Jones Dail: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Jones Dail: Minimum Wage Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First has supported this bill and it intends to continue to do so— 
Jill Pettis 
: Well done! 
DAIL JONES 
: I appreciate the support from Jill Pettis which is not often forthcoming—indeed I have to ask myself whether we have made a mistake! But no I am positive we have not and that we are making the right move. 
The bill is a very short bill. It relates to minimum wages particularly in respect of young people who are employed under contracts of service. Under these they are required to undergo training instruction or examination for the purpose of becoming qualified for the occupation to which their contract of service relates. We can all probably remember when we were at the stage of trying to get our first job not having had any experience or having gained any qualifications. Often one might be competing against somebody else who does have some qualifications or whatever. It is always so very hard to get one’s very first job and to gain some experience. I feel that one of the best things I ever did in my legal practice was to give young people their first-ever job. Almost always it was a secretarial job. After interviewing many young people for those jobs I found it was wonderful to see the look of delight on the faces of those who got them. The fact that those young people would often then stay for many years proved very encouraging all round. 
Giving someone his or her first job is probably the best thing one can ever do and one finds that most people—and we are talking about young people—will reciprocate by working pretty well. I think that would also apply to older people. I expect that this bill should apply to people who want to be retrained so they can move into other areas. There are any number of people who perhaps have had no computing experience or similar and who might want to change their lifestyles and are prepared to take a drop in wages. I am not exactly sure whether it is the case that this bill applies to them. Perhaps the next speaker could clarify that. 
However this bill encourages at least some decent payment to be made although there would not be many employers in any type of industry in New Zealand today who would pay just the minimum wage. It would be very very unusual to find employers who were paying just the minimum wage. If they were it would be almost a criticism of them as much as anything else. If they were able to pay their staff only along the lines of a minimum wage one would have to wonder just how worthwhile their businesses were. 
 I guess that that applies to many industries around the country. I am sure that my friend Edwin Perry here will tell me that this bill should advantage people who want to become farming cadets in the Wairarapa and places like that. Employers in industries such as the motor-car industry are only too pleased to take on young people probably in places such as the garage to assist them in getting some on-the-jobtraining instruction and so on. New Zealand First believes that education is the key to the future and this is a form of education on-the-job education which is the best education one can possibly get in any industry. 
I had many years of education as a law clerk. In those days by the time one finished one’s degree one had gained a lot of experience—in fact 4 years’ more experience than law graduates today who get their degrees with absolutely no legal experience whatsoever and who are of very little use to employers in a legal practice. One almost wonders whether this particular bill would apply to them even though they have university degrees. However those graduates are very well trained in our universities. They are very intelligent people so they get on and do well. 
As I said New Zealand First supports education in all areas. We have a strong Maori vote and we feel that this bill will do a lot to encourage young Maori boys and girls. However more should be made of the legislation so that they are encouraged to realise their rights. New Zealand First supports their right to be paid a reasonable amount along the minimum wage line. We think that when they are undergoing their instruction they are entitled to that; and that should encourage them to respond to a good employer. New Zealand First supports this legislation.