Blue Jackie: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Blue Jackie: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8032. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 I am pleased to speak in the general debate. Thank goodness I say—thank goodness we have got a Prime Minister who is focused on the big picture: economic development jobs and boosting our economy. We are not distracted by the sideshows. We have had a challenging few years. There is no question about that. But that is why the economy must be front and centre stage and that is why we are determined to continue with the economic growth that we have made strong foundations for over the last 4 years. 
We are doing quite well compared with other countries. We are really fortunate. We are moving in a positive direction and the economy must remain front of mind. We have had clear consistent messages about our economic programme and the direction we are taking. We are going to get back to surplus and we are on track to do that. The latest Crown accounts confirm that we are back in the black and at the rate we are going New Zealand is expected to grow faster and more strongly than the euro area the United Kingdom Japan and Canada. 
We are pressing ahead with a wide range of measures to build a more productive and competitive economy. We are working hard on our Business Growth Agenda. We want to attract investment. Basically more investment means that more jobs will be created for New Zealanders. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Order! Sorry to interrupt the honourable member; it will not affect your time. Can I just advise members that they cannot walk around the Chamber and interject. It is totally out of order and unnecessary. 
Dr JACKIE BLUE 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. The Government has worked hard to create businesses and make them stronger so they can hire more people and grow and in turn have more jobs and more growth and then the economy will strengthen. The plan is working. The economy is growing. Real jobs are being created and confidence is increasing. We are committed to giving businesses the tools to compete successfully globally and to ensuring that the right conditions are in place for businesses to grow. 
Yes there are some really big opportunities particularly with the rebuild of Christchurch and we want to ensure that New Zealanders have the skills that are needed in the next few years. We are determined to boost skills and training and we have recently announced the New Zealand Apprenticeships scheme which is boosting the number of people in apprenticeships by combining all the apprenticeships and expanding and improving the current system. We are going to be implementing a starting out wage set at 80 percent of the minimum wage for eligible 16 to 18-year-olds to encourage employers to take on youth. Also the 90-day trial employment laws are helping our young people get into jobs. 
We are funding 12000 more tertiary places this year supporting our fees-free Youth Guarantee scheme for 13000 young people. We are providing new vocational pathways at secondary schools and funding Maori and Pasifika trades training to give young people more options to train and upskill. The recent workforce statistics show that New Zealand’s unemployment rate has fallen to 6.9 percent. It is still not good enough but it is an improvement. It is also clear from those statistics that more young people are in education and we are working really hard to make sure our children get a better education and our youth stay in education. 
We have a Better Public Services target for early childhood and secondary school education and a target also for national standards. I want to take the time to congratulate Tony Ryall because he has basically been incredibly successful with the health target model and I am sure that is how it has gone now in our public services. Targets do work. They bring all stakeholders together and sometimes it might be the first conversation the stakeholders have on how to achieve that target. Health targets such as cancer treatment waiting times emergency department waiting times elective operations and immunisations have been hugely successful. Goodness who would have believed that we would come from a dire situation 4 years ago of women having to be sent to Australia for radiotherapy to now achieving the 4-week gold standard? Who would have thought it? That is what we have done that is what Tony Ryall has done and that is how targets work. 
Who would have thought 4 years ago that after succeeding with radiation waiting times we would now turn our attention to chemotherapy waiting times? Who would have thought we would go from a situation where tens of thousands of people were culled from elective waiting lists to a situation now where we have unprecedented levels of elective operations being offered to all New Zealanders? Who would have thought we would go from a situation where people were waiting under fluorescent lights in accident and emergency centres to a situation where we have all the district health boards stepping up and many of them achieving the 6-hour waiting target? That is what targets do and that is what the Better Public Services targets will do. That is what national standards will do because it puts people’s minds to the issue—how to solve it and how to get there. They figure it out they have the conversation and they have respect for each other. That is what it will do.