30 January 2007

Address to launch of Decent Work website

5.30pm Grand Hall, Parliament

Rau rangatira maa,
tenei te mihi ki a koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te ra.
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

[Distinguished guests, greetings to you gathered here for this purpose today. Greetings once, twice, three times to you all.]

Welcome to the launch of Decent Work: Charting our Progress. I'd like to acknowledge David Benson-Pope and my other parliamentary colleagues here tonight, as well as representatives from the CTU and Business New Zealand.

When you hear that just over 12 million people around the world are estimated to be victims of forced labour and half the world’s population earn less than two dollars a day – you realise the immense importance of what we’re here to talk about today.

The Decent Work initiative has the potential to change the lives of those millions of people around the world.

This will be achieved by improving the economic and social well being of the countries these people live and work in – through Decent Work initiatives led by the International Labour Organisation.

This is a major task – and one New Zealand should be immensely proud to be part of.

As a first step we need to look at how we’re doing in New Zealand to ensure that we’re leading by example. And from what I’ve seen, we’re making some excellent progress.

Today is a celebration of that progress, with the launch of the Decent Work initiative in New Zealand.

This initiative represents a unique tripartite ‘lens’ for looking at New Zealand activities that influence labour market outcomes - with the combined efforts of government, Business NZ and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.

Decent Work is the primary goal of the ILO and sums up the aspirations of many people for their working lives. New Zealand strongly supports the ILO and the objectives of Decent Work.

Decent Work provides:

– Opportunities for productive work that delivers a fair income
– Security in the workplace and social protection for families
– Better prospects for personal development and social integration
– Freedom for people to express their concerns and to organise and to participate in decisions that affect their lives
– Equality of opportunity and treatment for all men and women.

This launch is the culmination of an idea sparked by New Zealand at a meeting of the ILO members from the Asia and Pacific. New Zealand has taken the lead in promoting the idea of having a national perspective on Decent Work throughout the region, particularly as a way of demonstrating that Decent Work is a way that enables countries to progress and develop.

To turn that idea into a reality, we have identified the factors that we think are important steps for achieving Decent Work in New Zealand and have gathered information on activities that contribute to these factors.

This information is available on the new Decent Work website. Members of the public will be able to respond to us via the website, to suggest other ways that New Zealand is working to achieve Decent Work.

I encourage you to look at the website, and use it to start a conversation with other agencies, to broaden our reach and engagement on the issues that contribute to Decent Work.

The information on the website will be regularly updated and we hope it will become a valuable resource for people here or overseas who are interested in what New Zealand is doing to achieve Decent Work.

I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of the tripartite Steering Group, particularly Graeme Buchanan, Carol Beaumont and Paul McKay, and those government officials who contributed to this initiative. New Zealand’s leadership in promoting and developing this initiative has been acknowledged in a number of international forums, and I warmly congratulate you on the results of the initiative.

I’ll now hand over to Graeme Buchanan who will introduce the Steering Group.

ENDS

© Scoop Media