Ross Jami-Lee: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ross Jami-Lee: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 23 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2326. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) 
: 
 If Winston Peters thinks that by attacking this Government on law and order he is on to a winner well he is absolutely wrong because the police force in this country is in the best shape it has ever been with 600 police officers put on to the front line in the past 3 years. There are 300 in Counties-Manukau alone an area of significant under-investment by the last Labour Government. As an MP from the Counties-Manukau area I want to stand up wave our flag and say that we say thank you to the National Government for putting more police on the street in Counties-Manukau.  
Tomorrow we will see the fourth Budget from the Hon Bill English the Minister of Finance for the National-led Government. I want to say that it is a bit rich for Labour members to be talking about Greece when they talk about our Budget because the only people who know about more debt more taxing and more spending are Labour members. Labour does not believe in getting back to surplus. It does not believe in keeping debt below 30 percent of GDP. Those are core goals that National campaigned on core goals that we believe in and the goals that the people of New Zealand elected us to deliver on. So when the Labour members want to talk about Greece they should look at their own policies because Labour’s economic policy would fit in very well with Europe’s. We would be drowning in a mountain of debt if we had a Labour Government right now.  
I want to talk about jobs because at the heart of any Budget should be jobs. Labour members do not want to hear it but 60000 jobs have been created in the past 2 years. There is growth in New Zealand: the economy has grown in nine out of the past 10 quarters. Those are results you cannot complain about. We have had an economic crisis worldwide. We have got countries that are going down the drain on the other side of the world and New Zealand is doing well. New Zealand is doing well with more jobs coming into place. We are doing well seeing growth in the economy in nine of the past 10 quarters. The labour force is at the second-highest level it has ever been in this country and in the past quarter 18000 more New Zealanders showed confidence in the economy and entered the labour force.  
But let us talk about “Planet Labour” and its planet of no jobs. Labour does not support jobs. We know Labour members do not support jobs because they have opposed every job creation opportunity that this country has seen recently. Labour members do not support the convention centre. They do not support 1000 jobs being created during its construction. They do not support the 800 New Zealanders who would have a job if that convention centre went ahead—800 people working every year; 800 people off the welfare queue and into work. They oppose jobs coming to New Zealand from Australia. They have had their finance spokesperson stand up and say in the media that they do not want jobs coming here from Australia. They insulted people who work in manufacturing jobs. They insulted the 23000 businesses in New Zealand that are manufacturing businesses and they told those people that their jobs were not good enough. When jobs are coming to this country we should be celebrating that. We should be celebrating the employers and the businesses that are showing confidence in New Zealand by bringing their jobs here but all we got from the other side was more saying no more saying they do not want jobs and more of “Planet Labour” opposing jobs for New Zealanders.  
The Labour Party also opposed the 90-day trial for workers. Why did the Labour members oppose that? Because their union mates did not like it. But what do we know from that? We know that 13000 people are saying thank you for that policy because they have jobs based on employers being able to employ them after that policy was implemented. The Labour members are also opposing our starting-out wages proposal. The starting-out wage will see more young New Zealanders be able to enter the workforce and more young New Zealanders have the benefit of work and have the lifestyle change that working actually brings.  
National’s plan is for more jobs. National’s plan is for a welfare system that is focused on work. National’s plan is for an education system that is focused on better-quality teaching so more young New Zealanders are better equipped to get jobs in the future. That is our plan; we are standing by it. We do not support the proposals that are being put forward by members on the other side because they are anti-jobs they are for more taxing and more spending and that is absolutely wrong.