Cosgrove Clayton: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6130. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour) 
: 
 If the Minister who has just resumed her seat the Minister of Police wanted an idea as to how to retain Kiwis the thousand a week who are leaving our shores—including 17000 Kiwi technicians tradespeople and labourers—for Australia she would do well to look at a thing called the Christchurch earthquake. We need 30000 to 40000 trade-trained skilled people to rebuild the show. It is one of the world’s biggest training schemes on our doorstep. We know that her Government put forward a paltry 42 million bucks in trade training 80 percent of which is unused. We know that we have 84000 young people not in work and not in training. This is a wonderful opportunity in Christchurch not only to reconstruct our second-biggest city but also to deal with and train and get off the dole 84000 young people. 
Yet what do we find out? We find out that the latest reports are that we are going to import 15000—nearly half of the quota of trade-trained people whom we need. We are not going to train unemployed folk as we could have done for the last 2 years. We are going to import 15000 of them because the Government lacked the foresight 2 years ago to actually take those young people train them and turn them into productive human beings. They would be 2 years through a 3 to 4-year apprenticeship. They would have been highly skilled highly productive and would have aided and abetted the rebuilding of Christchurch. So if the Minister wants to look for an opportunity—and she is fond of quoting figures—she might look at the opportunity that the tragic earthquake presents instead of importing folk. It is not xenophobic to say as Gerry Brownlee committed to Cantabrians first Kiwis second and the rest of the world third when it comes to filling the capacity and the jobs that the earthquake has created. But oh no. The xenophobic label is put on by a few short-sighted in the media and that Minister there. 
We had a policy at the last election that was fiscally neutral. It was about taking the dole giving it to the boss the boss topping it up for 1 year and the commitment is that that young person be trained. You either use the dole to have the person languish or you give it to the boss for 1 year—same money fiscally neutral. That is then turned into a commitment to trade train that person through a thing called an apprenticeship and allow that young person to contribute to the rebuild of Christchurch and take that person off the dole. We put that to Gerry Brownlee and others and we reminded Gerry Brownlee of the deal—Cantabrians first Kiwis second the rest of the world whom we will need last—and he did nothing about it. 
I fondly remember the last time—I was not a member of Parliament—and I did remind a former National Minister of Education at the time who I think did not have the intellect the smarts or the capacity when that education Minister I think in 1992 repealed the 1983 Apprenticeship Act. The Minister did not have the intellectual rigour the smarts or the capacity perhaps—maybe that member does now—to realise the error of his ways. But of course we have got past that have we not? So I say to that Minister over there that it might be time that she looked at what is happening as a result of the earthquake. 
I went to a meeting of Ouruhia School parents last night. They are fabulous parents. Their school is on the block. Apart from that which my colleagues will deal with later these were great parents who want a future for their kids. They believed in the sort of John Key brighter future. Some of them had teenagers who were looking for jobs and looking for a future. Some of them I wager are looking for trade training and want to get out there and contribute. But this Government does not have the foresight like its predecessors to take advantage of what is a tragedy but also an opportunity to take those 84000 young people to trade train them and to have them contribute in Canterbury to that recovery process. Seventeen thousand technicians and tradespeople have gone to Aussie—a thousand Kiwis a week—and that is the brighter future. Why would you stay here? You would stay here because there are opportunities and the Christchurch recovery gives that opportunity. Let us hope that this Government does not repeat the stupidity of past National Ministers.