Parker David: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Parker David: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 I have to record that the previous speaker was Allan Peachey from the National Party— 
Hon Member 
: The ACT Party. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: I thought he was a National Party member. He pretends to be in favour of the minimum wage but he supports back routes around it. 
Why do people work? They work to make a living. That is why we have a minimum wage so that people can live off their earnings; that they are not slaves; that they are not indentured for life; that they can earn enough from their labour to live off. That is why we have a minimum wage. But there is a glaring anomaly in our law at the moment because there is a route around the minimum wage. That is what the Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill attempts to remedy. 
I congratulate Darien Fenton on advancing this bill because there has been a hole in our legislation for many years. It is a loophole that was not abused much in the old days but is abused more and more these days. It is a bigger problem now than it was 10 years ago. The evil that is being remedied through this legislation is the ability of an employer to pay someone a dollar or two an hour when the minimum wage is what now? 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: $12. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Well it was $7 an hour under the last National Government. What is it now? 
Lynne Pillay 
: $12.50. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: It was over $12 an hour when we left office and it has been increased just a little bit by the current National Government. But one can tell that Government members do not believe in it because they are happy to leave loopholes. They are happy to let people be employed under a contract for service rather than through an employment relationship and not be paid the minimum wage. That is all this legislation does. It does not give people holiday pay. It does not give them the protections from unfair dismissal that employees have after 90 days. It does not give them sick pay. It does not give them maternity leave. What it does is give them the minimum wage equivalent—only the equivalent. It is not the $100000 - plus a year that Mr Peachey is on but people would get $15 an hour instead of $2 or $5 an hour. 
Paul Quinn 
: Are you giving to the poor? How much did you give to the Home of Compassion last year? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Listen to that diversion. I am actually one of those who think that people should give to charity and I stand on my conscience because I do. I also stand on my conscience because I am happy to pay the minimum wage and I am a business person. The National members opposite say we do not have any business people on this side of the Chamber but I tell them that I was a business person. We have plenty of business people over here. I was always happy to pay the minimum wage. I never got around it through a contract of service and I never will. 
Who suffers? I will give an example of who suffers. The  
Dominion Post  
has to pay its staff the minimum wage and it competes against the providers of advertising pamphlets who deliver them through people who are not being paid the minimum wage. How is that fair to the  
Dominion Post 
 or the  
New Zealand Herald 
 or any other newspaper in New Zealand? It is not fair. Members opposite say that only children are being affected. This issue came to my notice because I had a constituent who came to see me. She made her living delivering pamphlets and a large number of adults are in that situation. A large number of adults who work as cleaners are now employed on contracts of service and they are not paid the minimum wage. They are not paid the minimum wage because there is a gap in our law that allows some unscrupulous employers to avoid the intent of the legislation and pay people a pittance which they cannot live off. That is not fair to businesses that pay the minimum wage. They are disadvantaged from competition by unscrupulous employers who employ under a contract of service and do not pay the minimum wage. It is especially unfair to the people who cannot live off the pittance that they are paid. 
It is absolutely shameful that the National Government will not support this bill. Those members pretend to be in favour of the minimum wage but they are happy to see it so easily avoided. This is very simple legislation to understand and should be supported by all members of the House.