Coleman Jonathan: General Debate 
Coleman Jonathan: General Debate 
[Volume:677;Page:674] 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 Those pioneers of the welfare State would never have envisaged the benefit system that New Zealand has today. They would have turned in their graves to see healthy 16 and 17-year-olds starting a decade on the dole. Working-age people keen to get into work is what we need in this country and that is basically what the  
Dominion Post 
 editorial says today. I want to commend the Minister for Social Development Paula Bennett for the brave announcements that she has made because she is tackling head-on a major problem for New Zealand society. One in eight working-age people are on a benefit. This country cannot sustain that. It needs a clear signal and the signal that this Government has sent is the right one. 
 As the  
Dominion Post 
 says today we are restoring that social contract. We have to have incentives to work and that is what this Government is determined to do. It is no good having 220000 New Zealand children being brought up in benefit-dependent households and it is very disappointing to see that the Labour Party is sticking to the same old tired philosophy of trying to buy votes through supporting greater and greater welfare payments. It is not the way that this country is going to get ahead. It is not the way.  
What we have heard today from David Shearer unfortunately is once again a whole lot of descriptive guff but there is nothing in there about what he is going to do or how he is going to do it. If you want to know how this man is struggling as leader of the Labour Party just go online and listen to his interview with Larry Williams on Friday afternoon. That shows a man who really is struggling in that role. It is like in medicine. You get an inexperienced surgeon and an inexperienced anaesthetist operating together and people die. What you have got here is a very inexperienced leader coupled with a totally inexperienced chief of staff and it is falling apart because quite frankly when things start going wrong there is no one in charge over there.  
But the one person who is very happy is the man who is doing the Kevin Rudd impression over there: Phil Goff. Phil Goff is not going away. He is counting the numbers. He knows that the time will come when all those people over there on the Labour benches get very tired of being hammered week after week and get very tired of being embarrassed by their new leader by his inability to land any punches on the Prime Minister and by the bumbling and stumbling. The other guy who is very happy is David Cunliffe because he can see the opportunity coming as well. I mean first it is a beard. What next a ponytail? But anyway a leadership challenge is in the offing. Meanwhile Chris Hipkins sees the long game turning up for him.  
So it is total disarray over there. But really they are fundamentally misaligned with the way the New Zealand population is. What they wanted to do was extend the in-work tax credit under Working for Families to beneficiaries—totally out of line with what the New Zealand people wanted. They wanted to further disincentivise work. They were going to say “Actually well you don’t need to worry about working; go on a benefit and you’ll actually get all the benefits through Working for Families anyway.” But the New Zealand public saw through that. They knew that that was not the way to get ahead.  
So fundamentally the Labour Party when it comes to welfare is totally off the planet on this stuff. Paula Bennett is the best Minister for Social Development that this country has ever had—brave decisions which are going to fundamentally realign the system. These people can laugh but they are going to be there for a heck of a long time. They will be there until the day that they realise that this Government’s policies are actually right. Annette King and Phil Goff are listening very carefully because actually they know it is the truth. They know that the rudderless direction of the Labour Party at the moment is not going to take it anywhere.  
Meanwhile we are getting on with doing what the New Zealand people want us to do: managing the economy rebuilding Christchurch and putting in the incentives to work. That is the way that this country is going to get ahead. The people have a lot of confidence in John Key—in the fantastic leadership we are having from the Prime Minister. In the face of difficult fiscal challenges and a difficult environment we have had the leadership that is putting New Zealand on the right path. They say there are no jobs; the  
ANZ Job Ads  
review for January showed 30000 jobs available. There were 62000 jobs created in the last year. So fundamentally on welfare the left has lost the argument.