Ardern Jacinda: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Text is subject to correction 
Ardern Jacinda: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4211. Text is subject to correction.] 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 We come to what I believe should be a centre point for this Government. One of the key platforms that it should be campaigning on currently is a plan around employment and job creation. This is where we should be seeing the most significant forms of relief to the New Zealand public. It is work and jobs that people desperately need in the midst of what is a very dark recession. Instead what have we seen from this Government around the area of employment? We did hear a very grand plan around the potential creation of 170000 jobs some Budgets ago. Unfortunately at that time we saw no proof that those jobs would actually be generated. In fact over the period through to March 2012 we were meant to have 36000 new jobs coming on stream. 
Hon Member 
: How many? 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: That was 36000 new jobs. What have we seen? We have seen roughly 20000 materialise. That may sound significant to some. But when you take into account our growth in population those coming on to the job market and those coming out of tertiary education Mr Joyce because they cannot afford to stay in there any more with the changes that are being made by this Government to that sector 20000 is simply not enough. That has been manifest in some of the statistics that we have seen through for instance our household labour force survey: 6.7 percent of the New Zealand public are unemployed and seeking jobs. We have 87000 young people not in employment not in education and not in training and that is an absolute waste of potential. When your unemployment rate for young people sits at 19 percent that is an explosion just waiting to happen—a ticking time bomb as it were.  
But that actually does not go across all of the measures that tell us we have an issue. The number of people who are jobless has gone up. That is the number of people who are actually willing to work if there was a job for them but have simply given up. Underemployment those who want more hours than what they already have—we have seen that trending up as well. Yet the Government across all of these indicators chooses instead to hone in on the number of people on an unemployment benefit because those numbers are often smaller because of the eligibility questions around who can access that benefit and who cannot. Even on that measure we have gone from roughly 18000 when Labour left office to roughly 50000 now that National is in office.  
The Government tries to have it both ways. Any time you bring up the staggering statistics around unemployment and joblessness what do you hear from this Government? It is the recession. It is the global financial crisis. Any time you hear us raise that the statistics were so much better under a Labour Government you will hear the Government again say that we did not have a global financial crisis or a recession. Yet what do you hear when the Government stands up and talks about benefit changes and about welfare reform? You hear that people are lazy that they do not want to work and that they are taking advantage of the system and that is why we need reform. You cannot have it both ways. Kiwis want to work and the Government’s job is to make sure that businesses are supported to create those jobs that the economy is thriving and that people have the skills training and education to move into work. What should we be seeing therefore in our benefit system as an enabler? We should see intensive case management and we should see as I said sound economic management.  
As I have said fixing the welfare system is actually linked to the idea of a strong well-functioning economy. It is a link that this Government chooses not to make. If you want to fix welfare fix the economy. In fact on this side of the Chamber we have promoted a few ideas around that area. We have a housing shortage. Anyone who lives in Auckland knows this to be a fact. In Christchurch equally we have a significant housing crisis. We also have a skills crisis. We also have a huge number of people seeking work and employment. Labour put all of those things together and suggested to the Government around the last election that it bring in a dole-to-apprenticeship scheme. We said to transfer the amount of money you are spending on the dole for a young unemployed person to a willing employer to subsidise an apprenticeship for that young person.