Stand up against youth rates

Sue Bradford's Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill will be getting its first reading on Wednesday. Unfortunately, we don't know whether it has the numbers. The Greens will support it, as will United Future, and NZ First has promised to "raise the minimum and youth wage", so it might - but there is still a big question mark over Labour. If we want this bill to pass (or at least go to select committee, so the arguments can be made), we need to show that there is strong public support for it. One way of doing this is by going to the SuperSizeMyPay campaign's public rally in Auckland on Sunday. Another is to email MPs.

Who to email? The obvious target is the government's chief whip, Tim Barnett. Mailing your local Labour MP is also a good idea; if you don't know who that is, you can use the labour party website to find out here. If you already know but don't know their email address, the format for Parliamentary email addresses is "firstname.lastname@parliament.govt.nz".

I'd also suggest emailing NZ First's Peter Brown and the Maori Party's Pita Sharples urging their parties to support the bill.

Needless to say, a face to face meeting with your local MP is far more effective than an email or letter. You can arrange this through their electorate office. If you're not sure where that is, there's a list here.

If we want progressive legislation, we have to fight for it. The other side certainly will be, and if the bill fails because we failed to stand up for what we believe in, we have no-one to blame but ourselves.

(Hat tip: Span).