Beaumont Carol: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Beaumont Carol: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
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CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 As I rise to speak I begin by wondering about the purpose of the Prime Minister’s statement. We have heard a lot of rhetoric from Government members on the other side of the House about vision and so on. Perhaps naively I thought that the statement would contain some sort of vision and perhaps a work programme aligned to that vision. But instead typically from that Prime Minister we have had a lot of political opportunism political rhetoric and the usual spin which has probably been tested on focus groups. And the statement lacks vision it lacks specifics it lacks empathy and it certainly lacks ambition. I thought that given the appallingly high level of unemployment in this country which continues to rise and disproportionately affects some groups—Maori Pasifika and young people—there would perhaps be some acknowledgment of the human cost of unemployment. In fact I think it behoves the Prime Minister to actually recognise that unemployment is about people. It is about people being without jobs; it is about people struggling to make ends meet. There was no empathy from Mr Key and there were no concrete plans in that speech to assist unemployed New Zealanders. 
I compare that with President Obama’s state of the nation speech which I will quote from: “If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession you probably know someone who has—a friend; a neighbour; a member of your family. You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis because you live it every day. It’s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real and it is everywhere.” President Obama went on to state that his agenda starts with jobs. There was nothing like that in the speech of the New Zealand Prime Minister. Unlike countries such as Australia the United Kingdom and Canada where there has been a real focus on stimulus packages that create and save jobs investment in people through skills and other training opportunities there is nothing like that here. 
I work in the Maungakiekie electorate in Auckland and I talk to people all the time. In fact I talk to people in Glen Innes—the people Mr Peachey was referring to earlier. I talk to people in the Panmure market on the streets of Onehunga and in my office. People are struggling. They have lost their jobs and they have lost hours of work. They have had small or no pay increases; 56 percent of people last year did not have a pay increase. This Government of course responded very generously by lifting the minimum wage by 25c an hour. Members should ask Aucklanders about that. 
Hon George Hawkins 
: How much? 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: It was 25c. Even the poll in the  
New Zealand Herald  
overwhelmingly showed that Aucklanders believe the minimum wage needs to be $15 an hour; people know that one cannot live on the minimum wage. People are struggling and what do they have to look forward to? There are rises in accident compensation levies of course. Very likely there will be an increase in the GST rate which will disproportionately hit those on low incomes. To the members across the other side of the House who maybe do not bother to do this I suggest that they talk to budget advisers in their area. I suggest they talk to the good volunteers at the citizens advice bureaus and to some church ministers. They will reinforce that everything I have just said is true. 
The Prime Minister’s speech talked about the gap between income in Australia and New Zealand. When was that gap created? That gap in wages in GDP per capita was actually created under the last National Government. In fact interesting enough that Government over there is paying Dr Brash to come back with the same tired old policies that created that gap. Government members say they will not bother to use those policies but they are still paying him to keep trolling them out. 
Phil Twyford 
: What a waste of money that is. 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: Absolutely! I can think of better things to use it for; that is for sure. 
We need to focus on other gaps as well. First and foremost is the gap between rich and poor in New Zealand. I was lucky enough the other day to be at the launch of the Salvation Army’s state of the nation report  
A Road to Recovery 
 in Royal Oak in the Maungakiekie electorate. In that report this comment was made: “But there is no denying that the recession is taking a social toll. Unemployment is at a five-year high gains made over the past five years in reducing child poverty have probably been lost and there are signs of a widening income gap between the well paid and the poorly paid.” Is there any recognition of that in the Prime Minister’s speech? The answer is none at all. 
Increasingly there is recognition globally that fairer societies are more successful societies. In the past New Zealand has been held up as a model of a fair society. Unfair societies are not sustainable; there is the cost of the health system of the prison system and to the victims of crime. Recently—in fact today—the Human Rights Commission was quoted about the costs of the very high unemployment rate faced by young Maori and Pasifika people. Instead of addressing inequality this Government is building on the inequalities that it has already put in place: the cuts to adult and community education while funding private schools; and tax cuts for the rich which are soon to be followed by more tax cuts for the rich. 
Mr Key in his speech did make a number of comments about lifting our economic performance. This Government is good at mentioning the word “productivity” but it is very poor at doing anything about it. Where is the plan around industry and regional economic development? Where is the recognition of the need to lift the quality of our workplaces: the wage rates the work conditions the quality of interaction and the opportunity for people to have a say? Productive employment relations—where are they? This Government sees workers and their rights as costs to be reduced. We have only to look at the double-speak in the Prime Minister’s statement. Under the heading “Better regulation” it reads: “… look at whether labour laws are imposing excessive costs on the country and holding back opportunities to create jobs.” Holidays and personal grievances are of course specifically mentioned. We also know that the Minister of Labour is looking at things like union access to workplaces and collective bargaining. I ask the people of New Zealand to remember what all of that kind of double-speak meant last time there was a National Government in place—the very same time that the gap in income between Australia and New Zealand grew so dramatically. 
The thing that I find very very upsetting and disheartening for our country is that skills are only mentioned once in passing in the Prime Minister’s speech and twice in his statement. That is one of the most appalling aspects of this Government’s performance. It does not understand the importance of lifelong learning that 80 percent of the workforce we will have 10 years from now is already in the workforce and that investing in skills is critical to lifting productivity and innovation. Investing in skills can be used to lift literacy an issue the Government is supposedly very concerned about and that can also help parents with their children’s literacy and learning needs. It is appalling. The lack of concentration on this issue is just mind-boggling. We cannot afford not to invest in our people our children or communities and in our economy. 
We have major skills deficits; technical and literacy skills are two of the key areas. A Government with some vision would invest substantial resources in training people in order to upskill our workforce. We should consider ideas like paying unemployed people to train and working with businesses to help them retain workers while they are being upskilled. By doing things like that we would be positioned to transform our economy at a time when we are perhaps coming out of the recession. The benefits would apply to individuals to their families to their communities to their workplaces to our society and to our economy yet this Government sits on its hands. It is just unbelievable that we have fallen so far behind the rest of the world in that regard. 
In this area the Government is not only lacking in ambition and vision but also very arrogant. Some very good work was indeed done by the previous Labour Government. There was Schools Plus. There was the Skills Strategy a comprehensive strategy agreed to by unions business the Government and the Industry Training Federation—by everybody. The National Government failed to pick it up because it was something from Labour. Well that is just arrogance in my opinion. There was the retraining allowance for those who have been made redundant after having been in their job for 5 years or more—I could go on. 
I will talk about listening to people though. Mr Bennett said this Government listens to people. I say he needs to come to Auckland and tell that to the people of Auckland. One of the areas in the Prime Minister’s statement was about Auckland’s governance. What a shambles! Everybody I speak to from every walk of life is angry worried and concerned about what is going to happen in respect of the Auckland super-city. We have had meetings across Auckland and I tell members that people are concerned about the lies—the fact that they were told that the powers of the local boards— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am sorry to interrupt the member but her time has expired.