Beaumont Carol: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBeaumont Carol: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12453. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour):Kia orana Mr Deputy Speaker. Nobody can deny the seriousness of the food safety situation that New Zealand finds itself in and I do want to acknowledge that. I also want to acknowledge another very serious matter a matter of vital concern to New Zealanders and that is the need for decent jobs and decent incomes—something that this Government ignores. This is a Government that is out of touch and a Prime Minister who is deeply bogged down in covering his tracks again. This time it is on the Dunne email scandal and the Government Communications Security Bureau debacle which is something that New Zealander of the Year Anne Salmond has been quite vocal about and has described as a massive breach of trust between Parliament and its citizens.Today we have seen unemployment increase up from 6.2 percent last quarter to 6.4 percent today—that is 48000 more people are unemployed now than when Nationaltook office in 2008. In total 1530000 New Zealanders—that is right 153000—are unemployed and almost daily we hear of more job losses. There have been significant job losses all around New Zealand but jobs and decent incomes are in fact the only way forward for New Zealanders. As others have said New Zealanders are committed to the idea of working hard to get ahead for an opportunity for their family—a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. These are basic New Zealand principles. Jobs are the way that most New Zealanders sustain a decent standard of living for themselves and their family. They are a way for them to contribute their ideas and their labour to grow our economy and to participate in our community.But our Prime Minister is more focused on denying responsibility for anything negative. He constantly is blaming somebody else—blaming Labour—Hon Member: That’s right.CAROL BEAUMONT: —but in fact you have been in Government for 5 years so take responsibility. The Prime Minister and the Government as a whole needs to take responsibility. No longer can you continue to blame the last Government or the global financial crisis. You need to take responsibility and focus on the real issues: the issues of jobs and incomes.But let us look more closely at what is happening to jobs and income shall we? We have 153000 people unemployed a total of 245400 people who are jobless and another 63000 people who are wanting extra hours of work and it is a very tough time to be looking for work. Māori unemployment is at 12.8 percent and actually that is a slight reduction so that is good news. But Pasifika unemployment has increased to 16.3 percent. Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga was busy crowing earlier today about the number of jobs that are on job vacancy websites. Well I do not think that is going to deal with the 16.3 percent of Pacific people who are unemployed. And what about wages? Well wages are up by only 1.7 percent and the median for those who actually got a pay increase—and this is the key—was 2.7 percent which is the lowest increase since 2001. But in the last year 45 percent of employees received no pay increase at all. At the same time prices were skyrocketing power prices went up accommodation prices went up and 45 percent of workers got no pay increase.So let us get a renewed focus on creating decent jobs for workers. It is no good saying that the economy is picking up if that benefit is not flowing through to wages and jobs. Our wages remain 34 percent lower than in Australia and yet we have a Government introducing legislation that will drive wages down further. The Employment Relations Amendment Bill will drive wages down even further so we need to do more. We need to do more to focus on growing the number of jobs. The Government needs to take responsibility but we do not believe that it will. It is going to take a Labour Government to get a focus on jobs and on putting in place a really hands-on approach towards job creation and to invest in lifelong learning and upskilling. Members opposite your Government promised in 2011 that it would create 170000 jobs by 2015—170000 jobs by 2015. Well so far that is 1700 so you have got a long way to go—a long way to go.