Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:655;Page:4793] 
1. 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: What is the plan he said yesterday he has to mitigate rising unemployment and why after 7 months has he still not announced it? 
Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 I am glad that the member asked me that question actually because there is a wide-ranging plan on this side of the House to take the sharpest edges off the recession. Parts of those plans have already been outlined. There will be $30 billion worth of borrowing to take the rough edges off the recession $500 million for infrastructure $500 million going to the small to medium sized enterprise sector— 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not like to interrupt but this is the first question of the day which has been put down on notice. Presumably the House is interested in the answer. I have not heard anything from the first sentence on given the barracking from the party that asked the question. I think those members are surprised that the Prime Minister does have a plan and I am interested— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member has gone quite far enough. I think the point he raises is relevant. I admit that my ears are not functioning properly at the moment and I apologise to the House for that. I could not hear what the Prime Minister was saying so I ask that interjections be a little more reasonable. 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Of course the $323 million that went into the home insulation fund budget delivered a credit upgrade not a downgrade which is what we would have got from Labour. There have been changes to legislation and regulations that have seen 90-day probationary periods and a balanced response to climate change. The Resource Management Act will be changed under this Government. There is the 9-day working fortnight the ReStart programme lifting productivity—and there will be a lot more to come. This is a Government that is working hard for the people of New Zealand. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Is it part of the Government’s plan to mitigate rising unemployment by sacking hundreds of workers in the public sector including the sacking yesterday of 18 community social workers involved in early intervention detection and prevention of child abuse which child advocates have said has put children’s lives at risk? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: As is so often the case with the Leader of the Opposition he was a day late in asking a question. His deputy asked that question yesterday. I will give him the same answer. The 18 people who were involved in awareness of child abuse will be replaced by 21 people who will act on prevention of child abuse. This party and this Government campaigned on moving resources from the back office to the front office. There has been widespread support for that move out there in the community. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: How high is the Prime Minister prepared to allow the unemployment rate to go in the Maori and Pacific Island communities—it is currently running at 12 percent and 13 percent—before he is prepared to take targeted action to prevent the huge social and economic costs of unemployment in those particular communities? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Firstly I lament the loss when any New Zealander loses his or her job not just Maori and Pacific Island New Zealanders. Secondly we need to acknowledge that there are higher levels of unemployment with Maori and Pacific Island New Zealanders and that has been the case for a very very long period of time. Thirdly there are targeted actions that we are taking around training but I make just one point— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Like what? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: There are actually a number of good things coming. But I make this one point: Mr Goff is being dishonest with the New Zealand public. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That is grossly unparliamentary language from the Prime Minister and it does not help with the free flow of question time. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I ask the Prime Minister to withdraw that statement. He cannot allege that another member is being dishonest. 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I withdraw. The Leader of the Opposition is being quite economical with the truth when it comes to New Zealanders. No one can magic away a recession. It is not the case in the United States where the unemployment rate is 9.4 percent and it is not the case in the European Union where the unemployment rate is 9.2 percent. So to believe and portray that anyone can magic away a recession like that is being quite economical with the truth. If that were the case—I make this one point—in 1986 the unemployment rate—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I hesitate to stand when the Prime Minister is on his feet but I want to hear the last of the Prime Minister’s answer. I hope it will be relevant. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The last thing I heard the Prime Minister say was “1986”; we have not heard anything since that. If he repeats the answer I ask that he please repeat it from that point onwards. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I ask the members for a little decorum please. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It might facilitate progress if the Prime Minister were able to restrict himself to the current century. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order. 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: If I could just take members back to a time when Phil Goff was the new face of the Labour Party back in 1986. Back then he was the Minister of Employment and under his watch the unemployment rate went from 42000 to 149000 people. When he gets his magic wand out he should go and give it to someone else because it obviously did not work for him when he was the Minister of Employment. 
