Sepuloni Carmel: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSepuloni Carmel: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 14 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10601. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]9.CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his statements?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes in particular a statement I made to the Federated Farmers meeting in Feilding in April where I said “And the dairy industry has rightly said that a lot of Kiwis that are turning up are pretty damned hopeless.” and finished off a description of that by saying “And if we don’t work together to get them working then they will be with us a long time.” with reference to a cohort of Kiwis who need a lot of support into work. The Labour Party MP left that out of his description of the speech.Carmel Sepuloni: What proportion of the 57100 unemployed young people whom he says are “pretty damned hopeless” cannot read and write properly and do not look to be employable?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I did not say they do not look to be employable; I said what employers are saying. And if that member like the other one has not heard that then she is out of touch. The fact is that a lot of these young people in addition to those problems cannot pass a drug test either and that is why we have to work with them so intensively to get them into work.Carmel Sepuloni: How can he say that Ministry of Social Development clients “will not stay in the jobs that they are offered.” when the Minister for Social Development states that “There is no reason for Work and Income to continue to monitor people who have left the benefit”; is he just out of touch?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No. What is becoming increasingly clear from the very significant amount of detailed analysis we are doing around these issues is that what was traditionally regarded as a successful work placement—that is a young person turning up to a job and that is it—we now realise that they are cycling regularly in and out of work and benefit because they will not turn up to the job for instance for more than 3 days in a row. Then they are back on the benefit and it actually was not a successful job placement. We have to do a lot better in supporting them to stick to work because a lot of them find it really challenging.Carmel Sepuloni: Is he reliant on the advice from a handful of employers regarding the capability of former Ministry of Social Development clients to work and stay in work because of the fact that for 8 long years the Government has failed to collect and report on long-term employment outcomes for people who have exited the benefit?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Actually it is exactly the opposite. Coming into Government I was appalled at how lazy complacent and ignorant the Government machine was about what happened to our precious young people. Since then we have done an enormous amount of analysis and have made an enormous amount of change in the way the Ministry of Social Development works—from being passive to being active—backed by hundreds of millions of dollars. It is starting to work but we have got a long way to go.Carmel Sepuloni: Does he maintain—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! There are too many interjections coming particularly from my right at this stage.Carmel Sepuloni: Does he maintain that “Each vulnerable family and individual matters to us.” when he is arrogantly telling prospective employers that many of our young people are pretty damned hopeless?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No that is not the case. But this Government does employers and beneficiaries the respect of talking about how it is not what the strategy says would be nice and we are finding that that kind of gritty discussion directly one by one with people on welfare is showing that we have hope for them and we can support them to get into work. And I tell you I think quite a lot of them are starting to be weaned off the Labour Party which they realise is patronising and—Mr SPEAKER: Order!