Hughes Gareth: Minimum Wage (Mitigation of Youth Unemployment) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hughes Gareth: Minimum Wage (Mitigation of Youth Unemployment) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10367] 
GARETH HUGHES (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Speaker. As the youngest member of this House it was not that long ago that I was pushing supermarket trolleys delivering pamphlets and serving up fish and chips and being paid at a lower wage than the minimum adult wage. Back in the late 1990s when I was a high school student working after school I like many Kiwis was discriminated against by the youth minimum wage which applied to 16 to 19-year-olds and was set at 60 percent of the adult minimum wage. In my case I was actually supervising adult workers yet due to the law I was being paid less. 
The Green Party wants to look after Aotearoa New Zealand and all of its people. We believe in a fair go for everyone young workers included. Everyone deserves a decent living wage but this bill sets to undo the success that the Green Party and in particular Sue Bradford in her last term in Parliament achieved through her Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill. The Minimum Wage (Mitigation of Youth Unemployment) Amendment Bill put forward by Roger Douglas wants to take New Zealand back to the past. Perhaps we would not go back as far as he would prefer—the 19th century and rampant unregulated capitalism—but as far back as the 1980s and the 1990s. It would be back to the bad old days of the previous National-led Government and its neo-liberal Labour predecessor in which Sir Roger himself was a key player. 
This bill seeks to reinstate a discriminatory youth minimum wage. It is discriminatory. Why should young people who are doing the same work get different pay? In a fair society we are not paid depending on our gender our sexual preferences or the colour of our skin. As The 
Standard points out as a parody the word “youth” could be replaced with “Maori” in this bill. The point is that we would not discriminate based on ethnicity so why should we on age? Ever since the Equal Pay Act back in 1972 discrimination in rates of pay based on gender has been unlawful yet the one piece of legislation where discrimination should not be setting guidelines the Human Rights Act condones setting up discriminatory wages. Members may have noticed my first member’s bill on youth human rights which proposes repealing section 30(2) of the Human Rights Act to make this type of age-based discrimination unlawful. 
The bill we are debating is misnamed. It is called the Minimum Wage (Mitigation of Youth Unemployment) Amendment Bill but that is just a front a Trojan Horse for the real issue. ACT’s buddies in big business want to pay young workers low wages to keep wages down in general and profits for a few up. The Green Party wants to give everyone a fair go and thinks it is a tragedy that near to 30 percent of the unemployed are aged 15 to 19. Youth unemployment is rising but that is because of the recession not because businesses cannot discriminate based on age. A Treasury report from 2004 said that there had been no negative impact on youth employment from the 2001 changes. In fact youth were more employed and working longer hours. This bill has nothing to do with lowering youth unemployment; it is about lower wages for workers and higher profits for shareholders and owners. It is tragic that this Government is making moves to make further tertiary studies harder to access and more expensive for our young people. From raising fees to cutting 40 to 45 percent of New Zealand tertiary courses and reducing student loan access this Government is making it tougher not easier for unemployed young Kiwis to train to get skilled and to contribute to an innovative prosperous and growing economy. 
In summary the nation’s young are beset on all sides. Our young people are growing up in an increasingly unequal society an increasingly uncaring society and an increasingly dangerous one. Those with jobs are threatened by work conditions that breed mistrust fear and conflict between workers and employees. The 90-day fire-at-will bill miserable minimum wage increases and looming GST rises send all workers but our youngest and most vulnerable workers in particular a strong message: this ACT-led John Key - led Government is standing up for private profit not for a fair go for all. Last month National somewhat slowed Sir Roger Douglas’s dreams of returning New Zealand to the 1990s then to Victorian England when it announced that it will not support this bill. It is a rare piece of good news out of the Beehive but let us face it: the bill was a bad idea to begin with. 
The Green Party believes in a fair go for all not in discriminating and setting pay based on age or on any of the other prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Human Rights Act. The Green Party believes in finding real solutions for unemployed young people like supporting upskilling and increasing access to tertiary education. That is why the Green Party is opposing this bill.