Working hard should be rewarded, not mocked by a National minister

Friday, 1 November 2024

Arena Williams (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāi Tūhoe) is the Labour MP for the Auckland electorate of Manurewa. She is a lawyer and mother of two. Stuart Smith is the National MP for the South Island electorate of Kaikōura. He is a former grape grower, winemaker and inducted as a Fellow of the New Zealand Winegrowers Board for services to the wine industry.

OPINION: Should Government ministers ever go around calling Kiwis losers because they’re hard-working employees, even as a joke? Why aren’t we praising people who slog their guts out to keep businesses running and their families financially afloat?

An MP from each side of the House gives their views.

ARENA WILLIAMS, LABOUR MP, MANUREWA

Working hard should be rewarded, but a National Minister’s mockery of a worker is playing out on the background of sweeping policy changes that make working people the butt of the joke.

National has cut the minimum wage in real terms, brought back 90-day fire at will, halted measures to address gender and ethnic pay gaps, scrapped Fair Pay Agreements and may reduce part-time workers' sick leave entitlements.

They have scrapped the forward looking Industry Transformation Plans brought in by Labour, which worked in collaboration with businesses. National even stopped the minimum wage top-up for workers with disabilities.

Minister for Small Business Andrew Bayly has not fully explained his version of the events on 3 October, a Friday afternoon of Ministerial visits with Stuart Smith in his electorate of Marlborough that led to the Minister calling a worker a loser.

There are fair questions that remain unanswered about what the Minister did and why he hasn’t faced consequences.

As I understand it, Andrew Bayly visits were to an oyster tasting, a beer garden, a viticulture venture and a winery. At the final visit of the day a man was working late in the warehouse. It was their conversations in the warehouse that are the subject of the worker’s complaint, made first to Bayly’s office.

On 11 October, the Minister wrote to the business owner asking for his apologies to be passed on to the worker. The complaint was unresolved, and on 17 October the worker went back to Bayly and this time copied the Prime Minister and other MPs.

Andrew Bayly talked past questions about whether he called the worker a loser and made an L sign at him, but later admitted it when I asked him in Parliament. He disagrees with the worker’s account that he told him to f- off, but won’t explain what he did say.

Minister Bayly also told journalists he wasn’t drinking but corrected himself in Parliament. He is still saying that when he asked the worker to come for a drink with him, he wasn’t drinking.

It is worth reflecting on the lack of recognition from Minister Bayly of what it means to be working overtime. Many working people are afraid for their jobs, looking at forecasts that see unemployment continue to rise well into next year. The Government has laid off thousands of public servants.

Minister Bayly may not have known the circumstances of the person he was talking at, but it did not seem to occur to him that the guy may have had additional reasons for turning down a drink and continuing to put his head down at work.

It is also instructive to think back to Christopher Luxon’s performative ruthlessness in demoting Ministers Penny Simmonds and Melissa Lee in April, for issues that come nowhere near what has occurred here.

The question at that point was whether that standard of expectation for Ministers would be maintained. The failure to take action against Minister Bayly would appear to confirm that Christopher Luxon’s earlier noises about accountability were just noise, or meted out differently for those women.

Stuart Smith was present during these visits. Minister Bayly has continued to deny some aspects of the worker’s account of what he said but has not been able to give an account of what he did say. It is one of Mr Smith’s constituents who was belittled by Minister Bayly and his electorate are owed an answer as to what this worker was subjected to.

STUART SMITH, NATIONAL MP, KAIKŌURA

Minister Andrew Bayly fell short of the professional standards of behaviour this Government expects of its Ministers. The Prime Minister has made it very clear to Minister Bayly that he is disappointed with his conduct.

Minister Bayly has acknowledged the situation, offered a full and unreserved apology to the individual involved, and clarified the events in the House. He has provided assurances to the Prime Minister that it will not happen again.

We know that Kiwis have been doing it tough supporting their families through a cost-of-living crisis. That is why this Government has made sure that workers can keep more of what they earn.

Our Government has given New Zealanders personal income tax relief for the first time in 14 years. This tax relief allows hard working Kiwi families to keep more of their hard-earned money to put towards important expenses such as their children, weekly groceries, and power bills.

Overall, 83% of New Zealanders – 94% of households – are benefitting from our tax package.

We have also launched our new FamilyBoost payment to help Kiwis with rising childcare costs. Families can be reimbursed for up to 25% of their early childhood education fees, with a maximum of $75 per week or $975 every three months.

Since last month, families earning up to $180,000 have been able to submit their first claim in myIR for ECE costs invoiced between 1 July – 30 September. Almost 30,000 households have now received their first payments and thousands more will receive them soon.

However, we are not just providing relief, we are addressing the root cause of the cost-of-living crisis. This Government is working hard on rebuilding the economy so that we can lift incomes for all and create opportunities for workers.

The steps the Government is taking to restore discipline to public spending, reduce the red tape that stifles innovation and development, and rebuild business confidence are working. Large numbers of families are now better off than they were a year ago.

Last month both the inflation rate and the Official Cash Rate (OCR) dropped, providing much-needed relief for households and businesses. Kiwis can look forward to mortgage rate reductions, and businesses will find it easier to invest and innovate with lower borrowing costs.

I’ve been working on another important step towards rebuilding the economy as chair of the Finance & Expenditure Select Committee. Competition is one of the most important drivers of long-term growth and productivity, but the Commerce Commission have said this is severely lacking in our banking sector.

That’s why the Finance & Expenditure Select Committee is conducting an inquiry into banking competition to make sure Kiwis are getting a fair deal. National is committed to making sure Kiwis get the best banking service they can at the lowest cost they can.

There’s more work to be done to get the economy growing, but New Zealanders can be confident we’re headed in the right direction.

An earlier version of this story suggested National MP Andrew Bayly was a Cabinet minister. He is not in Cabinet. (Amended 2.44pm, November 1, 2024)