Turia Tariana: Employment Relations (Probationary Period Repeal) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Turia Tariana: Employment Relations (Probationary Period Repeal) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:665;Page:13037] 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Firstly I congratulate Carmel Sepuloni on introducing this Employment Relations (Probationary Period Repeal) Amendment Bill to restore the relevant provisions of the Employment Relations Act 2002 and in doing so to overturn the legislative measures that would allow workers to be fired at will in the first 90 days of their employment. 
In doing so I am particularly conscious of the statistics that come across my desk on a regular basis telling me of some 21000 Maori job seekers and 7000 Pasifika job seekers. Of that number roughly a third of them fall into the youth category so they are under 24 years of age. It is those rangatahi in particular who drive us to support this bill. 
We were told and we have heard it again tonight that the 90-day scheme would result in employment opportunity for youth to prove themselves—a chance to prove their worth. Well what happened? What we know too well is that Maori and Pacific youth under 24 are struggling to get into the workplace and they will be vulnerable to some unscrupulous employers who exploit the subsidy scheme. 
The Maori Party voted against the 2008 Employment Relations Amendment Bill which was passed under urgency and without going through a select committee process. Like other speakers we want to scrutinise claims that there is evidence that the 90-day scheme has created outcomes that demonstrate employers are giving more opportunities to young people. I agree—I actually do agree—that the majority of employers are unlikely to want a revolving door of employees but the problem for our young people is that they cannot even get through the door. 
I read a disturbing result from a recent study entitled  
Young(er) People’s Conceptualisations of the World of Work: A Qualitative Study 
. The sample chosen for the Maori component of the research was drawn from an existing longitudinal study of Maori households called  
The Best Outcomes for Maori: Te Hoe Nuku Roa 
. It gave some very clear warnings about the fragile state of many of our young people embarking upon the workforce. The study revealed the tendency of a number of participants to consider themselves solely responsible for their success or failure both in study and in the labour market. In other words they blame themselves for not being able to sustain long-term secure employment. In doing so they seal off their future; believing that their options are limited and that they will not go there again. The cost of failure to the State and to the whanau is huge. 
The workplace environment is a more complex world than one which many members of this House would ever have known. Amongst the inevitable challenge of standing up to apply again for job opportunities recent international studies highlight the fact that the transition from school that young people are experiencing today are increasingly becoming less predictable and more complex than the school-to-work transitions of the past. 
But some pervasive issues still impact on the opportunities for young Maori people to succeed in employment options not the least being the institutionalised racism that exists. The question we have to ask of the Government is how the 90-day probationary period will overcome that which Maori call the brown barrier—a phenomenon of systemic bias against employment and promotion of young Maori in the job market. 
It is a core feature of Maori Party employment policy that we support the right to be treated fairly and with dignity in the workplace. We want to do everything we can to enhance the chance of success for our young and for young Pasifika peoples as well. So we will be supporting this bill at its first reading. Kia ora.