Bradford Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members Questions to Ministers 
Bradford Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:615;Page:11506] 
5.  
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: Is he confident that all 265 towns named by Work and Income as limited employment locations offer no job prospects and no potential for local economic development? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 The 259 localities released today—and for the most part they are not towns—were selected having considered the following: the number of local people already looking for work; the number of job placements made in the area over the last year; the local employment opportunities and the availability of local transport to travel to work. The alert list is a live list that will be regularly reviewed. If new opportunities are created in a locality—and with the Government’s regional development policies I am sure they will be—that locality will be removed from the list forthwith. 
Sue Bradford 
: Can the Minister confirm that in the light of the announcement today that should it have been a real situation Pikea’s father in  
Whale Rider 
 would not have been able to return to Whangara which has been placed firmly on the no-go list? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: There are of course no no-go lists or dead-zone lists or whatever words the member wants to call them. It would depend on whether he or she could pass the job seeker requirements. I do not know why anybody in this House would want a benefit paid to somebody who is an active job seeker if they have said that they have no way of meeting the job seeker test. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Before we pursue this much further the member should be asked to authenticate those statements. I saw the movie and there was no sign that he was on an unemployment benefit. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is the member talking about the Minister or the member? 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: The member. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member in her supplementary question does not have to authenticate in the way she has to for the original question 
Georgina Beyer 
: How will the Government’s limited employment locations policy assist unemployed people seeking work? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: We have a very low unemployment rate in this country and we want to ensure that everybody gets a job. The policy is designed to encourage people to seek work in locations where there are good work opportunities discourage people from moving to locations where there are few or no opportunities and ensure that local people already seeking work are not further disadvantaged by having other job seekers move to that area. 
Judith Collins 
: Why should this House believe that Work and Income New Zealand will apply this policy when not one person who has moved to a remote area within the past 5 years has failed any work-test requirement? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The member might like to know that Work and Income New Zealand changed its name to Work and Income some years ago. It is worth keeping up. [ 
Interruption 
] I am just saying— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Answer the question please. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I think we can have a great deal of faith in Work and Income ensuring that people get jobs. It has been participating in reducing the unemployment rate to the fifth lowest in the developed world and it will carry on doing so. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: If the Government is not prepared to pay the dole to people who want to move to blacklisted communities where there are no jobs can the Minister explain to the House exactly why it is that the Labour Government is prepared to pay the dole to a fit and healthy 18-year-old who already lives in such a community and who plans to stay there until he retires? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I should repeat that there are no blacklisted areas of the country. The member raises a hypothetical question about a young fit and healthy person. I say that young fit and healthy person will probably be visited in the very near future by one of the mobile units from Work and Income taking the service to his or her doorstep. That person will get a job as well. 
Judy Turner 
: Does the Minister agree that this policy has been misrepresented to imply that those who already live in limited employment locations will lose their benefit when in reality it will only sanction beneficiaries who move into these areas without a job lined up first; if so does he not think it better that these areas do not foster a reputation as a haven for hardened lifestyle dole recipients? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I agree that this policy has been misrepresented. I just stress that once again we are trying with this policy to ensure that people get jobs. That is the point of it. We are in a situation in this country where employers are calling out for labour and in some cases cannot find people to work in their businesses. We are trying to make sure that people are in the right place to get the right job at the right time. 
Sue Bradford 
: Is it true that the Jobs Jolt announcement today makes it clear that tangata whenua returning to papakainga areas will be treated no differently from anyone else and why is the Government reverting to the pre-1985 remote areas policy? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: This is not the remote areas policy at all which for example said that the whole of the West Coast was an area that people could not move to. This is a policy based on case by case analysis of whether people can meet the job seeker requirements that they should be meeting. That is what the policy is about. 
Sue Bradford 
: If it is a case by case situation why on earth are 259 limited employment locations being created? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I read out the criteria at the beginning—and I will not do it again—which set out the notion that people are moving to an area where there are jobs. I said to the member that our outstanding regional development policies spearheaded by my colleague Mr Jim Anderton would undoubtedly see many of these areas grow and move off that list in the near future. 
Sue Bradford 
: Why is Blackball on the list of limited employment locations when it happens to have a thriving community that has just saved its local school from closure and is within commuting distance of Greymouth? [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have cautioned members about interjecting during questions. That member is very lucky indeed. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I read out the criteria before and they will apply to Blackball but can I also reassure the House that every locality on this list is there as a result of consultation. It has taken place over the last 3 months with people in local areas and that is why they support this policy. 
Sue Bradford 
: Why is the Minister planning to go ahead with this scheme despite the concerns of mayors like John Forbes in Opotiki and Graham Ramsay in Kaipara who are worried that labelling parts of their districts as economically unviable will have a detrimental impact on their great efforts towards local and regional development? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I imagine that those mayors find it extremely unhelpful to have Sue Bradford label them that way. The Government has not. Our regional development policies are ones that are valued by those very mayors and will carry on making their districts even more vibrant in the future.