Roger Douglas MP.

23 February 2010
Open Letter To Union Representatives And All Those Opposed To The Reintroduction Of Youth Wage Rates

The drawing of my Minimum Wage (Mitigation Of Youth Unemployment) Amendment Bill today is a step toward mitigating the high rate of youth unemployment, which has soared since Labour abolished the youth minimum wage in 2008, ACT New Zealand MP Sir Roger Douglas said today.

Click the following link to download the report of the Inter-Party Working Group on School Choice – Step Change.
To see the ACT Party’s minority report – Free to Learn – click here.

Prime Minister John Key claims to believe in the power of tax cuts – so it seems odd that he is only willing to decrease taxes on income if we increase taxes on consumption, ACT New Zealand’s Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas said today.
“I asked him today why he wasn’t willing to reduce Government expenditure [...]

If the Government is ‘always willing to listen to good ideas’ over youth unemployment, as Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson said yesterday, then I expect the Government to support my Minimum Wage (Mitigating Youth Unemployment) Amendment Bill and put a stop to soaring youth unemployment rates, ACT New Zealand MP Sir Roger Douglas said today.

Dear Dr Bollard,
I write to you regarding the comments you made about the possibilities of New Zealand matching the level of economic output of Australia on a per capita basis, which you made on ‘Q & A’, Sunday 7 February.
In particular, I was shocked at the following comment:

Prime Minister John Key’s belief that we should strive for a more efficient tax system without implementing constitutional restraints against excessive Government spending is stupid, ACT New Zealand Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas said today.

Today Labour Leader Phil Goff will deliver a speech on behalf of Prime Minister John Key. I thought that it might be a good idea to jot down some notes for what I would say if I were Phil Goff speaking on behalf of the Labour Party.

Unionist Matt McCarton’s article in the Herald on Sunday (31-01-2010) supporting an increase in the minimum wage to $15, while rubbishing the Government’s decision to increase it by only 25c, is economic lunacy.

Yesterday we saw that youth unemployment had spiked during this recession, but that its movement may have been affected by the abolition of youth rates. This analysis was backed up by Eric Crampton, who is seeking possible alternative explanations.