Collins Judith: Social Security Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Social Security Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:639;Page:9237] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak to this bill and in particular to Part 1. I found those figures from the Minister very fascinating because what I would like him to explain to us is why the household labour force survey does not come up with the same sorts of figures. In fact in March 2000 there were 24200 unemployed 15 to 19-year-olds yet the March 2007 household labour force survey states that there are 27800 unemployed 15 to 19-year-olds. Now that is an increase not a decrease. So what is happening? The answer is probably that apart from the fact that these people are being shoved from one benefit to another and are being put on to dopey training schemes which will give them absolutely nothing except probably student loans that they have to pay off— 
Jill Pettis 
: Name the dopey schemes? 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Twilight golf. Did Labour have that? That was one of Labour’s was it not? Yes it was. Unfortunately what we have is figures that nobody actually believes. We have a situation where the household labour force survey which most people think is a pretty impressive survey and is accepted everywhere keeps showing there are all these 15 to 19-year-old unemployed people. If the household labour force survey is so wrong then we should know why it is so wrong. 
Obviously there is not enough work. The Minister is very quick to take credit for getting all these people into work but how many jobs has he created? I can tell the Committee that the answer is lots of jobs in the Ministry of Social Development and given that he is always so keen to talk about the fact that the number of beneficiaries is coming down at the moment he might like to explain why it is that the budget for the welfare system keeps going up far surpassing the modest increases in the national superannuation payment. 
 Why is it that we have more bureaucrats in the Ministry of Social Development when according to his records there are two people in some places and no people in others? Well obviously the staff there are not needed to do anything. Clearly there is nothing to do. The mayors who got together and said they needed to do something to get youth off the street and into work—those 27800 youth—have given themselves an extension until 2009. The reason they have done that is that they know there is not a lot of point in shifting a young person from an unemployment benefit on to a sickness benefit and telling them that that is the way to go just so that these numbers can look better. Unfortunately that is in fact what is happening. 
Russell Fairbrother 
: That’s not right; you know that’s not right. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: I say to Mr Fairbrother that we know it is right. According to the Minister’s own figures 8500 people just last year were shifted from the unemployment benefit on to the sickness benefit. Doctors are saying they want better criteria because the criteria they have been given are simply not working. Instead the Minister says: “Oh you’re blaming doctors.” Not me. I am not blaming doctors. The doctors are saying the criteria are wrong. This Government loosened up the criteria and now everybody is supposedly stressed. 
Well I find that to be something we should take very seriously. It is an absolutely chronic situation when we have young people being told they should be on a sickness benefit because that would make the figures look better. It is a cynical manipulation of the welfare system and it is one of the reasons that the welfare budget keeps going up despite the supposed fall in beneficiary numbers. When we in fact— 
Russell Fairbrother 
: But you support the bill. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: No I do not support the bill. The reason we cannot support the bill is that some of its parts are so contrary to our views. Some of the parts are good and I have tried to list as many good points as I can. But it is hard to do so when I am being abused so much from the Labour side. That must be because that is the way Labour members behave when the polls are so bad that everybody has turned off their phones and no one wants to take their calls any more. Everybody does this because Labour members get very very nasty and trot out these figures that nobody believes. 
I saw a notice the other day from Rick Barker who used to be the MP for Tukituki until he got beaten by Craig Foss. Well he is now no longer there. He put out a notice saying no one was unemployed in Flaxmere. Unfortunately some of the locals got together and said that 20 unemployed people were actually on the court list and were about to be tried for criminal activities—and they were supposedly unemployed. So we have to wonder what we are talking about. Have members ever wondered about magical numbers? This Government has them. It magically twists around numbers. One of the other funny little things that this Minister does is that he has 82 questions he is not answering at the moment.