Bennett David: Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bennett David: Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8588. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 I just want to congratulate members of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee on the way this bill the Minimum Wage (Starting-out Wage) Amendment Bill went through the select committee process. I think it was very well done. I would like to pay special tribute to the fine young Minister the Minister of Labour who led this great debate today. He is doing an excellent job in his ministerial roles— 
Simon O’Connor 
: Inspirational. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: —and is inspirational to young people as many people through this country know. This is another fine piece of work from that young Minister who is doing so well. 
I want to take just a short call on this bill. It was an interesting speech that we just heard from Denise Roche of the Green Party. That was the economic rationale from the Green Party. It does not have any economic rationale; it just tells you a lot of weasel words. But we did get some economic rationale from the guru Russel Norman today. Russel Norman has given breaking news about the economic policy of the Green Party. It is no longer printing money. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: What? 
DAVID BENNETT 
: At the Finance and Expenditure Committee—no no no it is not going to print money any more; it is going to do it electronically. The Green Party is going to make money electronically now instead of printing money. You would think it is doing that for green purposes to save trees. It is not. It is doing it so that it does not have to take the hassle of being asked how you print money and change the economy how you print money and reduce the exchange rate and how printing money electronically now actually means that you are going to provide jobs for young people. The economic rationale of the Green Party is rubbish. Everybody knows that. It is rubbish and it will never work. 
To prove that we had a speech from the Labour Party from Andrew Little. Andrew Little gave a very good speech. He had one line in his speech that I think we should all take to heart: “Passing laws does not make jobs. It needs economic activity.” That is what Andrew Little said in this House 10 minutes ago. The leader of the Labour Party union movement came to this House and said: “Passing laws does not make jobs.” What does that do for the whole Labour Party whose whole life is about trying to get in this place and pass more laws? That is Labour’s answer to making jobs. It does not believe in people it does not believe in the economy and it certainly does not believe in our young people. 
The Opposition is portraying this bill as anti young people. That is not the case. This is giving young people a chance. Young people need that chance. They need to get in the workforce and this gives them that opportunity. In a perfect world we would want our young people to be getting an education. The days are gone when you could leave school just walk into a job and think that was going to be for life. The modern world will require those young people to get an education. Everybody in this House should be saying that and should be believing in that because that is those young people’s future. In some cases some people will leave school and they will be looking to go into the workforce when they probably should be going to get higher education. The main thing we can do is give those young people the confidence and the ability to get a job. This bill helps them to do that. It gives them the chance to get their foot in the door to prove themselves and to move their way up the economic scale. That is good for New Zealand’s young people it is good for this Parliament and it is good for the future of this country. Thank you.