Smith Nick: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Smith Nick: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 12 September 2012. Volume:683;Page:5146. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 Does it not speak volumes about the level of confidence in the leadership of the Labour Party that there is fewer than half the caucus here this afternoon to listen to their leader? I remember in the days when National was in Opposition and John Key was the leader that you would have had every single member of the National caucus down here backing the leadership and the team. But having heard the content I am not surprised that the Labour caucus is sitting up in their offices embarrassed by the content. You see the Leader of the Opposition has just said he does not understand the significance of a $78 billion social welfare liability. Well I say to the Leader of the Opposition that until he understands the scale of the welfare challenge and the importance of getting families into work and off welfare he has no prospects of being a Minister—let alone a Prime Minister—in the Government of New Zealand. 
What a contrast there has been over the adjournment in the approaches to the challenges that face New Zealand. I want to commend Paula Bennett on the powerful work that she is doing to change this country for the better in the way in which she is dealing with those welfare challenges. You see Paula Bennett and this John Key - led Government understand the obligations and responsibilities that must sit alongside rights. For instance we on this side of the House say that a person should be able to be drug tested whether they are in work or whether they want to get a welfare benefit. The Leader of the Opposition does not even know where he stands on the issue of whether we should liberalise cannabis laws in this country. We on this side of the House know that children need to get access to doctors to early childhood education and to schools to be able to get ahead in life. That is why the Minister has announced a pre-requirement for those families that we are financing to make sure they meet that obligation. I hear New Zealanders from Kaitaia to Bluff saying hear hear! 
You know the biggest absence in commentary from the Labour Party is where they stand on national standards. Is it not interesting to see Julia Gillard the Prime Minister of Australia championing the cause and the importance of measuring how kids do in Australia and yet we have a Labour Party in New Zealand that is so beholden to the teachers unions that it is not prepared to stand up for what is right and for measuring how our kids do at school? 
 But the contrast goes far deeper than that—far deeper than that. You see what we heard from the Government over the adjournment was how we grow the economy and from the Opposition we heard how we spend how we borrow and how we get New Zealand further into difficulty. What we have from Labour in that confused and muddled speech from the Leader of the Opposition is not one mention of the biggest issue that confronts our country and that is how we are going to grow wages and grow jobs so that this country can provide the education the health and the opportunities for the next generation of New Zealanders. 
So often we on this side of the House have said that Labour is living on some different planet and that was reinforced in the contribution today. All around the world countries are trying to confront the issues of debt of deficits and of how to grow the economy. Yet we have not had a single idea from members opposite on how to achieve those things. Let me just reflect just quickly on the good things that this Government is doing in that space. Firstly let us look at the issue of jobs. There have been 40000 new net jobs created in the last 2 years in the New Zealand economy a faster rate of job growth than any other OECD country and it has been achieved in incredibly challenging financial times. 
Sue Moroney 
: What rubbish! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I ask the member who is interjecting what the unemployment level is in Spain. It is 24 percent. What is it in Italy and Ireland and other countries in Europe? It is in double digits. New Zealand has one of the lowest levels of unemployment because of the competent economic management the focus on growth and the package of measures that colleagues are rolling out which gives this country hope for a brighter future.