Brown Peter: Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1411] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First is quite delighted to support this bill. We have long said—even before the Greens came into the House in any meaningful way—that the minimum wage should go up. We put it in our policy and when we had confidence and supply discussions—[ 
Interruption 
] That is a bit of policy that National did not pinch according to Wayne Mapp so I say to the new member that he should sit there quietly or maybe he should take note and go and pinch it tomorrow. It was in our policy that we wanted to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour. When we sat down with Labour to negotiate the confidence and supply agreement Labour members were willing to look at the policy. But they came back and said “if economic conditions permit” and they made us tag that on to our policy. Finally they agreed that the wage would reach $12 an hour by the year 2008 which is before the next election. 
I have to say to the honourable member there who cannot stop grinning that had we got into meaningful discussions with Dr Brash and Gerry Brownlee when they came knocking on our door it would have been in an agreement with them as well. I bet they would have nodded their heads faster than we can say that member’s name—which I cannot even remember. It would have been in any confidence and supply agreement that we proposed to National. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes it would; I can assure the member of that. That member would have crawled over broken glass to get a confidence and supply agreement with this provision in it. It disappoints me to some degree that the National Party is obviously not prepared to send this bill to a select committee in order to hear what the public really have to say about it. Frankly we live in a low-wage economy and we need a minimum wage with a reasonable ceiling to ensure that people can live at least reasonably well. 
I will move on to the youth rate. We support this bill going to a select committee but we have some reservations. I want to be absolutely honest here. I have spoken to a number of employers and they have told me that if they have to employ a young person aged 16 or 17 years at full wages then they will get older people instead because of their life skills. Wayne Mapp made some very good points on that. I note the point that he raised about the unemployment level. According to Statistics New Zealand the unemployment rate for youth aged from 15 to 19 years is 11.7 percent. That is a very high figure. It is actually close to double the next-highest sector group and after that the rates are all very much lower. 
So I want to put forward a reservation. If Parliament in its wisdom chooses to abolish the youth rate totally then we might be doing young people a huge disservice. New Zealand First is aware of that but it still wants the bill to go to the select committee as the Minister said so that we can hear the voices and the views of New Zealanders in total. They are entitled to have a say on the issue. That is why New Zealand First supports the bill going to a select committee. 
I have to say I was encouraged by the Hon Ruth Dyson. I know she is a lady who keeps her word. She sort of implied that after the bill comes back from the select committee Labour will want the adult rate to be $12 an hour. If that is the case we will be totally behind it. We had reservations about including in our policy the tag “if economic conditions permit” but we are prepared to listen to New Zealanders—to working New Zealanders trade unions fellow politicians and New Zealand business people. We want to hear their views. We want to send this bill to a select committee so they can have their say. 
I shall talk briefly about what happened under the National Party. We tried to give the National Party good advice in terms of the Employment Contracts Act when we came here. We said to modify it and make it fairer. I come from an industry of shipping and of loading ships. I can tell Dr Mapp honestly and I can see that he is taking an interest in this that there is no port in the world that can load any type of ship or discharge it faster than can the Port of Tauranga. Yet what did port workers get for their troubles? They got massive casualisation and redundancy. [ 
Interruption 
] 
I tell the honourable member over there that I do not think terribly many voted for “Uncle” Bob Clarkson. I do not think that they did. If members listen to that honourable member’s speeches they will hear that he cannot speak without saying something derogatory about Winston Peters. I will get phone calls like the one I got the other night when someone said: “Peter we only wanted to scare Winston. What the hell have we done? We’ll be back with him next time with a huge majority.”