8. Regional Economic Development—Employment RelationsHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister for Regional Economic DevelopmentRegional Economic Development—Employment Relations8. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister for Regional Economic Development: Does he stand by his statement to Q+A on Sunday regarding the effect of employment relations reforms on regional economic development I'm entitled to hear the concerns of provincial employers; I'm entitled to hear the concerns of regional leaders"; if so what are the concerns he's hearing?Hon SHANE JONES (Minister for Regional Economic Development): In my role as the Minister for Regional Economic Development as it's expanded a certain magnetic dimension has evinced itself. I am overwhelmed by the number of concerns that my role attracts. One concern is the place of migrant labour in the regional economies. Another concern is the mismatch of skills development as a part of growing the employee workforce. And a third concern which has been given to me loud and clear is ensuring that the voices of provincial employers are heard and that provincial employers are not shoehorned mistakenly into an Auckland cost structure. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he stand by his statement in the same interview on the same subject "Let's call a spade a spade. Obviously this is one of the causes as to why people … in the business community [are] saying they're not totally confident about their … investment decisions their own hiring decisions"; if so what changes will he propose to the employment relations reforms to his Cabinet colleagues?Hon SHANE JONES: On the matter of the spade for all the questions I've had from that member over my time as the provincial champion—stop digging. In relation to specific remedies I have just come from speaking to a range of CEOs from the provincial ports and I have undertaken to them to continue to send me their concerns as to how we can balance the various provisions in future legislation which no doubt will comprise discussions between our leader and the Prime Minister.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is one of the concerns he's hearing the fact that the four-lane superhighway between Warkworth and Whangarei had not one cent allocated to it?Hon SHANE JONES: I can confirm that on my recent visits to the North people are concerned that promises were made prior to the last election—prior to the last election—but no funding was allocated. Of course that doesn't surprise me because from Epsom you can't see that far.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Will the employment relations reforms lead to less investment and less hiring of new staff in the regions?Hon SHANE JONES: The final form and nature of the provisions from said legislation is still a matter in play but no one—if I can use as an example from the forestry sector—is downplaying their investment ambitions. In fact as a consequence of our Overseas Investment Office changes I'm swamped with demand.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he agree with the Prime Minister's statement this morning on Radio New Zealand: "The industrial relations changes that are already before Parliament again I don't think should be any cause for concern."?Hon SHANE JONES: Obviously a key part of those reforms is the achievement of the $20 per hour minimum wage and I think it's a particularly nasty and sad Opposition who don't agree that Kiwis in the region should be paid a fair wage.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Well is he hearing concerns from regional exporters about how they will pay a 25 percent increase in the minimum wage over three years while still maintaining their international competitiveness or are they "particularly cold-hearted sort of malodorous" businessmen and women for raising such a topic?Hon SHANE JONES: Of the exporters that I talked to—in particular the forestry sector—they are very keen to improve the amount of money the workforce is paid but they have raised the prospect that we are not creating large enough battalions of workers for my billion-tree strategy and they are constantly calling for additional migrant labour. But I don't think the member should worry because there'll be a happy balance between nephs off the couch more money in the pocket and less of a reliance on migrant labour."