Ardern Jacinda: General Debate 
Ardern Jacinda: General Debate 
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JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 Frankly all I have seen today from the Government benches is an utterly embarrassing display. To be frank it began when the Prime Minister rose today. You would not have known that we— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have just corrected a National member. Let me now pull up a Labour member. Every time the member says “You would not have known” she implies that the Speaker would not have known. I can assure her that the Speaker does know. Members should debate correctly in this House. The reason why we do not use the word “you” is that not only does it refer to the Speaker and the Speaker must not be brought into the debate but also it personalises the debate. The reason for not using that part of speech is to avoid personal attacks in this House—“you did this” or “you did that”. I tell members that it is a longstanding tradition. I do not want to be unfair to Mr Bennett by allowing Miss Ardern to get away with it. Members should not do that. 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. Strike one versus strike 200 is the only point I would make. 
From the Prime Minister’s contribution today we would not know that we are on the verge of a zero Budget. The display we saw from the Government almost implied that what we will be presented with tomorrow will somehow be a joyous occasion. I saw an empathy-free comedian of ashamed proportions on that side of the House today. When did a $16 billion deficit become funny? That is the question I have for the Government. When did 6.6 percent unemployment become a joke? The point I wish to make today is that at no point should we assume that the Budget that will be presented to us tomorrow is by any means a default Budget. Choices have been made in the lead-up to the Budget that will be presented tomorrow that have led to the situation where we are now considering making significant cuts in areas like Working for Families student loans and KiwiSaver. All of that is as a result of choices. 
The Government is very likely to make the claim that the global financial crisis and the Christchurch earthquake are somehow the sole reason why we will be seeing these cuts tomorrow. Let us be honest; that is simply not the case. 
Paul Quinn 
: Because of the mess that the Labour Government left it in. 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: I can tell Mr Quinn that political commentary from Television New Zealand is one of the few areas where I have seen the acknowledgment that the economy was stalling well before the first Christchurch earthquake. That is for sure. We knew that. The reason is that the Government never had a plan not before and not after. There was never a plan for growth. Let us also be honest about the three areas the Government is now targeting. Before National came into Government it described Working for Families as communism and student loans as a bribe. It had never been a fan of KiwiSaver. So it is not enough for National members to stand here and tell us that by default the Government has no choice but to make the cuts it is making. It had a choice to present this country with $2.5 billion worth of tax cuts. That was its choice and it made it. Now we as a country are paying the consequences of that with the cuts we will see tomorrow. Let us also be clear about the cuts to the areas it has chosen. National members are not wringing their hands over them. These are ideological choices that they are making under the guise of being forced to make them by the global financial crisis and the Christchurch earthquake. 
Let us also look at the impact that this lack of growth has had. I do not want us just to assume that it means that they have had to make a few tough calls. It has had very real consequences for the state of our economy. The Prime Minister crows about projected growth in wages and employment levels. He has not told us what proportion of that growth is simply down to redeployment around the Christchurch earthquake. There is 6.6 percent unemployment and 27 percent of our young people are now looking for jobs which is the highest number we have on record. There are 77000 young people who are not in employment education or training. If members on that side of the House do not know I can tell them that that is an increase of 34000 since they took office. They can crow as much as they like about all the reasons why that has occurred but at some point the excuses need to end and there has to be a plan for growth. A tax cut first was not it and second made it worse. 
What have we seen the Government present around employment? There have been three attempts to tackle the issue. The Job Summit was the first. How many jobs did the Job Summit create? Mr Cunliffe indicates a handful. There were hundreds at best. Secondly we had Job Ops. Half of that package was canned after the Government recognised and acknowledged that all it created was short-term make-work schemes. All we got out of that were pumpkin patches—short-term employment. Thirdly we had the employment plan. The Government was going to invest $55 million in skills which it has already cut.