Stewart Barbara: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Stewart Barbara: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 19 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5409. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 On behalf of New Zealand First I rise to speak to the Minimum Wage Amendment Bill. First we have to congratulate David Clark on his good fortune to have his bill actually drawn from the ballot. New Zealand First supports a minimum wage of $15 an hour. It was a policy that we actually campaigned on during the election and it is great to see the support on this side of the House for this bill and this very important issue. 
In New Zealand First we actually want Kiwis to be able to earn a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and at the moment too many people—young people in particular—are struggling to make ends meet. Since GST went up in 2010 the minimum wage has increased only slightly to $13.50 an hour. We have got 300000 workers earning the minimum wage and we see it in lots of businesses right around the country. I know of service stations where the workers are paid only the minimum wage when they are the sole person who is actually on site. In Australia the minimum wage is the equivalent of NZ$20. I know that this Government has stated on many occasions that it is committed to closing the gaps. This is one way that it could close the gap with our neighbours. We can really make a start on this issue. As it currently stands we have got an exodus of young people moving to Australia for jobs and for better wages and they are going en masse. Many of them know that they can actually get a far better deal over the Ditch than what they get here. 
For months we have seen reports of families struggling to live on the minimum wage and we have got one report here  
Solutions to Child Poverty in New Zealand 
 from the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty. We see reports of children working after school in jobs in order to pay for their school uniforms because mum and dad cannot earn enough to actually buy it for them. I have got one such report here from August 2012 from Stuff which says that a 16-year-old Auckland schoolboy “already works 25 hours a week to help keep his siblings in school … The teenager’s earnings helped pay for school fees stationery and uniforms for him and his siblings but couldn’t cover school trips which they always missed out on.” This is indicative of people not having a reasonable living income. We know that children are going to school hungry. We have heard it often right here in this Parliament and of course that affects their learning. I know having come from a school classroom. 
Change has to begin with the low-income earners with the battlers. It is these people who are the glue that keeps our society together. And we can see why people are packing their bags and heading over the Ditch. The high wages are a magnet that New Zealand just cannot compete with—yet we should. Wages have not even kept up with the cost of living. Everything we can think of—petrol rates rent electricity milk even prescription charges—has gone up far faster than wages yet we have a Government that has taken few steps to alleviate the pressure on hard-working Kiwis. I must say that I was delighted to hear Minister Bridges say in question time this afternoon that he was reconsidering the registration and the warrant of fitness fees. Anything will help these working people. What we have got here is the fact that we are left to some of the free-market ideologues in this Parliament and quite frankly with them there would be no minimum wage. We know that inequality has grown and it continues to grow. But we in New Zealand First understand the dignity in doing an honest day’s work and we recognise too that an honest day’s work requires an honest day’s pay. It is time for the House to act. We need to vote this bill to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee so that businesses and the people of New Zealand can actually have their say.