Twyford PhilHon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): Thank you Mr Speaker. It says a lot about the values of this new Government that one of the very first things they do on taking office is stick the boot into hospo workers security guards cleaners port workers early childhood teachers supermarket workers. Fair pay agreements were a long overdue reform to the bargaining system in this country; a set of minimum standards to ensure that some of our hardest-working people could get ahead. We're talking about people who often work multiple jobs in industries that are casualised. They work longer hours than almost anybody in this building they are predominantly the young they are mostly women and they are mostly Māori and Pasifika workers and this Government sticks the boot into them in its first couple of weeks in office. Low pay is at the heart of so many of this country's problems. Poverty and all of the problems that go with it—the stress the anxiety the reduced life expectancy the poor health. Modern Governments spend all their time cleaning up the messes caused by low pay. But does this Government want to actually do something about it and miss out the middleman and actually pay people more? No they actually want to drive wages down. They talk about getting people off welfare and into work right? But when it comes to a law that will actually help people earn more at work and be less reliant on the welfare system do they want to do something about it? No. They want to get rid of that law. The so-called party of free enterprise; they are happier having the taxpayer subsidise employers to pay starvation wages. We spend $2 billion a year in this country subsidising rents because people can't earn enough to pay the rent—multiple billions of dollars every year because employers don't pay high enough wages. It's not a socialist idea to want people to earn enough to live and help their kids to survive so why not allow people to earn enough to live? I've sat here listening to members on that side of the House talk about productivity. Productivity is not about allowing a race to the bottom driving down wages. This country will never get ahead competing internationally on the basis of low wages of our workers. Italy France Germany Australia—they all have nationwide systems of minimum standards for pay and conditions to stop a race to the bottom. Minister have you looked at the productivity indicators in Australia and France and Germany and Italy? How are they doing? They're doing a lot better than us because they believe in driving wages up not pushing them down. We cannot build a modern economy by trying to compete on the basis of low wages. When wages are as low as they are in New Zealand right now employers inevitably chose to hire cheap labour instead of investing in the technology the plant the capital that will really drive productivity up. That's why our productivity is much lower than in Australia because New Zealand firms don't invest in technology to improve productivity. They are happier employing cheap labour and when they don't need it any more they send people down the road. This bill is a hatchet job on quarter of a million of the hardest-working New Zealanders; the bus drivers the early childhood teachers supermarket workers the cleaners the security guards. We rely on these people; we should allow them to earn enough to live on to raise a family and live a decent life. This bill will make New Zealanders poorer it takes away their opportunity to get ahead. It will actually drive down productivity and it will take this country backwards.