Chris Tremain 
: Has the Prime Minister seen any reports of employment Ministers being able to reverse the trend of rising unemployment during a deep recession? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. Two of the least successful employment Ministers in that regard were Phil Goff and Annette King. I took a moment last night to read some of the Leader of the Opposition’s memoirs. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I invite you to rule on whether the Prime Minister in his reply which we can now hear is answering in an area for which he is responsible. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think it is a perfectly fair point the honourable member has made. I caution the Prime Minister not to wander too far out of areas of his responsibility. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister was asked whether he had received any reports. If he has received a report clearly—and he has received that report as the Prime Minister—it is within his responsibility. To suggest otherwise diminishes the Opposition’s ability or anyone’s ability to ask questions of Ministers. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Speaking to that point of order— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not need any further assistance on this matter. The Prime Minister was asked about reports. The honourable member is quite right. The Prime Minister identified those reports and gave the House some information from them. But then he started to comment on the people involved at the time. That is the bit that is outside his ministerial responsibility. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question accepted asked whether the Prime Minister has seen any reports of employment Ministers being able to reverse the trend of rising unemployment during a deep recession. Naturally he would go back to the last deep recession and would want to contrast the way the current Government is handling things with the successive employment Ministers in office at the time who are of course the current Leader of the Opposition and the deputy leader of the Labour Party. That seems perfectly reasonable. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I remind you of two things Mr Speaker. The first is that quite recently in this House people who have relitigated your rulings have got into serious trouble. We have now had two Ministers who have done that again without being stopped. The second point is that if one could take that sort of ruling and have things being within the area of the Prime Minister’s responsibility we would have had a lot more questions for the Prime Minister on the Worth affair than we have to date. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I thank the honourable member. The situation is very simple and straightforward. Where a Minister is asked about reports of course the Minister can comment on those reports and provide information on them. But where it is not within the Minister’s ministerial responsibility the Minister cannot make comment about the quality or the policies of another party. I ask the Prime Minister to stay within the scope of his responsibility otherwise I would as Speaker have to rule out answers that start to stray outside that territory. I would rather not do that. 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I have seen a report from Phil Goff when he was the Minister of Employment. The report made quite interesting reading when I read it last night. It said: “Easy answers and quick-fix solutions exist only in the imaginations of politicians running for election.” 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why did the Budget cut funding to programmes like Career Services which will lose $12 million over 4 years and axe funding to Enterprising Communities when 32000 15 to 19-year-old New Zealanders are out work—that is one in five young people who are in the job market are out of work? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: The Budget made it quite clear that there is additional funding going into Youth Guarantee which will provide a great bridge between secondary schools and polytechs and I think will deliver fantastic results for New Zealanders in an area of tremendous need. I would reject the suggestions that the Leader of the Opposition made. 
Chris Tremain 
: Has the Prime Minister seen any reports that take a realistic view about unemployment during a recession? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes I have seen a report from 1988 that says: “New jobs take time to emerge. … We would all like recovery growth and full employment to happen right now. Unfortunately the economy does not work like that.” That quote was from the then Minister of Employment Phil Goff or as he was affectionately known back then the “Minister of Unemployment”. 
Metiria Turei 
: Will the Prime Minister finally adopt more of the Green Party’s Green New Deal stimulus package in light of the World Trade Organization’s statement today that states: “Investing stimulus funds in such sectors as energy efficient technologies renewable energy public transport sustainable agriculture … ecosystems and biodiversity reflects the conviction that a green economy can create dynamic new industries quality jobs and income growth while mitigating and adapting to climate change and arresting biodiversity decline.”? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: The Government is actually addressing many of those issues. We are putting $1.6 billion into transport—including the railway electrification in Auckland starting today—and $36 million into biofuels and we have put $323 million into home insulation. I think this is a Government that accepts that good environmental policy makes sense and we are adopting that. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Is the Prime Minister so bereft of any ideas for the future because his officials have spent all of the last 24 hours dredging back 25 years to find out what was happening then? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Well the reason—[ 
Interruption 
] Yes this is the answer. The reason we look back is that it is very interesting what someone said when he was in control of the reins and completely failed to deliver on the results. But today as Leader of the Opposition he is quite happy to believe that we can magic away a recession—the worst recession since 1930. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: What analysis did Treasury do on the cost-effectiveness of the national cycleway scheme in producing jobs and is he prepared to provide the Treasury analysis oral and written to members of this Parliament; if not why not? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Rigorous analysis was done. We do not need to show the Leader of the Opposition the analysis; I can take him on the bike rides because they are starting soon. They are going to be fantastic and there will be lots of jobs as a result of them. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Will the Prime Minister remove spousal income-testing which prevents a person who is being made redundant from getting an unemployment benefit in order to help families through the really difficult times they are experiencing at the present time; if not why not? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: That is a complex issue that we need to consider. It is expensive and the member will know that there is quite a difficult interaction between the tax system which is based on individual income; and the welfare system which for a large part is based on family income. That situation in some senses has been made worse by Working for Families because it is so broad ranging. The member knows that and I just say to the member that if it was such a great idea so affordable and so easy why did the member not do it when the Government had a lot more money hanging around over the last 10 years?