Robertson Grant: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 18 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:13238. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 Last week the Labour Party held its caucus in Whangarei. It is a beautiful city. The people are wondering where their member for Parliament is but it is a beautiful city. When we were there we spoke with people in a number of different businesses and those that I was talking to there in particular were in the boatbuilding industry which is an industry that Whangarei has been trying to grow. When we went there we discovered that that boatbuilding industry was looking for a Government that could provide some leadership. The boatbuilding industry was looking for a plan. What we have seen from this Government is the complete absence of a plan and a plan is what the boatbuilding industry wanted. People in the industry said to us that there were people there who wanted to work there were people there who were skilled and all those in the industry wanted from the Government was some support. All they wanted from the Government was some interest in their industries and they have seen nothing whatsoever. All we have seen is a set of half-baked ideas and slogans—the cycleway the mining the financial services hub. They are all slogans and all ideas but there is nothing in practice that makes up a plan. A list of goals and a list of slogans is not a plan. 




 This Government is poll driven; this Government is without a plan. Steven Joyce talked before about savings. Nothing is off the table; nothing is on the table. In fact Steven Joyce is polling to see whether there should be a table. The Government is not sure whether there is anything on it or off it but of course we still have to pay. Tony Ryall does not even have a plan to get his shirt and tie to match let alone the Government having a plan for the public sector. The best thing we have heard from the Government in terms of a plan for the public sector was Bill English telling us that within the next 2 or 3 years the Department of Corrections will be the biggest department in this country. That will be this Government’s ambition. This Government’s legacy will be that it will put more New Zealanders into prison. Judith Collins is proud. Judith Collins says that it will be the economic leader—that building more prisons is the thing to give us growth. That is the extent of the image and the ambition of this Government. 
We hear from Government members that they are a blank sheet they are going to kick the tyres and nothing is off the table. This Government is all map and no compass. It is all about what the polls are telling it and not about what it actually wants to do. It has no plan and no principles. There is no point being a Government if all that it is going to do is kick the tyres; if all that it will do is come to the House and say that it has to rely on what has happened over the last 9 years because it is too difficult to come back. I tell Mr Joyce that the people in Whangarei told us that they are not interested in a Government that is looking backwards for someone to blame. They are looking for a Government that will invest in people. Mr Joyce says that he has put money in for more places in tertiary education. If that is the case why are the universities locking the doors? Why are universities locking the doors if the Government has put so much more money into New Zealand? We know from the Department of Labour that by 2018 the demand for degree-qualified people will exceed supply. The supply of people with vocational qualifications will be insufficient. That is what the Department of Labour is telling the Government yet Mr Joyce is locking the doors on universities and polytechs. There is no plan from this Government other than a plan to read the next poll to look into the future and to ask whether Steven Joyce and John Key will be able to continue to enjoy their ministerial salaries. 
This country is looking for some investment in skills in training and in jobs. The Government proudly brought out a paper on its six new goals. The word “jobs” features once in that paper. The Government’s goals which do not make a plan include the word “jobs” once. That is simply not good enough. Shouting slogans at unemployed people telling them to get off welfare is not a plan. The way to get people off welfare is not to shout slogans and abuse at them it is to help create jobs. This Government has done very very little since it came into office about actually creating jobs about sitting down with people with businesses like those boatbuilders in Whangarei and asking them how it can support them and ensure that they have a skilled workforce. I ask Mr Joyce about supporting the Kiwi jobs bill. That is what the boatbuilders told us in Whangarei. They said: “Why has the contract to refurbish the  
Tangaroa 
 gone to Singapore?”. That is what they asked us. They want investment in New Zealand.