Wilkinson Kate: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Wilkinson Kate: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2470] 
Hon KATE WILKINSON (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to be the Minister in the chair for the debate on the 2007-08 financial review of the Department of Labour. I thank my colleague Mr Woodhouse for outlining some of the legacy that has been left by the previous Labour Government in the area of accident compensation. It is a shame that the Minister of Immigration Dr Coleman could not also elaborate on the tragic legacy left by the previous Labour Government in the field of immigration. 
In the field of industrial relations and labour I would like to answer some of the questions by the member who spoke earlier Darien Fenton. I thank her for those questions. I must say though that those questions have been answered several times before but I appreciate that sometimes memories are very short in this Chamber. Ms Fenton was fixated—and has been for some time—on the 90-day probation legislation which was introduced as we all know last year. That was a great bill. That bill was welcomed by businesses. It has been welcomed actually by workers who can now knock on the door of an employer and say: “Give me a chance. I have not worked before.” or “I’ve had a bit of a break in my employment. Please give me the opportunity and I will prove myself.” 
That legislation actually works. I was talking to representatives of the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust which was I have to say set up by a National Government and they said it was a great bill. They were concerned about barriers to employment. The 90-day trial period will lift those barriers. Darien Fenton asked what sorts of protections are in place. That member knows full well—she has the ability to read the legislation—that plenty of protections are in place. We are concerned to balance what is fair to both the employee and the employer. If one looks at the protections—and we can repeat them day in day out and one day they might sink in to the Labour Party—we see that the good-faith provisions still remain. They are untouched. So the employer still has to act in good faith. Secondly employees must agree to that 90-day trial. If they do not want it they do not have to have it. That is called choice. Their rights in relation to discrimination still remain. 
We have also put in additional protection so there cannot be an 89-day rollover if one likes. So a 90-day trial period will apply only once. Furthermore we have limited it to those small businesses with 20 employees or fewer because those businesses are least likely to have the human resources capability to make those recruitment decisions. In relation to benefits if a person on a benefit gets a job with a 90-day trial period and that trial period does not work out then the stand-down period will not apply. We see this as a real positive in these times of economic challenges. That provision will give people on a benefit some confidence to get on the job market and say “Give me a try.” If it does not work they still have the safety net of the benefit and therefore they do not miss out. 
If we are looking at protections we can see that we now have one from the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. We welcome this. The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has come up with a “name and shame” campaign and we welcome that campaign if it is against unscrupulous employers who are not complying with the law. We will not welcome it though if it tries to take any action against law-abiding businesses that are just trying to get ahead employ people and survive these economic times. 
The National Government appreciates the importance of workers to businesses but we also appreciate the importance of businesses to workers. We want employment law that is fair. We recently increased the minimum wage by 50c. It is interesting that when Labour increased the minimum wage by 50c it was generous but when the National Government increased it the Labour Party said it was mean measly and miserable. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: You said “Do nothing” in your Cabinet paper. 
Hon KATE WILKINSON 
: We had three recommendations to increase the minimum wage. We increased the minimum wage which resulted in more workers getting an extra $20 a week in their pocket. 
Report noted.