Dalziel Lianne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Dalziel Lianne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14139] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Minister of Commerce) 
: 
 I attended a meeting in my electorate last week that summarised what this Labour-led Government has been able to achieve in the past 8 years and why we cannot afford to see the foundations that we have built knocked away as they were in 1991. 
Our election to office in 1999 coincided with my taking on the role of MP for Christchurch East. If someone had described a part of my electorate as harbouring an underclass then all eyes would have turned to Aranui. This is a part of my electorate where the biggest landlord is the Housing New Zealand Corporation. So not only were the residents of the Aranui community hit by the devastatingly high levels of unemployment in the 1990s—and for those who were lucky enough to have jobs the devastatingly low rates of pay due to the impact of the Employment Contracts Act and the refusal of the National Government to provide annual increases to the minimum wage—but they were hit by market rents that were not matched by market incomes. All of the socio-economic indicators were devastating for this part of my electorate. 
Aranui has always had poorer statistics than the citywide statistics of Christchurch which has made what has happened in Aranui even more incredible: under the combined policies of a Labour-led Government which actually believes that economic transformation has to go hand in hand with social transformation real transformation has occurred. There are a number of reasons why this has happened not least of which is that at last there has been the resourcing of the community to play an active and equal partnership role alongside central and local government. No matter how long I spend in this Parliament or what roles I play here nothing will ever come close to producing in me the sense of pride I feel as a member of a Government that has empowered a community to transform itself in this way. 
Let me share some statistics with the House. In 1996 unemployment in Christchurch was 7.6 percent. The comparative figure in Aranui was 16.7 percent. That shows us the relative disadvantage of Aranui. At the end of last year the citywide rate had dropped to 3 percent and in Aranui it had dropped to 5.1 percent—from 16.7 percent to 5.1 percent. I can tell the House that 4.8 percent of Aranui people receive the unemployment benefit today. The rate was nearly three times that in 1996. In 1996 nearly a third of Aranui residents had a household income of under $20000. That figure is now under 20 percent. Although I do not have the exact crime statistics for the area the local community constable tells me that the statistics have gone through the floor and are at the lowest point that Aranui has experienced in years. So the statistics are all heading in the right direction. 
But what statistics cannot tell anyone is what this means in real terms for real people. Behind these statistics is a community that has developed an incredibly positive attitude towards itself and one that takes great pride in what it has achieved. What has helped to bring this about? Income-related rents for State houses put money in the pockets of some of the poorest families in Christchurch. The Employment Relations Act got rid of the worst excesses of the Employment Contracts Act. This was coupled with annual increases to the minimum wage which has gone from $7 an hour when we became the Government to $12 an hour on 1 April this year. I remind this House that under a National Government 18 and 19-year-olds received only 80 percent of the adult minimum wage. The Labour-led Government fixed that problem as well. Employment opportunities have improved. The unemployment statistics are phenomenal. In part they have been brought about by an active work broker who helped people into work. We have had community renewal with the Housing New Zealand Corporation in partnership with the Christchurch City Council and the community. They asked the people what they wanted and they helped to deliver a better environment for the people. The park was opened up by the city council. The sports are coming back to New Zealand. Rugby league has come back to Aranui. It left a very long time ago. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: Oh! 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Although the Opposition mocks these changes they not only mean that the physical environment is safer because more is going on but also mean there is more for our young people to do and that is keeping them off the streets and stopping them from causing the trouble they have caused in the past. 
Heartland Services has opened a centre with the Aranui Community Trust in Hampshire Street. That means that Government and non-Government services are being delivered into the heart of the community improving access for all. The community nursing project has made a real difference to the health status of the children of some of the poorest families in Christchurch. Community consultation has a real meaning in Aranui. This is not about the Government doing something to a community; this is about a community actively working with a Government that cares and making a difference for itself. Everyone is swept along in the enthusiasm generated by seeing things get done. It looks better it feels better and it is not just superficial; it goes deep into the hearts and minds of the people of Aranui. 
Everything the Prime Minister announced today has relevance to Aranui going forward. Housing affordability is an issue in Aranui as it is elsewhere. As I said before the Housing New Zealand Corporation is one of the biggest landlords yet Aranui residents aspire to homeownership just like anyone else. I know that the Aranui Community Trust will put up its hand to take up the challenge of partnership with the Housing New Zealand Corporation in the housing ownership quest as well making affordable housing available to ordinary New Zealanders. The other announcement around the changes to the resourcing of the non-governmental organisation sector will be very welcome in Aranui as a number of non-governmental organisations operate from a base in Aranui and are able to provide their services beyond that immediate community. The announcements today will be very very welcome indeed. 
The meeting I referred to at the outset—the meeting I attended in my electorate last week—was a visit by the Minister for Social Development and Employment. The Minister came to Aranui to see what the Government’s investment in that community had made by way of return. She was given a detailed presentation by a community that 8 years ago could not have found a single person to stand up and talk about that community with pride. Its people were dispirited they lacked direction but worst of all they lacked ambition and worse than that it was not just that they lacked ambition for themselves but that they lacked ambition for their children as well. That is what they were bequeathed by 9 years of a National Government. 
That situation has turned round completely and I am as proud of the Aranui community as those people are now of themselves. The Prime Minister said in her address today: “Our vision is for a sustainable prosperous New Zealand secure in its identity and proud of its achievements.” Aranui has already realised that vision and it has done so because a Labour-led Government has provided the foundations upon which it can build. Aranui is only one such story; there are many others from one end of New Zealand to the other. But Aranui is the one I can tell because I am proud to represent it in this Parliament as MP for Christchurch East and because I have seen something happen that I never believed would have been possible in this country when I entered this Parliament 17 years ago.