Bennett Paula: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Bennett Paula: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
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Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I am going to stand up today and have a bit of a chat about unemployment and employment in New Zealand and where we are at. I would love to talk about welfare and the Prime Minister’s statements on that and also about vulnerable children protection and where we can go further there. However I cannot help but respond to the previous speaker Sue Moroney. Really if we cut down to it we are talking about some fundamental differences. This side of the House legitimately feels that to have a teacher-led early childhood education centre where 80 percent of teachers are qualified is fair and reasonable in the early childhood sector. Eight out of 10 teachers being fully qualified and two not being qualified is OK. The way we were heading under Labour was that pretty soon parents themselves would have to get degrees to look after their own children. To have eight out of 10 early childhood teachers with a degree at an early childhood centre for under-5-year-olds is OK by most New Zealanders. Under-5-year-olds are different. There is the word “play” and there is the word “love” which is very very seldom used by Labour when we talk about those children. For those children to be nurtured and loved by teachers a small percentage of whom are unqualified is perfectly acceptable. I will stand up and advocate that on behalf of the National Government every time and I think parents see the sense of that. 
Unemployment has increased in a recession and that is a fact. January numbers for the unemployment benefit and for benefits overall have just been released. The number of people on the unemployment benefit went up by just over 1000 for the month of January. That is the smallest increase we have seen for the month of January for more than 3 years. We have also seen the lowest increase for the month of December that we have seen for 3 years as well. Those figures are not saying that more people are not going on the benefit and that there is not a lot more work to be done; they are saying that we are seeing some changes in the labour market and that jobs are coming on line. We have also recently seen reports of more jobs being on line. At Work and Income alone we saw more than 6000 jobs come in for the month of January. 
Because the member of Parliament Jacinda Ardern is in the Chamber I will mention the issue of youth because I know that issue is very dear to her heart as well. One thing that I am particularly proud of from last year is that of the 56000-odd young people that came into Work and Income to go on a benefit 45.5 percent of them did not go on because they either found work or they went into training. So we actually managed to triage off 45.5 percent of them by steering them in the right direction. There are a number of reasons why and how that has worked. Some of that has been around job opportunities—that is making sure we linked in better with employers and giving a subsidy for those young people. So far about 13000 places have been taken up in both Job Ops and Community Max. Of those 13000 places the Job Ops component is about 9500 places. So the $5000 goes to an employer for 6 months paying around half of the young person’s wage and making a big difference. 
Industry relations have been strengthened between Work and Income and employers. We are also able to direct young people into training more quickly and as a consequence we see fewer of them go on to benefits. There is no doubt about it that has been a huge bonus. 
We also have to consider benefit numbers and my colleagues will appreciate this. During the 2000s we saw the number on the sickness benefit increase by nearly 50 percent and the number on the invalids benefit increase by over 50 percent. So while the number on the unemployment benefit was going down the number on the other benefits was going up; Labour was transferring people from the unemployment benefit to the sickness benefit and the invalids benefit. Actually we were not getting a heck of a lot sicker. We certainly were not getting 50 percent sicker and that is for sure. In what were supposedly the best of times which were completely squandered under the previous Government we saw beneficiaries just moving from one benefit to another. 
In the last 2 years we have seen the lowest percentage increase between those benefits since the early 1990s. We have been honest about the numbers on benefits about what is happening and about the type of benefits they should be on. We are not seeing the transfer from the unemployment benefit to the sickness benefit and on to the invalids benefit from where quite frankly someone’s chances of going into work would be very poor. Under the mechanisms put in place by the previous Labour Government people were more likely to go on to superannuation than into work when on the invalids benefit. We want to turn some of that stuff round. 
We believe that people are worth more than a lifetime on welfare and yes that will mean some changes. I personally understand some of the concern that comes from the sector that depends on welfare. I understand some of the frustration and the fear that comes from the possibility of coming changes. I also understand the way that Labour has chosen to absolutely scaremonger and play on that fear. Labour would like people to stay victimised and stay on welfare because quite frankly it thinks that keeping people down is the way to do it. We are saying that we believe in people being worth more. We believe in backing people to get themselves either into work or ready for work. 
It is about recognising that 85000 people are on the invalids benefit for 10 years or more—which is the likelihood and which is certainly what we have seen in the last 10 to 15 years—and that is not the place for them to be. So we are going to back those people and it will mean some changes. We have already made some changes to welfare around obligations and incentives and evening that up. Changes were made to the domestic purposes benefit in October last year and we have seen 1800 people go off the domestic purposes benefit and into work in that period. As tough as times are one must say that that is a great achievement. I can take no credit for it though because it is the people themselves who have got the jobs and it is those who have worked with them who have made that happen for them. 
I want to talk about issue of teen parents which is dear to my heart and drove me to get into Parliament in the first place. There is no doubt that I am now in a position to be able to do some stuff. Budget 2010 introduced a $14.9 million spend in this area. It was the biggest spend ever in one lump on this group of young people. I was in Rotorua on Monday night and opened one of the supported teen houses. It was absolutely cool to be there. This is voluntary housing. It is not one of the tough kinds of housing for teens who are having lots of troubles and are being made to go there to sort themselves out or else there might be dire consequences. This is a housing situation for teens who have said that they would like a bit of help and that they do not quite have the family and the whanau support around them. They ask to live in the house for a while bond with baby learn how to run a house learn how to manage a budget learn how to be a mum and learn a bit about relationships—all of those things are often what our own parents would do for us if we were young and a bit scared. I reckon having a new baby is terrifying no matter what age one is. It is putting teens into supported housing like that. Te Arawa were predominantly there and they will do a fantastic job of running this house. We have put money into helping teen parents we have certainly supported teen dads and we have also put in more intensive caseworkers and there are heaps of positive stories arising from that. But we do need to look again at the issue and that will be part of this Government’s work. The Prime Minister touched on this issue yesterday. I say that 4670 babies were born to teen parents last year. There are definitely spots where there are predominantly more teen births such as Gisborne and Kawerau and Rotorua is certainly one of those areas. 
We cannot talk about teen parents without talking about some prevention measures as we want to see teen birth numbers come down. The statistics are pretty daunting. I hate doing the statistics but teen mothers are nine times more likely to have no qualifications twice as likely to suffer from depression twice as likely to be substance dependent and three times more likely to be suicidal at times. Those statistics are pretty ugly and pretty awful. So we need to put in resources provide support and introduce prevention measures. Teen mothers will also on average spend 7.1 years out of 10 years on a benefit and stay on a benefit for longer. They are also almost 30 percent likely to have another baby while on a benefit. We can do better. We can do better for them we can do better for their children and quite frankly we can do better for New Zealand because they are ours. We will look at what we can do as far as front-loading that support getting it in place and then making sure that we back them. That is what I think it is about. I am so proud to think about where we are going this year with this vision under this Government. I am so proud to be a Minister in the John Key - led National Government.