Robertson Grant: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12068. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour):For all the bluster from Steven Joyce and Paul Goldsmith about this wonderful set of economic plans that they have it does pay to ask the question: what has it actually delivered? What is actually being delivered? Well I can help the Minister out with a few facts. There are 146000 people unemployed. That is what the great National economic development plan has delivered. That is an increase of 41000 unemployed since National came into office. But what has it delivered for young people in New Zealand? Well that would be unemployment at 25 percent for those aged between 15 and 19. One quarter—one quarter—of our young people are unemployed. That is what Steven Joyce’s economic development plan has delivered. But how about for youngMāori? How has it gone for youngMāori? Well 38.3 percent of youngMāori are unemployed. That is the record of Steven Joyce’s economic development. Under this Government 43.5 percent of young Pasifika people are unemployed. Nearly half of young Pasifika people are unemployed.The National speakers in this debate have liked to stand up and say that there is this terrible legacy that was left by the Labour Government. I remember one important legacy left by the Labour Government: the second lowest unemployment in the OECD. That is the legacy—it was down to around 4 percent. Where is it now? It is up over 6 percent and if the Government had not exported 200000 people to Australia it would be well over 8 percent. So that is what the great economic development plans that Mr Joyce outlined have delivered.What would a real economic development plan look like? It would be hands-on. It would say firstly that at the big-picture level the settings are not right. The old trickle-down theories have not worked. The merchant banker’s way of running the economy has failed. The National Party might have failed to recognise it but times have changed. Things have moved on. We need an economy that is based on building not on selling things. We need an economy that is based on investing in young people so that they get training opportunities. Steven Joyce finally woke up to that in January this year and said: “Yes we should train a few people.” Finally he has said we should train people—after 4 years of letting training opportunities go seeing industry training numbers collapse and not investing in apprenticeships so that there are not enough people to take on the work in Christchurch and we have to find people from overseas to come in and do it.This is what a real economic development plan would look like. It would say that if we are going to have $30 billion of Government contracts in a year we are going to give Kiwi firms a fair crack at that. We are going to make sure that Kiwi firms get a fair go and that if they do get those contracts they will take on apprentices. We are going to make sure that we will convert the dole for 18 and 19-year-olds into a subsidy for apprenticeships. We are going to make sure that there are real training opportunities so that we have the skilled workforce that will make New Zealand a productive place.We are going to say that we will invest in small businesses. We will reduce the compliance costs in that. David Clark has been touring around New Zealand talking to small-business owners and they have been let down by this Government because they are not the big end of town—they are not Skycity. They are the people who are toiling away. Paul Goldsmith stood up today and said that they are the people we need to look out for. What those small businesses need is a Government that will actually invest in creating skilled labour make sure that there are opportunities there for them to develop give them a fair go at research and development funding and make sure that they have got the ability to create new businesses.That comes from having a hands-on Government. It does not come from having a Government that thinks it can sit back and allow the old tired trickle-down economics to try to work. That is the failure of this Government. It is locked in an ideology that is 20 years out of date. It is time for the Government to get alongside businesses to get alongside communities and to say that inequality is a drain on our economy. It is morally wrong and it is socially wrong but it is also a drain on our economy.Simon O’Connor: Oh inequality. Talk about immigration.GRANT ROBERTSON: Simon O’Connor wants to do something about inequality. What he should do is say that the tax cuts that National brought in increased it. If he admitted that that would be a start. The reality is that this Government does not want to do anything about inequality. This Government is failing the young people of New Zealand it is failing the regions of New Zealand and it is letting the gap between rich and poor grow.Only a Labour-led Government will have the policies to turn that round to invest in our regions to invest in our young people and to make the changes to monetary policy that are needed. That would be a proper economic development policy.