Mark Ron: General Debates 
Mark Ron: General Debates 
[Volume:606;Page:3789] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 Some serious questions need to be asked of this Labour Government that came to this House and championed workers’ rights. It came to this House and launched its flagship policy the Employment Relations Act and told the whole nation that things would be different. There would be new standards of accountability and workers’ rights would be protected. We also recall with great vividness the attacks on New Zealand First launched by Labour MPs and the Labour Government during the election campaign. They thought that any question that New Zealand First raised on immigration was based on racism or xenophobia. But I have to say that the performance in Canterbury and what is starting to unravel down there in terms of how immigrant workers are being exploited begs a lot of questions of this Government. It begs questions of the Minister of Immigration who is party to allowing a scheme to go ahead that brings in labourers—workers people who work at the bottom end of the dairy industry milking cows. It begs questions of that Minister because her immigration department gave work permits to people on the basis that they were not coming in as labourers.  
I have a letter that is an offer of employment that was forwarded through and upon which work permits were granted that describes the prospective employee as follows: “The person will be employed as an assistant herd manager.” Indeed when I go to the immigration website I find listed as a short-listed occupation in the Christchurch-Canterbury region appointments for “Dairy farmers—experienced senior positions only.” Now let us think about the “experienced; senior positions only; assistant herd manager; herd manager” appointment. What sort of appointment is it? It is an appointment put together by farmers involved with a rather interesting recruitment agency. They wanted to recruit people with 3 years’ university schooling. They were not wanting people straight out of high school or from Te Teko or Opotiki. They did not want just ordinary labourers but people with 3 years’ university schooling. They are people who have been around Margaret Wilson for a long time.  
They also wanted applicants to have no less than 6 months’ dairy-farming experience because that was critical. They were also required to be fluent in English. What do I find down on the farms? What is the industry paying an experienced dairy farmer in a senior position such as herd manager? The industry is paying between $35000 and $40000 as a base rate. On top of that comes housing and any other privileges that may be negotiated into the contract.  
So what does that say? It says that through Steve Maharey the Minister of Social Services and Employment Lianne Dalziel the Minister of Immigration and the Prime Minister ably supervised by the Hon Margaret Wilson the Minister of Labour this Government is allowing people to be employed as labourers—thereby taking jobs that I would have thought any person on the dole could have done—under the guise of their being senior management.  
That is a crock. It is fraudulent. At the very kindest it shows that the Minister of Immigration and her department are simply rubber-stamping applications. We were told by the Minister that there were negotiations under way between the Ministry of Social Development and the employment service agent in order to identify the needs of those people. At what stage did immigration officials go and check to see what those people were doing? At what stage were their linguistic skills tested? At what stage were the farmers’ contracts checked?  
We have heard all sorts of utterances in the Christchurch  
Press 
 and I am pleased to see that David Carter thinks it is all OK because he read the  
Press 
. I remember him moaning during the coalition that the  
Press 
 never reported anything accurately; yet here he is telling us today that all is wonderful in Canterbury. I tell Minister Wilson that the contract those young people were required to sign says that they will work from 4.15 in the morning till 5.30 at night. Maybe a Minister who went to university for 3 years can work this out for me but by my reckoning that is about a 13-hour day. Those people have claimed that they were working up to 11-day shifts with 3 days off. If the Minister works that out she will see that $20000—which was the salary offered here—does not cut it. The Minister is responsible and she should sort it out.