Jesus, it’s not as if they’re saying paperboys must now be offered pension plans. All they are proposing is that a 12-year-old working for you on a regular basis have the same legal rights as a 16, 17, 18, or 33-year-old working for you in the same circumstances.
It is utterly ridiculous to consider young children ‘contractors’ – contractors are self-employers, effectively; and in order to conform 100% with the law, that entails a much higher degree of savvy and planning than simply being an employee. Plenty of adults seem cognitively incapable of following the contractor rules, so it seems a bit rough to tell intermediate-age kids they’ve no other option.
As for babysitters etc: plenty of people over the age of 16 babysit, whether for free or for cash. I doubt any of the parents involved pay ACC levies or the like. The sky has not fallen in. By the same token, I doubt that a 14-year-old ‘contractor’ babysitting for several families a month is even aware of the need to declare his/her income, or to pay ACC levies.