Fenton Darien: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFenton Darien: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 30 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15734. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DARIEN FENTON (Labour): Thank you very much Mr Deputy Speaker and may I take the opportunity to wish you and all of my colleagues in the House a very happy New Year. I also want to congratulate the Hon Michael Woodhouse on becoming a Minister inside Cabinet as well. I have not had the chance to congratulate Sam Lotu-Iiga but I will when I get a chance.Labour has come to 2014 in great spirits and I think that already we are seeing a huge contrast between the other parties in the House and the National Government. Nowhere was that contrast more evident than in the state of the nation speeches of the National Party and the Labour Party. When the National Party announced its education policy did it announce it to a bunch of teachers or parents or anything? No it was in a closed room full of suits of business people. A small exclusive audience—Carol Beaumont: Businessmen I bet.DARIEN FENTON: —of businessmen lined up to give their necessary approval. National simply did not have the organisation or willingness of the community to come and listen to what it had to say about education. In contrast Labour had nearly 700 people in a west Auckland school in an area that is going to be a Labour seat in the next election. Enthusiastic people received our policy in great spirits and with great enthusiasm and determination to make it happen. What we saw there was absolute unity around Labour’s project to rebuild a country that is based on values that work and where a full day’s work will cover the basics where there will be more jobs available and where wages will catch up with prices. New Zealanders will pay what is fair whether it is for their power bill their tax bill or their grocery bill. Every child in this country will have what they need to start life healthy start learning early and fulfil every bit of their potential.Kiwis listening to the Prime Minister’s statement would have hoped to hear an inspirational speech from the Prime Minister of our country—something that would lift their spirits and give them hope for a better year ahead in which the gap between the haves and the have-nots is addressed the future generations of kids are invested in and there is a commitment to return to the things that matter such as a decent job a home a fair wage and security. But National has stopped listening to Kiwis—if in fact it ever did. The Prime Minister’s speech and those that followed by Government speakers demonstrate what we on this side have been hearing ad nauseam—that National members seem to care only about themselves and their mates.The list of rehashed promises targets objectives 10-point plans and task forces in the Prime Minister’s statement will have given no comfort to those looking to see some change after the years of hardship that they and their families have faced under this Government. It will be of no comfort to those who are still facing job losses those who are still unable to find a job those who cannot afford to study and those who work two or three jobs to make ends meet. It will be of no comfort to those who get up early in the morning and travel across cities on several buses they cannot afford to go to a job where they are paid the minimum wage. There was no hope in the Prime Minister’s speech for the growing contingent labour market where all of the risks are being taken by the workers for short-term dead-end contracts with no job security no rights and no fairness. There was nothing in the speech for our small businesses. There was nothing that they can look to as the Government seems to concentrate all of its money and power on the big end of town. This is a Government that is simply derisive and contemptuous I believe of those who struggle.The Government does not seem to believe that raising a child is valuable work and deserves the support of the Government and society. Labour’s plans to support Kiwi mums and dads with Best Start has sent the Government into a panic. That is why we are hearing the attacks because it knows that Labour’s package is very popular and is being welcomed up and down the country. May I tell you that on the doorsteps of the North Shore where Labour’s members have been doorknocking everyone is talking about it—on the North Shore. Yes on the North Shore in the suburb of Glenfield—where Paula Bennett that westie turned Upper Harbour advocate will be campaigning this year—families are saying to Labour they love Best Start. That is where the Conservative Party and its members Colin Craig and Christine Rankin those great stalwarts for families are relying on National to give them a free ticket to Parliament—and so they can achieve what? The right to whack kids. That is what they are going to do. What kind of hope is that?Best Start is a popular policy so National has resorted to personal attacks. Paula Bennett did that again today. Good luck to her on the doorsteps of families in Massey and Upper Harbour who support Labour’s policy. I do hope she shows them a little bit more respect than we heard in the House today with her crocodile tears. We are expecting more personal attacks from John Key this year because this is a Government that is propped up by one-man bands and has-been Ministers. They are getting more than their due because the truth is that without them this Government would fall. It is a Government that is out of ideas and has no ideas in the tank—nothing in the tank but dirty tricks spin and deceit and we are going to hear a lot more of that.What is our Prime Minister talking about today? There was criticism from the Hon Michael Woodhouse about Trevor Mallard talking about the flags. Well guess who else is talking about flags today? The Prime Minister—the Prime Minister. Is he talking about inequality? No. Is he talking about job insecurity? No. Is he talking about people still losing their jobs or looking for work? No. Is he talking about children? No. Is he even talking about education? Of course he is not. He is talking about the flag. It is a sideshow issue from the Government at a time when it is feeling the pressure because it is doing nothing for struggling Kiwis. Frankly I think Kiwis are more interested in changing the Government than changing the flag and we will be helping them do that.Yesterday Bill English generously decreed that workers should be getting pay increases. He hedged on that statement today in the House and I think he has probably had a phone call from the Employers and Manufacturers Association. It put out a media release saying employers should not listen to Bill English when he tells them—Grant Robertson: First sensible thing they’ve ever said.DARIEN FENTON: Yes that is right—that is right. I am a bit disappointed because for a little while I thought he had had a change of heart and really thought that workers should get a return on the contributions and sacrifices they have made during the economic downturn. If he were serious about this of course he would be telling John Key and Simon Bridges to strengthen the legal mechanisms to make that happen. In fact what they are doing is wrecking them. Who can take him seriously when what he is doing is changing the law to make it harder for workers to negotiate their rights and ignoring the advice of his own officials who said that the legislation will actually drive down pay will cut pay? Who can possibly believe that?However Simon Bridges has an opportunity to follow Bill English’s lead with the minimum wage coming up. The decision will be any time soon. It is time for a minimum wage under this Government of $15 an hour.Hon Simon Bridges: Oh! How close to $15 will we get?DARIEN FENTON: Come on Simon. You can do it—you can do it. Under this Government the minimum wage has declined in real terms by 5c an hour. Under thisGovernment it has declined in real terms since 2009. It has been cut for workers under 20 for the first time this century. The message to our struggling young people is that they are so hopeless they do not deserve to be paid what they are worth. So Simon Bridges—up-and-coming Minister—show some leadership. Follow Bill English’s advice when over the next 2 weeks he sets the 2014 minimum wage for our poorest working New Zealanders.I know that the Minister is very occupied with forestry at the moment. He has had to back down on his insistence that the patheticApproved Code of Practice for Safety and Health in Forest Operations just had to be bedded in and that it would prove to have all the answers. He must have been gutted when Judith Collins undermined his endeavours in health and safety—when she went out and contemptuously attacked the only free health and safety training available to workplace health and safety systems and announced the removal of the funding. So what I am asking the Minister to do is to stand up to Judith Collins to follow Bill English’s lead to give some hope to New Zealanders and to bring in a $15 an hour minimum wage when he makes the decision in the next couple of weeks.