Cunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Cunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:657;Page:6705] 
6.  
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: Does he agree with the Prime Minister that “we do not believe that any Government programme will be able to prevent a significant rise in unemployment”? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Yes but alongside that the Government has introduced a rolling maul of programmes to assist people where possible with unemployment. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: How can the Minister maintain that view when the OECD has credited Australia’s fiscal stimulus with having saved up to 200000 jobs? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: We believe that the fiscal stimulus in New Zealand has saved thousands of jobs as well. In any case the Australian economy was in a better position to start with because for the last 10 years it has been managed well whereas ours has been managed badly. 
Amy Adams 
: What forecasts has he seen on unemployment? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: For New Zealand the forecasts are showing that unemployment may peak lower than the 8 percent that was estimated in the Budget. Compared with many other countries such as the UK the US and most of Europe our unemployment is low. In fact only a handful of developed countries such as Australia have a similar or lower level of unemployment. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Does he agree with the Secretary-General of the OECD who said: “Employment is the bottom line in the current crisis”; if so why does he not do more earlier to prevent New Zealand’s unemployment rising as Australia has done—holding unemployment steady for 3 consecutive months? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I do agree with the OECD Secretary-General that unemployment is No. 1 and I wish that Labour did too because then it would understand the decisions that were made about the emissions trading scheme which will help keep thousands of jobs in New Zealand that would otherwise be exported to China. 
Amy Adams 
: How do the unemployment forecasts compare historically? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Of course New Zealand has had a combination of its own recession starting at the beginning of 2008 followed by the global recession. Compared with other recessions it looks as if New Zealand is now reaping the benefits of being an open and resilient economy because unemployment is forecast to peak somewhere between 7.5 and 8 percent whereas in previous recessions it has reached over 10 percent. That is a huge benefit to the thousands of New Zealanders who will keep their jobs instead of losing them. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Can the Minister confirm that he said on Radio New Zealand today that “for most people the measure of the economy is whether unemployment is still rising” and given that it is does he not now regret doing so little to keep Kiwis in jobs and prevent the erosion of living standards in families? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: No. What I do regret is that through some of the best economic conditions that the globe will see in a generation that member’s party wasted the opportunity and thousands of people have lost their jobs. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I imagine you can anticipate the point of order Mr Speaker but every time that Minister is under pressure in an answer he resorts to quoting history and reciting Labour Party policy—or at least his version of it. Is there no way you can encourage him to talk about his Government rather than make up stories about somebody else’s? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The honourable member might recollect that when his leader asked a straight question I sought and he got an answer from the Minister. The member may recollect that in his own question he asked whether the Minister regretted something. When a member puts that kind of part into a question it invites all kinds of answers because it is seeking an opinion—whether the Minister regrets that bit or regrets something else. I cannot pin the Minister down on that kind of question. I invite the member to reflect on the question that his leader asked and on the question he asked and I think he will see a difference. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek your guidance in interpreting your learned remarks made previously. In my supplementary question I simply quoted the Minister’s own words and asked whether in the context of his answer he now regretted them as they seemed to contradict his former point. How can that be grounds for him to depart from talking about his own Government and spend the whole of his reply talking about Labour? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Because very clearly to ask whether the Minister regrets some remarks is to seek an opinion. Once the member invites the Minister to give an opinion it is far more difficult to be precise with answers. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Very generous. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think the member needs only to look at  
Speakers’ Rulings 
 to see all the rulings around opinions and it is difficult. It is difficult for the Speaker to ask a Minister to answer more precisely when an opinion has been sought because often the opinion will not be what the member wanted. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: When the Minister of Finance claims credit for a low level of unemployment in New Zealand does he believe that that low level of unemployment has happened in just the last few months or was there a low level of unemployment relative to all other OECD countries for almost the whole 9 years of the previous Labour-led Government? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Opposition members need to decide whether they are attacking the Government for unemployment being low as that member was or for unemployment being high as the previous questioner was. The facts are pretty straightforward. We went into this recession with relatively low unemployment and it will peak significantly lower than for other countries and significantly lower than in other recessions.