Hipkins Chris: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hipkins Chris: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 I am very pleased to take a call on the excellent Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill which was introduced by my colleague Darien Fenton. 
I was intrigued by some of the comments from National Party members opposite. Tau Henare—I think he is a National member these days; it is hard to keep track—thought that nobody made a living delivering pamphlets. Rather than dealing with the issue those members will just pretend that a whole lot of people do not exist. National does not need to worry about the minimum wage because instead it will say that those people actually do not exist at all. It thinks nobody makes a living from delivering pamphlets—that is what Tau Henare said. He came into the Chamber and said that. I can tell the member that I have met several people in my electorate who do just that and they get paid a pittance. They get paid a pittance because their employers work their way around the minimum wage by having contracting arrangements. That is exactly what this bill is all about. 
Aaron Gilmore talked about choice but choice for whom? Who chooses to be poor? Not very many people do. He talked about how he grew up in a State house. I congratulate him but that does not give him the right to pull up the ladder behind him. He talked about choice but choice for whom? It is choice for the employers who work their way around the minimum wage in order to avoid paying hard-working Kiwis for a fair day’s work. What does National object to about getting a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work? 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: Labour suppressed the average wage. It was dreadful. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: Gerry Brownlee objects to that because he would not get paid very much at all. 
This bill highlights the stark differences in approach between the Labour Party and the National Party. The Labour Party stands for Kiwi workers when the going gets tough. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I think that given the comments that have just been made by that speaker it is appropriate for me to point out that this bill sat on the Order Paper under the previous Government—without getting a reading—before that member was out of short pants. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Rick Barker) 
: The member is not raising a point of order; that is a debatable point. Please let the member continue his speech. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: Thank you Mr Chairperson. The Labour Party stands for Kiwi workers when the going gets tough; we know that the going is pretty tough out there. One in five Kiwi workers are worried about their jobs and we are ready and willing to work with the Government to ensure that we protect those workers’ jobs. But this Government is not interested in protecting the jobs of the most vulnerable workers. It is not interested in helping people on the minimum wage. It is not interested in helping the people who because of a loophole in the law are not even getting the minimum wage. This Government has turned its back on hard-working low-income Kiwis. 
John Key talks about the rolling maul. Well low-income New Zealanders have found themselves underneath that rolling maul. They are being mauled by the new National Government. They are at the bottom of the maul. First of all their tax cuts which the previous Labour Government had promised them were taken away by National so that National could give them to people on higher incomes. The National Government is like a reverse Robin Hood—stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Then the Government went after those people’s savings by cutting the KiwiSaver scheme in half. National has been going after low-income workers ever since it came into Government and its opposition to this bill is yet another example of that. The Government will vote against a bill that would extend a safety net to a whole raft of workers who could find themselves struggling as a result of tougher economic times. 
Who does this bill benefit? Who will be covered by it? People working in building and construction services and in labouring jobs will be covered by this bill. I want the National Government members to stand up and tell those people working on building sites why one person who does a hard day’s labour should be paid less than another person who does the same job—a hard day’s labour—just because one person is a contractor and the other is an employee. Let us see Government members stand and justify that. 
This bill will protect people who are contracted to deliver newspapers and pamphlets to letterboxes. We have seen some shocking examples of their situation. As some of my colleagues have alluded to the  
Fair Go 
 TV programme last year uncovered examples of children earning as little as 25c an hour to deliver pamphlets. That is just outrageous. However there is some good news for the National Party because one group of deliverers will not be covered by this bill. That group is the legions of volunteers who are out there tramping the footpaths to deliver National Party leaflets. They are the Exclusive Brethren.