Katene Rahui: Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Katene Rahui: Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:657;Page:6904] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Before I start my speech I join with the rest of the House in expressing my sadness at the passing of Ta Howard Morrison and to extend my condolences to his whanau.  
The timing of the first reading of the Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill under urgency is interesting to say the least. Yesterday’s newspapers all came together shining the green light for gross national spending. With headlines like “Things have stopped getting worse” “Outlook brightening economists say” and “English welcomes GDP growth” one might be mistaken for thinking that golden weather is just around the corner. They might also soften the blow when looking at the details of remuneration for persons or groups of persons covered by the Remuneration Authority Act 1977.  
One of the more interesting facts when looking at the determinations from the authority is to rank the top 22 positions by salary down to a $300000 threshold. The Prime Minister comes in at No. 9 trailing behind in order the Solicitor-General the State Services Commissioner the Commissioner of Police the chair of the Commerce Commission the Chief Justice a judge of the Supreme Court the President of the Court of Appeal the chief of the New Zealand Defence Force and the Controller and Auditor-General. All those people who think that politicians are rich should realise that not one MP other than the Prime Minister makes it to that forum.  
Notwithstanding the six-digit salaries earned by the judiciary and commissioners as previously mentioned there is still a massive jump from the remuneration of people covered by the Remuneration Authority Act and the remuneration of the people in the street. Those in the positions of Solicitor-General State Services Commissioner Commissioner of Police chair of the Commerce Commission and Chief Justice are all sitting on annual salaries of close to half a million dollars. When one compares those salaries with the average wage for all New Zealanders quite frankly there is little to compare. The average Maori wage for all persons aged 15 years and over as at June 2008 was $20904 compared with $23508 for non-Maori. The Remuneration Authority Amendment Bill does not make mention of these inequities which is inevitably to be expected.  
The purpose of the bill is quite specific. It amends the Remuneration Authority Act 1977 to require the authority to take account of any prevailing adverse economic conditions when determining the remuneration of persons or groups of persons covered by the Act. This is where it becomes interesting because taking into account the economic conditions will obviously result in lower remuneration rates than would otherwise have been determined.  
The regulatory impact statement of the bill explains quite clearly that the authority is not currently required to take into account the prevailing economic conditions when making a determination of wages. Failure to respond to the changing economic profile may in turn lead to negative public perceptions of the authority and those in public office in light of the difficult economic climate currently confronting all other New Zealanders. That would also be inconsistent with the belt-tightening approach being promulgated by the Government in signalling its expectations around the likely impacts for wage rounds in the public sector. It would be even more incongruous in light of the frequent reports of household financial hardship and job losses experienced by ordinary New Zealanders. Despite glowing reports that the recession is over we need to remember that we are not out of the woods yet.  
The 2009 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report has suggested that the crisis that initially began in the financial sector has now turned into a dramatic downturn in the wider economy with global gross domestic product expected to fall by more than 2.5 percent this year. Indeed Heiner Flassbeck a director with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has described the outlook as bleak cautioning that even in the most optimistic circumstances it could take up to 6 years for most countries to return to the levels of GDP reached in 2007 before the crisis. Against that context the Maori Party is happy to support the intention of the bill to amend the Remuneration Authority Act.  
In the event of evidence of prevailing adverse economic conditions the authority will exercise its discretion as to whether it will determine remuneration at a lower rate than it would otherwise determine. We believe that that is only due and fair and we have supported the need to hear the bill under urgency out of our concern for urgency to be accorded to the critical need to help reduce the gap between high and low incomes and to better focus and target public spending.  
This is where we come back to our prevailing concern about doing everything we can to make adequate provision for those New Zealanders who are particularly vulnerable to the impact of adverse economic conditions. Rising food prices and a proposed increase to GST suggest to us that low-income families will continue to be disproportionately affected. Here I recognise the work of Te Ropu Wahine Maori Toko i te Ora whose hui opened in Whanganui this morning. On the agenda tomorrow is a workshop about finances and financial literacy. It is sad that we have to be taught about financial literacy when we have less money than people who actually know about financial literacy. I hope that the Maori Women’s Welfare League continues in its good work.  
Manaakitanga and rangatiratanga lead us to support low-income taxpayers. We believe that it is entirely appropriate that while we are talking about the context of remuneration for a certain sector we also take into consideration the very real costs to other New Zealanders. I will bring to the debate the disparity that continues to impact on the lives of Maori in terms of their median weekly personal income. At $500 per week Maori weekly income is a whole 33 percent lower than the weekly income for the total population of $537 per week. Why is that a concern for this Parliament? Rob McLeod chairman of the New Zealand Business Roundtable summed it up in a Treaty debate at Te Papa earlier this year. He said: “The current and increasing relative population of Maori mean that Maori are very significant to the New Zealand economy both today and tomorrow. Furthermore the economic and social wellbeing of Maori and non-Maori are interdependent. An economically affluent Maori people will enhance the economic prospects of non-Maori. Conversely an under-performing Maori population will hinder the progress of non-Maori.”  
My point is that Maori unemployment levels continue to increase and incomes reduce as a consequence of the prevailing adverse economic conditions. Although no one would want to suggest that any incomes should reduce we think it only fair that the impacts of economic uncertainties are experienced universally and comprehensively across the sectors. We note too that the coverage of the Remuneration Authority Act is limited to only those occupations listed under the Act. Other mechanisms must be considered to ensure that the salaries of a greater range of top offices and positions can also be considered in relation to the prevailing economic environment.  
Finally we recognise that although a review of recent determinations made by the authority suggests that it has been cognisant of the prevailing adverse economic conditions it is vital that we have a formal mechanism for ensuring that it happens. To this end we support the bill at its first reading and we place on record again our commitment to helping to reduce the gap between low-income taxpayers and the average income of the nation. Kia ora. 
Bill read a first time.