Lees-Galloway Iain: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLees-Galloway Iain: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1556. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North):It is a pleasure to be back in the House for 2015 and I have to say that it has never been more enjoyable to be a member of the Labour caucus. Like my colleagues I went away and had a fantastic summer. I enjoyed a lot of time with my family I enjoyed a few barbecues and I can tell you what at those barbecues I heard one refrain over and over again: “Oh I like that Mr Little. We like that Mr Little.” That is what I was hearing all summer long from people around my electorate and around the country because New Zealanders really like Andrew Little. They see him as a straight shooter a straight talker and they compare him with John Key—that slippery Mr Key the man whom you just have to look at and you know when he is not being completely honest. You know from his body language when he starts to shift a little bit from side to side and from the old hissing sound. We all know about that. New Zealanders instinctively know that John Key is getting shiftier and shiftier and they now have a Leader of the Opposition who is an absolute straight talker and who is taking it to John Key.I will tell you what: it feels fantastic in the Labour caucus. I have gone away and I am a little bit thinner I am a little bit hairier but I am ready to come back and take the fight to the National Government. I listened very closely to what the Prime Minister had to say in his statement. I listened very closely and I wanted to hear particularly what he had to say about employment relations and it was not much. I was listening very closely to hear whether this Government is prepared to take action on one of the most insidious issues in employment relations right now—not just here in New Zealand but in other countries like us—and that is the issue of zero-hour contracts.Zero-hour contracts are something that we have seen proliferate in the wake of the financial crisis and in the wake of the unmitigated attack on workers’ rights that we have seen year after year from this National Government. There are now thousands of New Zealanders who are stuck on these zero-hour contracts. What is a zero-hour contract? It is a contract where the worker has to make themselves available for work at all times but there is no requirement whatsoever on the employer to provide that worker with work. They are therefore very different from casual contracts. Casual contracts can provide flexibility both for the employer and the employee but it is an absolutely one-sided relationship with these zero-hour contracts and we see more and more of them every day particularly in the fast-food industry but also increasingly in supermarkets and in the retail industry. We know that we are just going to see more and more of them if the Government does not take action.So that is what I was listening for in the Prime Minister’s speech—what was he going to do about zero-hour contracts? The answer was nothing. There was not a mention of it—not one. So today I lodged my Employment Relations (Certainty at Work) Amendment Bill which takes aim at zero-hour contracts and seeks to rule them out from our employment relations framework. So what will have to happen is that employers will have to give an indication of how many hours a worker can expect to get if they have to be available for work at all times. It still allows flexibility—of course we have to strike a balance between flexibility and certainty at work—but it gives workers an idea of how much work they can expect to get from one week to the next so that they can plan so that they can put food on the table for their children every single week so that they can go to the bank and talk about getting a loan or a mortgage and so that they can do things that we used to take for granted. We used to believe that if you got a job you would be able to make ends meet provide for your family and get ahead. But these zero-hour contracts make life utterly insecure for ordinary working people and we are seeing them used more and more every day. This Government has completely ignored that issue.On this side of the House we are prepared to take action. We are prepared to do what is required to ensure that our Employment Relations Act ceases the use of these zero-hour contracts and gives workers certainty whilst also ensuring that employers have flexibility. Brett Patterson works for Burger King in Hamilton. He is one of thousands of employees who are in the fast-food industry on zero-hour contracts. He says it is incredibly hard to make a living. He says he always finds himself having to fight to get the hours he needs. He says it is even worse when you are sick because if you are sick you cannot be there to fight for the hours that you need to make ends meet. How many hours a worker on a zero-hour contract gets can be everything from zero to 20 to 40 to 5 to 60 hours and it often depends on how good a relationship you have with the person who does the rosters. If you have a falling-out with the person who does the rosters you can quickly find yourself getting fewer and fewer hours maybe even not being asked to come to work at all. That is the reality for ordinary working people.So I looked for a response from John Key. I looked to see what the Prime Minister thought about this issue that affects so many ordinary New Zealanders and I found one. I was surprised but I found one. The Prime Minister’s answer to workers on zero-hour contracts: get advice. Go and get some legal advice before you sign up to one of these things. Well that sounds all fine and dandy but it just shows you how utterly out of touch with reality John Key is. If a worker turns down a zero-hour contract at Burger King Wendy’s McDonalds Glassons or Hallensteins then there will 10 20 or 30 other people lining up to take that job instead of them.Brett Hudson: These things are nothing new. What’s new about this Mr Lees-Galloway?IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: That is the reality—that is the reality. Brett Hudson asks what is new about it. What is new about it is that unemployment has gone up under this National Government so far more people are competing for jobs than ever had to compete for jobs before. So every time a worker goes along and is offered a zero-hour contract if they take advice or if they try to bargain with the employer then it is down the road my friend; there is the door. The employer will take one of the 50 other people who applied for that job.So John Key is absolutely out of touch on this issue and he has broken so many promises to workers. I remember that when National came to office its big goal for workers was to close the wage gap with Australia. When National came to office the average wage gap with Australia was $121.76 a week; today it is $170.28 a week. National has demonstrably failed on one of the key tasks it set itself and it has broken a promise to ordinary workers. I hear the National members talking about how average wages are going up in New Zealand. Well whoop-de-doo! We know how the average wage is going up in New Zealand. It is the rich getting richer. The people on high incomes on high wages are seeing their wages going up and everybody else is being left behind. That is how average wages go up in this country.Take a look at median incomes. If you are serious about getting things sorted for ordinary working people take a look at median incomes and you will see that in real terms they have fallen year on year—Brett Hudson: Wages are rising faster than inflation.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: —under this National Government. Average wages are rising Mr Hudson. I know you cannot get your head around this. I know it is a bit of a complicated thing that you have to understand. Average wages may be rising but that is a result of people on high wages getting richer—the National Party’s mates getting richer—and everybody else being left behind.On this side of the House we know that it takes more than productivity gains it takes more than a strong economy. Those things are important but we need to make sure that we have our legislation right that we have our regulations right and that we enforce minimum standards so that workers can get a fair share of a growing economy. Right now workers are not getting a fair share and that is National’s legacy.