Transcript extract: "WAMMO AND JOHN KEY ON KIWI FM"
THURSDAY 24 AUGUST 2006 10am-2pm.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0608/S00289.htm
PRESENTER (WAMMO): So what's a reasonable minimum wage?
KEY: It's $10.25 at the moment. I'm not, I'm not opposed to that rising, in fact
naturally it should rise each and every year.
PRESENTER: $12?
KEY: Well it's going to get there. The truthful answer is it should be a lot more, we're actually
a low wage economy, and that is one of the things we really need to fix. And I look at it and
say hey I think there is something like 400,000 working New Zealanders currently on the
minimum wage, a lot of them will probably be, I'd say, virtually school kids and university
students and things, that do stuff at Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hutt or something for a
couple of hours a week or a couple of hours in the weekend, but even so it's too many to
have on that wage.
PRESENTER: So…
KEY: I'm not one of the hardcore hard right wingers who says get rid of the minimum wage
you don’t need it, some people take that view, I personally think it has a place and I don’t
have problems with it rising, all I'm saying is that we always have to caution and balance that
against the impacts on unemployment.