Joyce Steven: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJoyce Steven: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1468. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development):That was an interesting contribution from the member in charge of “What is work?”—the member whose job it is to wander around the country and ask the world: “What is work? What is it about? What’s a job? What’s a job going to be?”. These are the questions that Grant Robertson is asking himself as he travels his whimsical way around the country working on a statement of the bleedingly obvious—working on a statement of the bleedingly obvious. Although you would have to say it is not all Grant’s own work because there were shades of David Parker in that speech it is fair to say. And before that I even heard hints of David Cunliffe—hints of David Cunliffe which just goes to show that you can change the finance spokesperson in the Labour Party but the drivel remains the same; the drivel continues. Actually I do believe that you can change the leader of the Labour Party but the words do not change. That is the weird thing.We had some state of the nation address from the new Labour leader that chap Mr Little at the beginning of the year and I thought to myself as one of the 10 listeners to that speech that some of that sounds a bit like something I might have heard before. So let us have a look at some of the lines from the speech of Mr Little. For example “We need a bold new approach to creating jobs and increasing incomes.” sounds like Mr Little does it not—“creating jobs”?Tim Macindoe: It does—it does sound like him.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well actually it was Phil Goff—Phil Goff in May 2010. Mr Little said: “The Labour Party I lead is about jobs—good jobs skilled jobs well-paid jobs.” So that is good. Cunliffe of course—his was slightly different. He said: “A job is more than a weekly wage. It gives people a purpose and pride in themselves. That is why I am focusing on jobs”. That was Mr—no it was not Mr Cunliffe; it was Mr Shearer. It was Mr Shearer.Since Labour has been in Opposition those members have talked like nothing else about creating jobs and the only job they have created is a job for Grant Robertson to find out what a job is. That is the only one. But it is not just jobs. Labour members are big on small business these days. They have suddenly discovered small business.Chris Bishop: Small party small business.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Yes small party small business. Mr Little said: “Small business success is a priority for Labour.” That was what Mr—no it was not; it was Mr Cunliffe. What Mr Little said was that Labour will now make small business a priority and so on and so on.Of course the trouble with Labour’s new-found focus on small business is that actually it does not have any interest in promoting small business at all. Mr Little wanders out there and says: “Oh I am very interested in small business.” but what Labour wants to do is about what it wants to do to small business rather than what it will do for small business. So he says: “I want to go out and help small business but oh by the way I want to drop the 90-day trial for new employees.” That is still off. Dropping the starting out wage—that is still a problem. There is still a massive big increase in the minimum wage and he has not ruled out the KiwiSaver contribution increases or the comprehensive capital gains tax. He is still talking about that sitting on a fence and it is getting uncomfortable—the pales in his backside. There is a much more expensive emissions trading scheme tough new taxes on water use and of course the national pay awards system was actually designed by Mr Little. So he is out there as was Mr Cunliffe before him saying: “I love small business.” putting his arms around small business and choking it to death. That is the plan of the Labour Party for small business.Nothing has changed—nothing has changed at all. We have a new megaphone but the same language just like we had the last time and just like we had the time before that. And weirdly—Hon Bill English: And the time before that.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The time before that and the time before that. Weirdly an election was only 3 months ago—just imagine how weird it is to members on this side to get up and hear a speech from Grant Robertson today that was virtually identical to one by David Parker 3 months before the election and identical to another one by David Cunliffe a couple of years before that.This Government is focused on creating jobs for New Zealanders. Unlike the Opposition which is still trying to work out what a job is we are out there encouraging investment that creates jobs—28000 jobs in the last quarter 80000 in the last year and 146000 in the last 2 years. That is the strongest job growth in 2 years in a decade and yet the Labour leader put out a press release last week saying that there is a jobless recovery in this country—a jobless recovery. Well if that is a jobless recovery then he really does not know what he is talking about. There were 146000 additional new jobs in the New Zealand economy over the last 2 years.That is what this Government is focused on not yacking on about what is work who needs workers really and do workers need organisations more than organisations—that was one of Grant’s theories the other day. Yes it is all very exciting stuff—all theory; all a million miles from what is reality. Meanwhile this Government is getting on with the job of doing the things that encourage people to invest in the New Zealand economy hire more people and grow more jobs. That is what is going on with this Government and the Opposition on the other side is pretending that all that is not happening. Thank you.