Mallard Trevor: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Mallard Trevor: Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:2986] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 I am quite enjoying this debate. We are hearing in Tau Henare and David Bennett Tories who are really getting back to their roots. They are saying that it is the right of employers to exploit anyone who is doing a job for them in any way they like—that that is the sort of choice that should be available to all employers. In fact in listening to Tau Henare I drifted back 100 years or so and thought of Dickensian times. He is the sort of person who liked it that little kids went to the mill picked up cotton and got crushed. It was their right to be injured and killed! 
Well I tell the member that times have changed. I make it clear to both members that this bill was introduced during the last Labour Government. It quite properly went through a caucus process. A busy and caring Government has so much stuff on its agenda— 
Chris Hipkins 
: They wouldn’t know. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Well those members will never be caring. They might be busy one day but there is no sign of it yet. It would require quite a lot of energy and looking at their front bench I do not think they will get it. 
Getting back to the point we had a bit of trouble handling everything on our agenda especially in the labour relations area of work. We were very very lucky that we had a number of able backbench members who took the responsibility of working up bills and getting them into the House. I compliment the member Darien Fenton on her work not only on this bill but in a number of other areas as well. She saw that such issues might not get through the House in Government time but it was important that Parliament debate them. 
In this area and in a number of others there was support from a party that is not in Parliament at the moment New Zealand First. It is fair to say that as far as some legislation was concerned the support of Peter Brown ensured we got the votes but I am not sure whether it improved the quality of the legislation; that occurred in a number of areas. 
But it is very very good to have a member who understands the principles of the relationship between bosses and workers. We all know that some employers are not good employers. Some employers will not give fair remuneration to their workers. I know that most members of National do not support having a minimum wage but they do not quite have the courage of their convictions to say so. Roger Douglas has the courage of his convictions; he does not believe in having a minimum wage and he is prepared to stand up and say so. 
But when it comes to minimum conditions for people who are doing some of the lowest-paid work in the country the Tories are willing to kick them. They know that there is not a pamphlet deliverer in the country who votes National—other than a very few who have intellectual problems and deliver pamphlets on a voluntary basis for the National Party; they are the only group of pamphlet deliverers who are likely to be National Party supporters. National members see a disadvantaged group who do not support National and they not only kick them when they are down but strangle them at the same time. The Tau Henare approach is to get them by the throat give them a bit of a shake and try to get them down. In the end these pamphlet deliverers like all good people will win. It might take a bit of time and it might take a bit of building up because National votes against legislation like this every time. I regret the fact that National will vote against it. 
Michael Woodhouse 
: No you don’t. Not even you were going to vote for it. Now you’re in Opposition it’s easy. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Sorry?