Woods Megan: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Woods Megan: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6136. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) 
: 
 Ministers and former Ministers have sat opposite today and kidded themselves that they are doing a good job. What we are here talking about today is opportunity lost particularly opportunity lost in relation to jobs to skills and to education and particularly in relation to the opportunity that Christchurch afforded us. 
The Government’s 2011 Budget—a pre-election Budget when the Government was full of verve and wanting to court the vote—talked about Christchurch the rebuild and the opportunity that was afforded there. Minister Joyce told us: “The government is committed to ensuring that people in Canterbury have the chance to build their skills so they can contribute to the rebuild of their city. This extra funding will ensure they have that opportunity”. Well that has been a monumental fail. 
Let me take you through that 2011 Budget package and let me tell you about opportunity lost a Government that lacks vision and a Government that is failing its people. It was heralded that $42 million of extra funding was allocated to train our young people with the skills needed to rebuild Christchurch. We were going to train them up. Well what has happened? This is a Government that has managed to spend only $8 million of that money. It has managed to train only 654 people with that money— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: How many? 
Dr MEGAN WOODS 
: —654 of our young people of the 84000 young New Zealanders not in education employment or training. This is a Government that has managed to shift only 654 of them despite having money in the Budget. Instead what has it done? It has cribbed $28.4 million from other places in the tertiary education budget. It was meant to do this to create 3000 places using baseline funding but it has failed even in this. It has managed only 1626 placements within this. It has failed on this and it has failed to deliver. 
Not only did Budget 2011 promise training opportunities in terms of the Skills for Canterbury package but it also promised that it was going to get our young people off the dole into work and into training. The Government—pre-election and courting the vote—accordingly allocated $1.5 million to shift 650 of our young people off the dole and into education and training. Well that is a failure—yet another failure by this Government. It has managed to spend only $740000 less than half of its allocated money. 
But more abysmally and where it is failing our young people is that it has managed to shift only 262 people from the dole and into work or training associated with the rebuild of Canterbury. It has not met its targets and it is failing our young people. Meanwhile 84000 of our young New Zealanders continue to languish not in education employment or training. We are still waiting for the opportunities. We are still waiting for the Government to actually come up with and do something meaningful to address this problem of 84000 of our young people. 
Christchurch offers the Government that opportunity and we are disappointed that it is not taking that opportunity. We are still waiting for the Government to actually do something in terms of the infrastructure rebuild of Canterbury. On the day that it announced its “firm proposals” for the closure of Christchurch schools it was also meant to be launching an employment package around the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team and the infrastructure rebuild but this has disappeared and we on this side of the House would like to know where it is. 
In terms of the relationships with industry there is just a whole lot of talk—all good in theory but a failure. The much-vaunted relationships with industry—well let me tell you. The relationship with Hawkins Construction has resulted in 75 young people getting into training or employment—75—and 26 with Fletcher Building. That is not good enough. This is a Government that needs to do something about offering real opportunity to our young people.