Bennett Paula: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
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Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairman for allowing me to take the call. I am not overly surprised that there is not a call from the Opposition on this as we have had no hearing requested in the estimates on Vote Employment for the last 2 years. Opposition members did not ask the Minister to come before the Social Services Committee this year; they did not ask the Minister to come before the select committee last year. On something as important as Vote Employment I think it is quite surprising to say the least. It is quite surprising that Opposition members are pretty much hands-off on issues around employment and there are no real questions from them. 
So instead of calling the Minister to account as it could have done—that is the parliamentary process after all—instead of asking the Minister to front up to Vote Employment in front of the select committee and answer some questions on employment the Opposition has been very silent and there has really been no call from Opposition members to see this as an area of importance. That has been very evident in their actions. It is not just all talk it is very clear in their actions and of course there are no calls tonight as I can see so far on this. I hope Opposition members do have something to say on employment and might stand up and ask some questions because I am looking forward to that. 
Employment of course is crucial and there is absolutely no doubt that we have seen some very tough times in the last 3 to 3½ years. As we came out of the global recession we saw the unemployment rate rise and we saw more people unemployed. We saw both employment go down and unemployment increase. We saw fewer people in the market place and in the labour market. We also saw hours reducing which was quite interesting. When we looked at how businesses and corporates and those sorts of jobs responded to the recession we saw a great reduction in hours worked. We saw people being reduced down to a lot more part-time work which was tough on people particularly those who were struggling anyway and on the minimum wage or close to it. To then have their hours reduced was really tough on them. 
We introduced in those early days the 4-day week so people could go to the 8-day fortnight and reduce their hours and there was support for them from the Government. What we heard and what we saw was that that was greatly received by businesses because it gave them options and let them see what could be done. They did not need the Government to tell them to do it. They were responsive enough and had great enough relationships with their employees that they could get together and make arrangements amongst themselves to try to keep people in work wherever possible. That is certainly what this Government thought would happen and how we thought it would go. 
As far as Vote Employment is concerned we saw the unemployment rate top out there. We did not see it get as high as in some other countries but then again we did not hold ourselves exactly against the comparison with Australia either. We saw the United States at 10.1 percent and Ireland going into double figures and higher; it got be to really really tough. 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: What have we done to deserve this high-paid commentary on the lives and times of our society? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: We have a bit of chipping in from the Opposition right now. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to have to watch Parliament will not be surprised that we are getting a little bit of chipping in from Opposition members but we do not actually get them asking the Minister to go in front of the select committee. We do not hear them taking a call on Vote Employment so as per usual it is hot air blowing across the Chamber but no real action no real accountability and no real holding to account either from Labour and that is a fact. 
We now have 2.2 million New Zealanders in work—61000 jobs have been created since 2009. We are seeing more full-time jobs now than we did more women in work increasing wages and more hours for those workers who are in jobs. What has happened is the labour market has responded. Businesses tightened up when they had to they went through some tough times but now they are actually increasing hours. We see it through the household labour force survey. We see them taking on more women—which I am always pleased to see. 
The number of young people in work has been concerning not just to Parliament but to New Zealand overall. We certainly have had some concerns around the 16 and 17-year-olds and their rate has certainly increased. But we have seen an increase of more than 5400 young people in work over the last year to June and we have also seen the number of them not in employment education or training go down.