Browning SteffanSTEFFAN BROWNING (Green): Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. I rise to speak in support of this good bill which has been presented by the Hon David Parker the Minimum Wage (Contractor Remuneration) Amendment Bill. This is a good bill because it aims to close some gaps around workers and fairness about what people should actually get when they are doing some work and the gap that is caused by employers seeking to exploit various workers. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Minimum Wage Act to ensure an extension of provisions to apply to payments under a contract for services that end up being paid at less than the minimum wage—this is about correcting that. Certain sorts of work—and one that has been mentioned a lot is pamphlet deliveries—are not currently subject to the same provisions as wages that are paid through other contracts. This aims to fix that. Contractors are exempt from most minimum employment standards and in a way this bill does not go quite far enough. The previous speaker Andrew Bayly was referring to some aspects. He did not mention ACC in there. This bill appears to still not quite be fixing that but it will ensure that a number of workers will actually get at least the minimum employment standards of financial gain. The Green Party supports raising minimum wages—always has—and supports the Living Wage movement. During the election campaign our policy was to ensure that all relevant Government contractors were to make sure that a living wage was paid when their contracts came up for renewal. That is just one example. We support workers and we try to ensure that inequality is reduced all the time. We are consistently looking at bridging the gaps around inequality. We support the concept of contractors being able to receive a decent wage equivalent to at least the minimum wage and for good reason. These workers are effectively subsidising those who are contracting them. Just think about those people—we see them delivering leaflets pamphlets. Maybe a reduction in the amount that is delivered will mean a reduction in junk mail but it is appropriate that they should be working in a safe way. They should be treated fairly they should be treated with dignity and that means they should be being paid at least the minimum wage. They are not always working in a comfortable position either—wind rain hot and cold steep slippery different situations dogs and whatever. To think that those people would do that and not be getting paid the minimum wage is totally wrong. In the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee I noticed the Government bleated a lot about the cost of enforcement. Well if it costs a bit to enforce this so be it. It is absolutely critical that enforcement is carried out because I have seen in my region that contractors for the grape industry have needed enforcement to actually get fair pay for those who are working for bit payment and otherwise. I notice in schedule 2 here we have got quite a list of different services that may be affected: building and construction services; cleaning services; courier services; food catering; fast-food delivery; the newspaper and pamphlets which we talked about; personal home-care support to individuals in an individual's house; a number of entertainment services; the manufacture of clothing footwear and textiles; telemarketing; market research; security guards even; and also forestry industry services related to planting pruning or felling—that industry has had one hang of a hiding in terms of deaths and employment issues. If this bill can go any way towards helping there it is a very good bill. It also affects truck-driving services delivering goods. It is important that any contract in any related service like that is covered and that anyone there is getting at least the minimum wage. We will be supporting that and will continue to support it because this is a good bill. It will work for fairness for those people. It will allow them to at least have the dignity of the minimum wage and if there is a cost of enforcement so be it. We need good enforcement in the workplace for health and safety reasons but we also need it to make sure that people are getting the minimum wage. So the Green Party supports this and is grateful to the Hon David Parker for bringing this bill to the House. Thank you.