Robertson Grant: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 17 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8025. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement that “the Government would not be chasing around the unemployment numbers 3 months to 3 months. We take a longer-term point of view because that is the realistic one”; if so how many quarters in a row has unemployment risen?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes. The unemployment rate has risen 0.1 percent in each of the past four quarters after falling in each of the five quarters before that. Statistics New Zealand reports that over the past four quarters an extra 34000 people have gone into work the labour force participation rate has remained near record levels and migration into New Zealand remains at record levels.Grant Robertson: In light of his focus on the long term how many New Zealanders are now considered to be long-term unemployed—i.e. they have been unemployed for 26 weeks or more?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I cannot give that member that number off the top of my head but we evaluate that in great detail actually when the welfare liability is updated every 6 months and that shows us not just who is unemployed today or who has been unemployed for a longer period but what the likely path is for those people over the next few months. We have a very proactive system in Work and Income New Zealand for dealing with them individually.Grant Robertson: Why are there now 46000 people who are long-term unemployed if he has so much activity going on to address their concerns?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Dealing with them one by one is about as precise a focus on them as you can get. Of course that number has gone up a little bit because the economy has been a bit softer and there are record numbers of people showing up to the labour market. As the economy strengthens again which looks likely then that number may well come back down again.Grant Robertson: Is it correct that the 46000 long-term unemployed is the highest level since 1999 other than two quarters in 2012?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I would certainly want to investigate the number because as the member will be aware in the welfare reform process there has been a lot of reclassification of people and the product of that reclassification is that a lot more people are now regarded as available for work.They used to languish on the sickness benefit under the Labour Government which decided they were hopeless and gave up on them. We do not give up on people like that. Even if they cannot get a job immediately we try to help them get ready to get a job.Grant Robertson: Given that the Australian economy was recently described as “a basket case” with unemployment at 5.9 percent why should that description not apply to New Zealand now that we have a higher unemployment rate than Australia?Hon BILL ENGLISH: To be fair to our cousins across the Tasman “basket case” is probably exaggerating the challenges that that economy has. Our unemployment rates have been remarkably similar. Our GDP growth rates are pretty similar even though we are really quite different economies. One measure of it though is that for the last 6 months we have had a net inflow of people from Australia—for the first time in a generation—which tells you something about what normal Kiwis think are the relative job prospects.Grant Robertson: Why does he not get up front with New Zealanders about the fact that his policies have led to unemployment rising for four consecutive quarters and more New Zealanders spending longer out of work and that for all of the glossy Business Growth Agenda none of his policies are working?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Normal New Zealanders have been listening to that member say that alongside the manufacturing crisis and they are not actually taking any notice of the ongoing negativity about the economy. The fact is that the economy has had a significant shock from the sharp reduction in dairy prices and it is actually handling it pretty well. And we expect that as the economy strengthens the employment numbers will gradually—and I may say slower than we would like—improve.