Ryall Tony: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5151] 
Hon TONY RYALL (NZ National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I want to state very clearly that the National Party in Opposition is strongly opposed to clause 3 and to this bill. Clause 3 is the operative feature of the bill which will enable the Government to overrule employment and training contracts entered into by 26000 young people and enforce a new minimum wage on those undertaking training. The National Party is opposed to that and we base our case on other documents than the explanatory notes to this bill. The test for this bill is what will it do to training in New Zealand what will it do for opportunities for young New Zealanders and what will it do to business compliance costs? 
Let us check each of those three features off using the advice that the Government itself has provided to Parliament. The Government has told us that this bill will cost jobs. It has advised us that there will be an increase in benefit payments as young people currently in training go on the dole. It has mentioned that itself in its own explanatory note so it has failed that test—this bill will cost jobs and put kids on the dole. The next issue is what the bill does for business compliance costs. The Government itself says there will be increases in ongoing compliance costs as a result of this legislation so it fails that section as well. The third test is what the bill will do to the amount of training provided by employers in the New Zealand economy and the advice here is that there will be a reduction in the overall level of employment-based training in New Zealand. 
Three strikes—this bill should be out! It should be out because it will cost young New Zealanders their jobs; it is anti-business anti-training and anti the growth this country needs. My colleague Mr Shane Ardern the MP for Taranaki-King Country and I have moved amendments that will limit the power provided by clause 3 to allow this Government to set minimum wages and remove the trainee exemption for young people. I am asking the other parties in this Chamber to consider supporting those amendments because we should be able to neuter the part of the bill that will cause the problem—that will cost young people their training opportunities and add business compliance costs. 
The problem with this Government is that it does not realise that to get a high-performing growing economy in this country we have to back the productive sector. We have to back the people who are creating the jobs and the wealth this country needs. The one thing we do not need to do to those people is tie them up with added bureaucracy complexity and inflexible labour laws and training rules—and that is what this bill does. 
The National Party in Opposition wants to be very clear with the Government: we will oppose this bill vociferously through its continuing stages in the House and it will be repealed with the change of Government. When we get rid of this two-term left-wing minority Labour Government and have a Government that is prepared to back the productive sector and have pride in and support the New Zealand business community this bill will go. We know from the Government’s own advice—and I notice the junior Minister from the Hutt Valley taking notes of this—that this bill will cost jobs. It will put people on the dole and it will add to compliance costs. A lot of the people affected will be Maori and that will open the gaps not close them. Nanaia Mahuta should take a call to tell us why Maori should support other Maori losing their training opportunities. They should not do it and that is why we urge them not to support this bill.