Moroney Sue: Minimum Wage (New Entrants) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Moroney Sue: Minimum Wage (New Entrants) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:641;Page:11169] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to rise and speak about clause 3 “Purpose” of the Minimum Wage (New Entrants) Amendment Bill. It is no surprise that the National Party is opposed to the purpose of this bill. From time to time National members say that they want to do something about low wages in this country and they have the opportunity this very evening to support the purpose of a bill that has a practical impact on improving low pay in this country. Given that opportunity National members stand up and say they oppose clause 3 being the purpose clause. 
Clause 3 states: “The purpose of this Act is to amend the principal Act to provide expressly for a minimum rate of wages to be prescribed for new entrants …” and we have talked about the title of the legislation and who new entrants are. This clause describes new entrants as being those who are 16 or 17 years of age and who meet certain criteria. I know that we will have an opportunity later on in the debate in Committee to talk in more detail about what those certain criteria are but Sue Bradford certainly made reference to the fact that they will be around such workers not being in situations where they are supervising other staff. 
Of course that situation exists at the moment. Many 16 and 17-year-olds came before the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee and were able to tell committee members about situations where they were supervising other staff who were on higher pay rates than they were receiving simply because the Minimum Wage Act in its present form allows that to occur. Also one has to say it was because their employers chose not to pay them what they were worth. 
The member Paula Bennett raised the issue about young people in small towns. I spend a lot of time in many of the small towns in New Zealand. 
Paula Bennett 
: Cambridge? 
SUE MORONEY 
: Yes places like Cambridge and places like Matamata and Morrinsville. 
Hon Member 
: Sandra Goudie was in Cambridge recently. 
SUE MORONEY 
: They just about ran her out of town but that is not the subject of this debate. My experience is of being in Matamata on a Sunday and buying groceries. I try not to do that on Sundays too often but in this particular event I was. Two young women both 16-year-olds were there. One was putting the groceries through the checkout and the other one was packing them. It was Sunday afternoon and I asked them what wages they were being employed on. [ 
Interruption 
] I will talk about stable hands shortly because that is another group who will benefit greatly from the purpose of this bill which the National Party opposes. 
These two young women were really very aware. They were pointing down the aisle and one said: “Look that woman down there is doing packing at the same rate as I am.” I think they told me she was on about $12 an hour and these young women were on $5 and $6 an hour. They were doing exactly the same job on a Sunday. In years gone by they would have expected penal rates for that as well but that is a whole different debate again. 
So I certainly cannot support the view of the previous speaker Paula Bennett that perhaps this is an opportunity to introduce geographical discrimination because this bill was an opportunity to get rid of age discrimination. The impact of that move will be widely felt in the small towns in New Zealand. It will be greatly appreciated by 16 and 17-year-olds. 
I say to Ms Bennett that yes people do work in stables in places like Matamata and Cambridge. The legislation will have a big impact on that industry. Those young people are getting up at very early hours and are working very long hours. In fact they would be able to meet the criterion of having worked for 200 hours a lot earlier than they would meet the criterion of having worked for 3 months. Many of these young people would be meeting the 200-hour criterion in about 4 weeks such are the hours they work in that industry. 
These are the realities out there for young people in these positions. They are working in industries that are well supported by this Government and that are thriving under this Government. This is another piece of legislation coming forward from this House that will further support those young people in their endeavours.