Mahuta Nanaia: General Debate 
Mahuta Nanaia: General Debate 
[Volume:655;Page:4832] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
: 
 If only that member Nicky Wagner spoke with conviction. In fact she sounded as if she were rehearsing for a community meeting at which she had to convince people that the direction of this Government was the right way to go. Sadly not once did she outline the Government’s plan to create more jobs in small communities throughout our country—not once. 
Phil Goff put his finger on a very important issue for many many New Zealanders and for all our communities throughout New Zealand—that is how we create jobs not lose them. How do we ensure that Kiwis stay in their jobs and not get sacked? How do we ensure that the Government shows leadership on this front and stops its slash-and-burn approach to the whole sustainability of the public sector? This is a really important issue. I know that in small communities 12 jobs make a difference. In small communities having 12 families unemployed will make a difference to the livelihood of those towns. Anyone who is listening to this debate will be very concerned that the Government cannot demonstrate its plan to ensure that jobs are protected that Kiwis stay in their jobs and that we will do more to create jobs. 
What do we hear from members on the other side? What is the great solution? It is $51 million for a national cycleway. The Government should tell the people in Huntly Te Aroha Paeroa Ngatea Tuakau Kawhia and Te Kuiti how many jobs that will create in their small communities. It just does not resonate. What have those towns seen? They have seen cuts to adult and community education they have seen cuts to the Enterprising Communities initiative they have seen a retraction from investment in training—when we need it most—and they have also seen at a very local level what the critical impact will be of a small number of people and of small to medium sized enterprises losing jobs. What they want to hear from a Government that is even remotely interested is what it will do to ensure that employment in our small communities will be sustainable. 
The National Government should tell the community of Otorohanga what it will do in relation to Otorohanga’s pre-trades training course. A lot of energy has gone into that community and a lot of local leadership to ensure that its young people can train in their own community with their own business people to be able to pursue a pathway in trades training. The investment that Otorohanga has put into pre-trades training with the support of Enterprising Communities has been shown to have very good outcomes. There has been strong local leadership from the mayor strong support from the previous Labour Government and strong support also from the students themselves and their parents. They have known that for any solution to be sustainable in a community it needs everybody working together and everybody being committed to the long-term development of their skilled workforce. 
But what have we seen? We have seen the Minister for Social Development and Employment pull Enterprising Communities— 
Hon Member 
: Shame. 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA 
: —shame on them—which again makes an impact in small communities where those types of decisions reverberate. Let us take Te Whangai Trust in my own electorate near Kaiawa. Only 12 people are employed by the trust through the initiative of Enterprising Communities but a family has made some land available to be used for a nursery to enable sustainable planting. The trust has contracts with Environment Waikato. The 12 people who are employed there will be affected because their third year of funding has not been guaranteed by the Government. Why is the Government pulling Enterprising Communities funding in that way? Because it says there is no sustainable employment outcome. Let me say something about that. If Government members bothered to look at some of the backgrounds of those 12 people they would see that many of them have had difficulty in getting full-time employment. But that programme in itself has lifted self-esteem. It has enabled some of those people to take on further training and for some of them—a very small number—there are a couple of employment outcomes. In its totality the programme has made a difference not only to those 12 people but to their families. Those people are finding now that they do not need to access the range of mental health support services they needed because they were at home and feeling depressed. Families are finding now that their family members are getting up in the morning and going to do something that is worthwhile. 
These are the types of outcomes that cannot be measured strictly by an employment outcome. It is far better to have people in initiatives supported by programmes and funding like Enterprising Communities and actively doing something than being in the dole queue. But what did we hear from the Government? Well the Government said that the scheme did not have an employment outcome so it chose to get rid of the funding. What the Government does not know though is that the unemployment numbers will go up.