Ardern Jacinda: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Ardern Jacinda: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Advance Copy - Subject to minor change before inclusion in Bound Volume.] 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to follow the Minister for Social Development and Employment and it is quite timely given that the issues I wish to focus on also sit around unemployment and will touch on youth unemployment as well. The Minister said at the beginning of her speech that she was not playing politics and implied that Labour was. She then went on to say that we did not have enough love for the people whom we are here to represent. 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: That’s not actually what I said. If you’re going to quote me do it properly. 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: I summarise what the Minister said because that is certainly what was implied. All I point out to the Minister is that if that is not playing politics then I do not know what is. 
I also point out a couple of issues that I have with quoting some of the statistics that the Minister has around young people going into Work and Income offices and not moving on to benefits. Young people of course do not become eligible for the unemployment benefit until they are 18 and as we know the NEET figures—those youth not in employment education or training—in New Zealand which I am happy to go through later on in my speech are incredibly high. A number of the young people who will be presenting to Work and Income will not be eligible for a benefit because the Government has also made it very hard for young people to go on to an independent youth benefit which is the only other benefit they would be eligible for. 
I have also heard anecdotal evidence of young people being told that they will not be put on to a benefit even if they are 18 unless they go on a Limited Service Volunteers programme even if it is held several hours away from where they live. They see that as a barrier to their getting further support. There are issues with quoting statistics willy-nilly and if the Minister is happy to provide more evidence I would be happy to see it. 
In the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday I think all of us were looking for a vision some hope and a plan. The Minister may claim that Labour is scaremongering. What scaremongering is there in asking the Prime Minister to present a plan as to how we will stimulate the economy and grow jobs for Kiwis? That is not scaremongering; that is our responsibility as the Opposition. The fear comes in when there is a blank answer from the Government as to what its plan is. That is scary. It is absolutely frightening that after 2 years of recession the Government still does not have a plan to bring us out of it and to start creating jobs for the 6.8 percent of Kiwis who are currently unemployed. 
That is not just a statistic. On 3 February when we found out that unemployment had increased that statistic represented 158000 Kiwis who are currently unemployed. That is 52000 more than when the Government took office. We know as we always do that with these kinds of figures there will always be some who are overrepresented in the statistics and in this case it is young people. Twenty-five percent of 15 to 19-year-olds are looking for work—25 percent. The last time the figure was as high as that was decades ago. I also point out that the last time it was as high as that we had a youth minimum wage. That is a message for the ACT Party. It should stop trying to bring back policies of the past that did not work. 
Hon Heather Roy 
: It works. 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: I say to Ms Roy that it did not work. The last time youth unemployment was as high as that was when we had a youth minimum wage. There is no robust evidence to suggest a correlation between lowering unemployment and giving youth a lower wage for doing the same job as an adult. 
What about the figures for youth not in employment education or training? There are 34000 fifteen to 19-year-olds not in employment education or training—34000. That is the figure that frightens me. The Minister is content to talk about unemployment benefit numbers but those numbers do not include those young people. Predominantly the young people in that category are not having any contact with Government services training education or anything that will give them a long-term future. They are the young people we should be most concerned about. 
In the 20 to 24-year-old range 11.2 percent are unemployed according to the latest household labour force survey which is 39000 not in employment education or training in that category. These represent a group of young people who often have come out of training or education and have failed to find work. Again the longer that those young people are unemployed the more difficult it becomes for them to find work. The Minister should have addressed that issue in her speech today when she told Parliament and New Zealand that an extra 1000 people are drawing benefits. She should have given us a plan. If she did not give us a plan the Prime Minister should have. But we have heard nothing from either of them. 
Instead we have heard excuses. Of the five times that the Prime Minister mentioned employment in his speech once was in reference to employment for people who are in prison and once was in terms of employment law and removing people’s employment rights as a way apparently to get them into work. That leaves three times. In those three times did we actually hear anything concrete? Well across the range of statements we heard from Paula Bennett and the Prime Minister about unemployment figures we have heard that the figures are volatile. We have heard statements that there are not enough jobs. We have heard statements from Minister Bennett that job seekers just need to keep a positive attitude. Kiwis do not want to be told that their attitude needs to change in order to find work; they need to be told there are jobs. They are looking. We know they are looking but if the jobs are not there it is a futile exercise. 
Labour has always said that things can be done to stimulate the economy in order to create employment. We have talked about a systematic change to the way the Government intervenes in the economy. Of course this falls on deaf ears because ideologically we perceive these things very differently. We have asked the Government for a plan around economic growth. Instead what have we seen from the Government? I am willing to acknowledge that the Government threw up Job Ops very early on. So far almost the entirety of the Government’s plan is Job Ops. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research gave the Government a C on youth unemployment stating that Job Ops at best would hit about 8 percent of young people who were in need of work. For those who were affected by the scheme most of the jobs turned out to be short term because there were only short-term incentives for employers to take on subsidised young people and the jobs were not necessarily long-term opportunities that would exist beyond 6 months. Essentially that is what we have seen from the Government in terms of a plan: Job Ops. Beyond that we have seen very little. 
What about the second area that the Government could have contributed in: skills and education? The Government has not invested in skills and education as the Australian Government has done and which now has unemployment in Australia at a level of 5 percent. The last time we saw a level of 5 percent unemployment was when the Government decided to have its Job Summit since which time we have been hurtling towards higher unemployment so obviously it has not had the outcome that was intended. 
Instead of investing in skills and education what did we see? In real terms we saw cuts to tertiary education. There is less funding so universities are now unable to provide the number of placements to meet the demand among young people. The Government has also made it difficult to stay in tertiary education by tightening up student loan requirements and it has essentially cut $50 million out of skills and trade training which is the exact opposite of what most sensible Governments have done in the face of a recession and unemployment. 
What about job creation? We saw the 9-day working fortnight but that was a preventative; it had nothing to do with creating work. The one thing we are left with at the end of the day is the cycleway. Labour never said the cycleway was a bad idea but we said that if it is the only idea it is a shocker. It has created about 200 jobs. When we have 158000 people out of work 200 jobs is not a plan. 
I will be happy to come back to the issue of the 90-day trial period because there is much more to be said on that issue. 
As an alternative Labour has said all along that we must make systemic change. We need a Government that will take an active role in the economy through monetary policy. It is not enough to talk about trade deals if our exporters are struggling to deal with our volatile New Zealand dollar. It is about a fairer tax system and about bringing back incentives for research and development rather than cutting $620 million out of tax credits and $700 million out of the Fast Forward Fund. PricewaterhouseCoopers has told us there are billions to be made in cleantech if only New Zealand would capitalise on that opportunity. If there are no jobs there where are they? 
Turning to skills and trade training Labour has always had a plan for youth transition; it is just a shame that the Government came in and cut it. We have also said that we need to invest in apprenticeships and we need to deal with the 70000 young people who are not in employment education or training. But instead of hearing a plan from the Government we have heard the consequences of not having a plan with just this afternoon 1000 more people joining the dole queue. Enough is enough. If Kiwis want a plan Labour will deliver it.