Fenton Darien: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 16 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4483. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a call on the estimates in Vote Labour. This is a Minister of Labour who has given up on her department. She has handed it over to Steven Joyce’s mega-ministry the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment or MOBIE where the labour portfolio will be swallowed up into— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Point of order Mr Chairman. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Order! I am aware of what the member’s point of order is. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: The Government is missing. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Yes we need a Minister in the chair. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I am sorry to interrupt the member. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: As I was saying the Minister has handed over her portfolio to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment or MOBIE where the labour portfolio is going to be swallowed up into the so-called business-facing ministry. Of course the labour part of business does not count for this Government. In its view it is only business and money that count. Workers have nothing to do with wealth creation in its world and they certainly do not deserve a specialist department that looks out for their interests. It is the first time in 121 years that we will not have a labour department with the expertise and focus on improving our effective employment relationships protecting workers from exploitation and developing labour market strategies. The Department of Labour is one of our oldest Government departments with a proud history and record hailed by other countries for the work it has done but this Government and this Minister have ditched it. Over the last 4 years all we have seen is the Minister of Labour overseeing a department that has spent a lot of time arguing on an ever-shrinking role for the department and managers arguing over which bit they are going to be in charge of. 
At the estimates hearing when we asked there was no plan and no budget for Vote Labour even though it was due to merge with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment 1 week later. The only thing useful we did learn was that the Department of Labour’s Mediation Service—a service that Labour introduced which has a very very successful record in resolving employment relations problems—might be wound up together with other mediation services like tenancy and weathertight homes. There is a lot in common between workers and weathertight homes I am sure. What we will do is lose the expertise. The Employment Relations Authority is in a mess. It is in disarray. It has long queues of cases waiting to be heard and it has determinations in the hundreds outstanding. The appointments process has been a shambles. It has been skewed by cronyism and the Government no longer seems to think that employment relations experience is important for this job. 
 Night after night we hear on the news the impact on New Zealand workers and their families who are paying the price of this Government’s slackness. Job after job family after family story after story—each one a human tragedy—job losses and good skilled jobs at that are happening right across our country. Under the 4 years of this Government 25000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared. They are good jobs that we need. But we do know that John Key’s Government gave up a long time ago on trying to improve Kiwi jobs and Kiwi wages and he has been trying to attract investment to New Zealand on the basis of cheap labour. The Government boasted about Heinz Wattie giving up on 400 or 350 good jobs in Australia and moving to New Zealand. Well let us tell the truth about what happened there. What happened there is those 350 good jobs have ended up in New Zealand as 70 labour-hire workers on minimum wage. I do not think that is anything to be boasting about. 
The other panacea that we hear all the time from the National members is about the 90-day trial period. What I find so interesting about their boasting about its success is that in all the research that they have done they have not been able to find a single worker to give feedback on it and especially those who have been sacked without reason and without recourse to justice. Under this Government’s watch we have had one of the biggest scandals ever around workers with the exploitation of foreign fishing crew. Sure the Government set up an inquiry and it has indicated a resolution 4 years out but what shames us all is that the 100 or 200 foreign fishing crew who were courageous enough to walk off their ships tell their stories and give evidence to the ministerial inquiry have been sent home and a year later they still have not been paid what they are entitled to and have not been paid the minimum wage. 
And now of course we have heard the story on Television One last night that there is a significant problem with other migrant workers. The Minister needs to set up an inquiry into that as well because clearly sitting back and waiting for exploited workers to come forward and tell their stories does not work. I am looking forward to hearing a plan from the Government about how it is going to tackle this latest scandal. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Don’t hold your breath. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: No I will not hold my breath. I have had several contacts from people since that story broke last night but one today told me it is not only migrant workers but also young people—students and others—who are being employed by larger companies in malls and being paid $10 an hour. So you know something is going wrong with the Department of Labour when it cannot get on top of these scandals. As someone said on the news this morning this is unsustainable. We cannot build a future based on cheap labour. We know that the Government is doing nothing about training New Zealand workers—162000 of them. Any of them would have loved to have one of the jobs that this Minister actually approved. She approved the 110 façade installers coming to New Zealand instead of insisting that this company train New Zealand workers. These are jobs that workers could be easily trained for. They are described as basic labourers’ work. I am worried about the Christchurch rebuild as that will become a ground for further exploitation of migrants. 
The one thing I will say I am grateful for is that the employment relations changes that were revealed in May have not seen the light of day in this Parliament. 
Charles Chauvel 
: Yet! Yet! 
DARIEN FENTON 
: It is a relief and a reprieve—yes—for workers and particularly for those caregivers on minimum wage at Aranui Home and Hospital who were on strike for 3 days a couple of weeks ago because they had not been able to conclude a collective agreement. They told me they are extremely worried about the Government’s amendments because it means that their employer will just simply be able to walk away from the bargaining and these low-paid workers will have to continue with their employer-imposed individual contracts. The Government and the Minister have been warned that these changes—the changes that they are planning for amendments to the Employment Relations Act—will have consequences for wages for fairness for collective bargaining and that they will be in breach of our international obligations. I expect them to ignore that as they usually do. 
Finally on health and safety I will acknowledge that I think the Minister is sincere on that but I am worried about the direction of that—where the task force is going on that. I had a look at the fishing health and safety plan today. There is no worker involvement. It just believes in individual responsibility and in a model that is about individual human behaviour. Have a look at the advisers to the health and safety task force—have a look at what their experience is. There is hardly any worker input into that because this Government does not believe that working people have anything to contribute as equal participants in the workplace. It thinks that workers should stay in their place keep their mouths shut and be grateful just to have a job. 
Finally can I mention once again—as I have often in this Parliament—the cleaners in this place who clean up after us every night who are on minimum wage who want $15 an hour and who could have $15 an hour if this Government was prepared to support David Clark’s very very reasonable Minimum Wage Amendment Bill. I cannot believe that in a place like this where we are supposed to set an example the Prime Minister is prepared to see his cleaner Jaine continue to be paid $14 an hour—she gets $14 an hour because she is a supervisor—and because she is on only 30 hours here work two jobs because that is the only way she can make ends meet. She is over 60. She is tired. She has been working long hours on low pay for most of her life. Now she has her son working here so he can help the family. This Parliament has to do something about it. We can do something about that situation—they are not the only minimum wage workers in this place—if the Government is prepared to stand up and be counted when it comes to David Clark’s Minimum Wage Amendment Bill. 
So there is a lot happening in this labour portfolio. I do fear that this will be the last time we talk about Vote Labour—well maybe it will not be but it will be Vote Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. It will be overwhelmed by Steven Joyce’s ambitions. From what I have seen of the restructuring that has been planned for this mega-ministry the Department of Labour—the very very important role that it has played for 121 years—will be squashed will be subsumed and will have all of its energies apparently directed towards being business-facing—business-facing where workers do not get a look in where all of the important work that we have had to do fails.