Henare Tau: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Henare Tau: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3891] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Let us put a few more things straight for young Darren Hughes. Sue Bradford was mentioned in the debate today. I will go on the record to say that she out of most people in this House has the record of working at the coalface with unemployed people. I have not seen any other Labour members working at the coalface with the unemployed for as many years as Sue Bradford has been working there. 
This is all about having a choice. If someone was a worker if someone was a young person or if someone did not have many skills but wanted to get on the ladder and if the Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill was to go through then that person would have a choice. Such people would have a choice of unemployment or a job; the Labour Party wants to guarantee young people a choice. But those young people could say “Oh bugger it. I think I will just stay on the unemployment benefit.” because this bill does not do anything for their dignity. It does not do anything to help them up; it does not do anything to raise their expectations and to get on that first rung of the ladder. 
I add another point. We are not talking about people who post pamphlets for a living; we are talking about most people who post pamphlets as a top-up to what they earn whether on the benefit through a part-time job or what have you. It is not an argument between socialism and the great capitalists. It is not an argument between nouveau communists including some people on that side of the Chamber and maybe the nouveau capitalists on this side. It is about the real world versus fantasy. It is about the real-world lives of so many young people and of a few of the elderly. I am telling members now that if this Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill goes through those people will not have the option because so many employers out there will not be able to afford it. 
There was an accusation from Maryan Street that I was a supporter of slavery. I am an indigenous person who is accused of being supportive of slavery; that is what the implication was. But this bill is not for every worker. This is all about the independent contractor. When we talk about history I ask why the Labour Party always likes to put its own paint job on history. It is because that party cannot face up to the fact that under Lange under Palmer under Moore and under Clark there was no such thing as a minimum wage for independent contractors. There was not a whisper or a murmur about the minimum wage for independent contractors. 
So why do those members now come snivelling in front of this Committee thinking they are the defenders of workers’ rights? They are here only to defend their own form of capitalism. It is called the bourgeoisie the intelligentsia—that is whom Labour represents. Labour wants to protect its own rung on the ladder. The bill is not about workers’ rights at all; it is about Labour’s rights. It is about making victims of every little person in society. I tell members now that there are individuals out there who want to get ahead and they will get ahead under this Government. They will never get ahead under that outdated outmoded philosophy that smacks of Joseph Stalin and his “commo” mates.