Adams Amy: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Adams Amy: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2927. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 I am getting heartily sick of sitting in this House and listening to Opposition parties that claim to care about jobs claim to care about incomes and claim to care about raising the living standards of New Zealanders yet continually oppose every single policy that will actually create jobs raise living standards and create prosperity for New Zealanders. They claim to care about those things but let us judge them on their actions. Every time this Government brings to this House a proposal to do things that will create jobs and that are creating jobs things that will get a handle on debt and things that are creating prosperity and a future for New Zealanders Labour New Zealand First and the Greens oppose it—every single time. Their policies are contradictory inconsistent misguided and misleading. In fact they are intellectually duplicitous. They promise New Zealanders that they care about those things but they oppose every single opportunity to actually make a difference to the wealth the prosperity and the future of this country. 
 While this afternoon we have sat here and listened to petty political point-scoring from Labour this Government is watching the fact that the international situation is increasingly more serious. Anyone who is following the situation in Europe understands that there has hardly ever been in our memory a time more serious in terms of the international and local financial management. This is a time for sensible prudent fiscal management and that is what this National-led Government is delivering to this country. We are focusing on getting our debt under control so that we are not reliant on international lenders and having to pay more and more money to offshore lenders as the Labour Green and New Zealand First parties would want. We are focused on keeping our debt under control getting Government debt down and getting back to surplus in 3 years so that we have choices and so that this Government can deliver policies that will create more jobs as we are.  
We are focused on creating economic growth for this country and we make no apology about that. We are here to create economic growth we are here to create opportunities and it is delivering. It is delivering. The Opposition does not want to hear it but the facts speak for themselves. This afternoon in question time you heard the Minister for Social Development confirm that the number of people on the unemployment benefit is now at its lowest level for more than 3 years.  
Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor 
: They’re on their way to Australia.  
Hon AMY ADAMS 
: You see they do not want to hear it. They want to keep blustering and bleating away from the sidelines knowing that they broke the economy and we are fixing it. They do not want to hear it but the fact remains that the number of people on the unemployment benefit is not only one of the most respectable in the world but also now at its lowest level in more than 3 years. Even more impressively the number of young people on the unemployment benefit has dropped by 44 percent.  
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Where are the jobs?  
Hon AMY ADAMS 
: Well that is where the jobs are Mr Cosgrove. They are being filled by those people who have got off the unemployment benefit and whom you abandoned. The jobs are exactly why we now have a 44 percent decrease—a 44 percent decrease—in the number of our young people on the unemployment benefit. That is proof that this Government is delivering an effective economic growth strategy to this country. That is why the New Zealand people continue to put their faith and their trust in the John Key - led Government because we are focusing on what matters.  
We are focusing on getting jobs getting opportunities and lifting living standards for all New Zealanders and we are prepared to walk the talk. We are prepared to walk the talk. We do not come to this House and oppose growth structures. We bring to this House infrastructure plans like the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband the Rural Broadband Initiative and the roll-out of the 700 megahertz spectrum all of which the Labour Party opposed. Labour members do not want you to have ultra-fast broadband. They do not want to move to a digital economy. They have opposed that. They had 9 years to do anything and they did nothing. Yet this Government is rolling out a digital future for this country because we know that that is where the future lies. That is why we have invested $1.35 billion in ultra-fast broadband. That is why New Zealand is being taken into the future with a digital economy by this Government which is focused on infrastructure and which is focused on innovation.