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Speaker 1: The government is going back to the drawing board on

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Speaker 1: reforming the Holidays Act following consultation on its initial plan,

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Speaker 1: it's found that it could actually make problems worse. The

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Speaker 1: legislation was meant to be changed two years ago, but

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Speaker 1: officials will now begin work on an hour's based a

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Speaker 1: crawl model for annual leave. Brook van Valden is the

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Speaker 1: Workplace Relations Minister. She's with me this evening, Brook, good evening.

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Speaker 2: Good evening, Ryan Minister.

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Speaker 1: How can it be so hard to calculate holiday pain

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Speaker 1: annual leave?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a very very good question. But unfortunately our

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Speaker 2: law has been so complicated that nearly every business has

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Speaker 2: become non compliant at some point, and even government departments

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Speaker 2: have gotten it wrong, which I find quite ironic. But look,

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Speaker 2: we went out for consultation on the five years of

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Speaker 2: work that the Labor government had done behind the scenes

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Speaker 2: and ask people, hey, do you think that this one

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Speaker 2: is good? Can we continue with it? And the overwhelming

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Speaker 2: response we got was no, it makes it even worse,

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Speaker 2: it's even more complicated. So I've made a decision that

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Speaker 2: I'm asking my officials let's make a law that simple.

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Speaker 2: I don't want one that just works it's actually got

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Speaker 2: to be something that both workers in business can understand.

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Speaker 1: Well, so starting again, those should be honest about it. Minister.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of ministers might try and hide

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Speaker 1: the fact they write a law that an amendment that

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Speaker 1: was not that good. So so okay, fair enough, you're

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Speaker 1: going to tackle the problem. What does this mean for

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Speaker 1: those you know, I'm thinking of health New Zealand here,

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Speaker 1: who have got these huge bills on their books that

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Speaker 1: they need. Does it affect that at all?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, it won't affect what's currently gone wrong. You know,

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Speaker 2: if people have been no non compliant with the current law,

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Speaker 2: that will still stand right. But what I'm hoping to

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Speaker 2: do in the future has put a line in the

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Speaker 2: sand and say from this date onwards, this is the

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Speaker 2: law that you must follow, and let's make it as

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Speaker 2: simple and easy to understand for everybody. But that doesn't

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Speaker 2: mean to say that we're overriding the non compliance that's

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Speaker 2: happened in the past. It's just a real shame that

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Speaker 2: businesses have been suffering for so many years being unable

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Speaker 2: to follow a law and pay people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but nothing from the past will change going forward.

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Speaker 1: Then does that mean that we're going to keep making

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Speaker 1: mistakes until you change the law.

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Speaker 2: Well, the current law will still apply. So what I'm

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Speaker 2: hoping to.

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Speaker 1: Say the current law is we're making mistakes in the

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Speaker 1: current law, right, so we're probably going to have more

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Speaker 1: booboos before we get a fix.

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Speaker 2: Well, anybody who's not sure what they should do with

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Speaker 2: the law, they can always go on to MB's website

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Speaker 2: and try and figure it out from there. But I

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Speaker 2: know it is very frustrating, which is why I'm trying

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Speaker 2: to work as quickly as possible to get something right.

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Speaker 2: What I don't want to do, though, is past a

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Speaker 2: law that would make it even worse for people. So

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Speaker 2: we're being very upfront that the law that was for

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Speaker 2: five years in the making is not fit for purpose.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to go and ask my officials to do

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Speaker 2: ours based a cruel model, so that means that anybody

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Speaker 2: will know how much and you'll leave they get paid

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Speaker 2: based on how many hours they work. Sounds simple enough.

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Speaker 2: There will be a lot of technicality, and I still

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Speaker 2: want to get that passed in the same timeframes that

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Speaker 2: the previous government and us have in place.

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Speaker 1: All right, so we'll have something by the end of

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Speaker 1: the term. Then from you and on the minimum wage,

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Speaker 1: I know you're going to announce very shortly the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five minimum wage. It was you went up two

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Speaker 1: percent for the last time you did it, right to

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Speaker 1: twenty three dollars fifteen. Can we expect a similar increase

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Speaker 1: this time?

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Speaker 2: Oh, look, I can't let you know exactly what it's

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Speaker 2: going to be at the moment, but I'm hoping to

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Speaker 2: have a Christmas present for people and announce that before Christmas,

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Speaker 2: so you'll just have to wait a few more sleeps.

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Speaker 1: Inflation was two point two percent in the year too October.

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Speaker 1: Can we expect at least sort of people being compensated

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Speaker 1: for prices?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, look what I would say there is inflation

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Speaker 2: has been falling. We know that, we know even last

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Speaker 2: time I set the minimum wage that the forecasts fell

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Speaker 2: much faster than people expected. And that's a good thing.

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Speaker 2: But of course I'm not gonna let slip today what

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Speaker 2: it will be. You'll just have to wait just a

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Speaker 2: little bit longer. But I'm also really thinking of the

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Speaker 2: businesses who have been doing it extremely tough with rising costs,

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Speaker 2: and we know that they've really been struggling over the

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Speaker 2: last winter. So at the forefront of my mind is

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Speaker 2: getting the balance right so that we pay people correctly,

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Speaker 2: but we're also not putting too much cost onto businesses

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Speaker 2: so that they have to lay off staff or anything

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Speaker 2: because the minimum wage is going up.

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Speaker 1: Brook Van Valden is the Workplace Relations Minister.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.