Bennett Paula: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2466] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 Mr Chairperson thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the financial review of the Ministry of Social Development. First of all I recognise the speech from Mrs Katene and her comments on youth unemployment particularly Maori unemployment and on how important that issue is. When we were discussing delegations we looked at where the commitment and interest were directed. Certainly from Minister Turia that interest was directed towards Maori unemployment rates and how she could help with employment which is certainly what she is knowledgable about. 
I assure the Committee and anyone out there who is listening that not a day goes by in a meeting with her that she does not mention whanau ora what that means and what she believes it can mean for Maori. We certainly support her in that area and we have some work to do on it over a period of time in order to get where we want to be. The fact is that if we keep doing what we are doing in respect of Maori unemployment we will keep getting the same results. In these tough economic times that will mean more Maori falling by the wayside. We are very aware of that and know that we have to look at some different initiatives. 
I am heartened by the Youth Guarantee and the youth transition services. We have seen some of them working quite well in the past and we have an opportunity to do some of them a bit differently in order to get them back to grass roots to give a level of flexibility to different communities and to see how they run unemployment for those young people and how they look at that transition. The reality is that some young people may need only a little help and others will need a lot more help. We need to have those sorts of contracts with that sort of flexibility. That is where our attention will be going. 
There is no mistaking that the attention of this Government has been on unemployment numbers and on people who are losing their jobs hence within weeks we saw the ReStart package. It was only ever meant to be a backstop and targeted to those who need it most but we thought it was just so critical to lend that helping hand when people are at their most vulnerable and have just discovered that short sharp shock of losing their job. It was with a sense of pride that before Christmas we brought in that ReStart package to acknowledge that situation. 
Unemployment numbers are currently at about 36000. We expect that number to keep growing. We see it fluctuating from week to week. We saw a week about 2 or 3 weeks ago when we had about 960 new people on the unemployment benefit. That dropped back down again—thank goodness—last week. Seasonal workers are still coming through. The numbers we see at Work and Income New Zealand show that about 37 to 38 percent of people who are walking through the door to go on the unemployment benefit are actually doing one of the seminars or courses and then not needing to go on the unemployment benefit which is great news. To have those sorts of numbers turning over tells us that the labour market is still working. It may not be working perfectly—certainly we are seeing people lose jobs and I do not want to undermine that point—but we are here to offer assistance for those who need it. 
Before Christmas we moved another 60 people into the front line to work with people who are coming in to go on the unemployment benefit. We are in the process right now of moving about another 100 on to the front line. Not all of them are coming from the back office to the front; some are moving from different front-line office roles into that unemployment benefit role. We expect to do that again and to see more moving into that role. 
Our focus is very much on people keeping their jobs where possible but if that is not possible our focus is on those people getting a job as quickly as possible. It means that some people will have to shift their expectations sometimes salary-wise and in terms of what that job actually looks like but we believe in New Zealanders’ ability to dig a bit deeper and to come across with that real Kiwi grit. I actually think most New Zealanders want to work. They want to be providing for themselves and they have that sense of pride in looking after their own families. There has been a shift in Work and Income New Zealand to supporting those people in that respect so that there is a helping hand when they need it while ensuring that their focus is on getting a job and keeping a job—any job. That is what we have to do over these next few months which will just get tougher quite frankly. 
We are aware of the situation we know what we need to do and we have confidence in New Zealanders and their abilities—[ 
Interruption 
] We can hear a bit of harping coming from members on the other side. We saw a Labour Government that did nothing. For three consecutive quarters—that is three consecutive quarters—we saw unemployment rising. We saw numbers going up from March 2008 to November 2008 from 3.7 to 4.2. What did Labour do? Labour did nothing. That is the reality: Labour did nothing. In fact one of the members in this Committee was known to say that 29000 people losing their jobs was “not a bad thing”. We saw people losing their jobs under a Labour Government Labour members shutting their eyes and putting on their blinkers and nothing happening. 
Report noted.