems at the moment—they try to rush this bill through with a commencement date of 2001 and with Supplementary Order Paper 245 to amend that to the never-never—until it receives the royal assent. This is legislation that politically the Minister in the chair knows will sink like a lead balloon. 
We have here a Government that goes out to the business sector and pretends to be friendly to know what people want and to know what will generate growth in the economy. It talks the talk but comes back to the Parliament here and returns to its true natural socialist roots which we have all known it would eventually do. We have all known the Government would have to do that; it could not keep up the facade for very long. Eventually the Government would have to come home to its roots; that is what always happens. Here we have a bill with a commencement date of 30 November 2001 which is long gone and with a Supplementary Order Paper to state that the bill will come into force when it receives the royal assent. 
The National Opposition opposes this bill and is recommending amendments. We are recommending amendments to the commencement date. The Hon Tony Ryall has put forward an amendment that will change that date from 30 November 2001—and I am sure the Minister will be happy with that because even the honourable Minister will have trouble getting this legislation in place by 2001—to 30 November 2005. 
 The reason for that is very obvious to those who are taking an interest in this bill tonight and who are listening in to this debate on various mechanisms. It is because that date will be after the next election and there will be a change of Government. Most of those people know that the new Government will repeal this legislation. There will be a flood of repeals as has been mentioned before. But so be it; that is what happens. There will be a new Government this silly legislation will be kicked into touch and the new Government will be able to bring in sensible legislation that will allow the 26000 young people whom we are speaking of here—that is quite a substantial figure—to go through what has been a traditional pathway to a successful career that is hands-on workforce training.