Ardern Jacinda: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Jacinda: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 12 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7714. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 I would be very cautious if I were the member opposite Nikki Kaye about using the word “proud” in relation to this Government’s record and in particular about stepping into the fray of listing a group of achievements and groups that should be feeling pleased with the contribution that this Government has made to their area. There were a couple that I just jotted down; I could not even grab all of them as the member spoke. But to list small business as somehow being a group that should feel grateful for the presence of this Government seems farcical to me. Businesses are losing revenue having to shut their doors and go offshore or even stop existing at all in New Zealand because of this Government’s inertia on the issue of monetary policy. Government members seem to be the only ones who do not think that there is an issue with manufacturing and the productive sector in New Zealand. If we need just a recent example they fold their arms and sit back while contractors—builders plumbers electricians—all suffer as Mainzeal collapses. They all suffer and on that side of the House they have no response to that situation. 
The second group that is meant to feel grateful for and proud of that Government’s list of achievements apparently is young people. Yes that would be the same group of people who are experiencing 30 percent unemployment for 15 to 19-year-olds yet the Minister of Youth Affairs had nothing to say on that matter. They should all feel pleased that the Youth Parliament is coming to town and that 120 young people have the privileged position of sitting in this place but what of the 30 percent of young people who cannot even get a job right now? Well I hope that the young people who come here for Youth Parliament do a better job of speaking on behalf of young people than that youth Minister did in her first contribution as Minister to this House. Thirdly we are all meant to feel grateful for the Government’s welfare reforms. Well I have got a bit more to say on that but if the Minister of Youth Affairs thinks that we should ask young people about their views on policy why do we not ask the people who are on Government support right now what they think of the welfare reforms and how those reforms are assisting them into work? I have got a bit more to say on that Mr Goldsmith because I think we will find that welfare reforms are that in title alone. They do nothing to help those people who are desperately looking for work. 
The Prime Minister’s statement in the first session of this House demonstrated that we have a Prime Minister who is willing to allow his Government to recline while we move into decline. We have gone from worse—what we had previously which was almost a “stand back and wait” option—to actually almost taking a neutral position on some things and almost a dangerous interventionist approach on others. It might have sounded harmless when it came out of the Prime Minister’s mouth because it almost looked like a comedy routine but underneath it all whilst he makes jokes people like young people the unemployed children Maori and Pasifika are all suffering. As Grant Robertson pointed out these are the people who represent our future—the taxpayers who will be paying for my retirement. I care about this issue deeply not just morally but fiscally. 
Let me show you how this hands-off approach is hurting us. There are 270000 children living in poverty. You can argue of course that we have always had a degree of child poverty in New Zealand—that is true. But we have moved from 15 percent of children living in material deprivation to 21 percent. Our social mobility is declining. What do I mean by that? The ability of a child to grow up in a State house and become a Prime Minister is lessening. It has become the area of the privileged few and when I say the privileged few I mean the baby-boomers not the children of today. We have a number of children suffering from Third World diseases and preventable hospitalisations. The markers are all there but the action is absolutely absent from that side of the House. Let us contrast that with the first speech that the Leader of the Opposition made in which he clearly said that Labour would present its plan on child poverty to the country this year. We will do that and we will do it with pride because we are willing to be bold. We are willing to address an issue that really speaks to the heart of whether we are a country that supports and looks after the most vulnerable because that surely is a mark of a society. 
There is a reason why we need to do that with urgency. I read an article in  
Idealog  
magazine recently where the writer said: “If the issue of income disparity isn’t addressed in the next few years our children will inherit a world of ballooning debt increasing social welfare costs high unemployment and rioting youth. Don’t believe it could not happen here.” Yet let us contrast that then with what Mr Key said on child poverty. Well virtually nothing. In fact whenever this Government is challenged on the issue of child poverty it responds by referring to its Ministerial Committee on Poverty. I took a look recently at what progress that committee which meets quarterly has made. I could summarise it by saying “absolutely nothing”. If I am more generous I could say that it has produced a few aides-mémoire one of which is from the Ministry of Social Development that list its projects that are focused on alleviating poverty. What might those projects be? One was listed as the White Paper for Vulnerable Children which I can tell you having read it cover to cover does absolutely nothing for child poverty. Yes it addresses some of the issues around identifying vulnerable children who have been abused but it does nothing to address child poverty. 
The No. 2 project that the Ministry of Social Development listed was its welfare reforms. I have read both bills in detail. For both bills I have sat on the Social Services Committee which has examined the welfare reforms and their impacts. 
Shane Ardern 
: With all that the member should be more informed. 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: I have looked at the statistics Mr Ardern that have come out since those welfare reforms have come into place. Tell me what the measure of success for those reforms should be. What would the measure of success be? Perhaps more people moving into work. Well on that measure the Government is an epic fail. Last quarter there was an increase in youth unemployment in every single region—every single region—bar one and that is with that Government’s first round of welfare reforms. What about invalids benefit numbers? They have gone up. Sickness benefit numbers have gone up too. DPB numbers have also gone up and that was a special interest of the Minister for Social Development. She focused on increasing work obligations yet we have seen a decrease in people on the DPB and in part-time work and an increase in DPB take-up—epic fail. 
What has the Minister also done as part of her welfare reforms? Well apart from asking people to prove more often that they are looking for work she has increased her use of sanctions. In fact sanctions under this Government have almost tripled on families with children. Across that time has that improved the situation? Well as I have said every single benefit bar the unemployment benefit in recent times has gone up. So I would call it a fail particularly when the unemployment benefit has always been the easiest one to move people in and out of and the others have always been the hardest. This Government on every measure that you could pick has failed on welfare and yet it prides itself on somehow being different and better than Labour. Yet we are the ones who got welfare numbers far below this Government’s numbers and we did it without harming children nearly to the extent that this Government must be held to account for. 
Welfare reforms should be about work first and by that I mean creating it. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Then why are you so opposed to jobs? 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: I have received a letter just today from a man who has applied for 360 jobs Minister Smith—360 jobs. Our starting point on this side of the House will always be that people want to work. It is up to that Government to get its house in order and do its bit by making sure that the jobs are there. Instead what do we have? Some of the highest unemployment we have seen in recent times and jobless figures that we should all be ashamed of. Yet that Government sits and waits and reclines while we decline. Not on this side of the House. We have a plan for employment we have a plan for poverty and over the 2 years we will continue to prove to that Government and also to the people of New Zealand that this is a party of hope rather than that side of the House which is a party of desperation.