David Cunliffe: Minimum Wage, living Wage Pledge
David Cunliffe's speech to the Council of Trade Unions conference in Wellington – 9 October 2013
By Hamish Cardwell
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A fired up David Cunliffe said Labour would raise the minimum wage and was commitment to a living wage for government
employees in one of his first major speeches as Labour Leader.
Speaking at a Council of Trade Unions conference in Wellington Mr Cunliffe said that if Labour won the 2014 election it
would also extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks, scrap youth wage rates, and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
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At a press standup following his speech, Mr Cunliffe said provisions for a “living wage”, initially for all government
employees, would be included in their first budget subject to the “provisions of fiscal responsibility”. It would then
be rolled out to crown entities and then to government contractors.
Labour would develop a a certified living wage employer scheme, and would give preference of procurement contracts to
employers who signed up to the scheme.
He said raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars would come at a “relatively modest cost”.
Labour intended to extend paid parental leave out to 26 weeks and aimed to instigate this “reasonable soon into their
first term” but they would need to have a look at the state of the government's books.
The youth employment rate and the “right to fire” legislation could both be gone within Labour's first 100 days of
government, Me Cunliffe said.
He said people had come to him begging for there to be a change of government.
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ENDS