Ardern Jacinda: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: General Debate[Sitting date: 23 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14195. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACINDA ARDERN (Labour): If the member Amy Adams wants to talk about jobs then we can talk about jobs. Let us be absolutely clear. This election will be won and lost on the economy and jobs. This Government’s failure is to act in the face of massive job losses in this country. All that the Government members are interested in doing is preserving their relationships through dodgy deals with organisations like Skycity.One such example which I raised in this House yesterday is the crisis that is going on in the screen industry in New Zealand. I do not use the word “crisis” lightly but that is absolutely what we are facing. There are literally hundreds up to thousands of jobs and livelihoods being lost as we speak. The crime of it all is that it is entirely preventable but this out-of-touch Government is sitting on the sidelines while this absolutely critical industry is decimated. Of course we have had this industry for a number of years. But in 2004 when the incentives regime came in under the then Labour Government it undeniably gave a boost to the industry. The industry met the new demand. It built up skills. It built up talent. It built up capital. Now we have got to a point where if a production comes into New Zealand we can meet the needs of that production with up to 90 percent internally in New Zealand with the skill base and with the capital that we have.But since then things have changed dramatically. We have the people but the work is disappearing and it is disappearing fast. Why? Well first of all undeniably the Kiwi dollar is high and it is having an impact. Since the incentive regime has come in the Kiwi dollar has gone up in strength against the American dollar by 25 percent. That has virtually decimated the drawcard that our rebate regime once was. The fact that our regime has remained static while other countries—Hon Tau Henare: “Moaning Myrtle”—what’s the answer?JACINDA ARDERN: —have become more competitive has meant that we are in an entirely preventable perfect storm. And there are answers Tau Henare. There are things that this Government could be doing. Labour has said that the Government should be intervening on monetary policy. That is what we would do. If it is unwilling to act in that regard if it is unwilling to do that then it should at least look at the relative competitiveness of the rebate regime—and it is a rebate. Essentially it is money in before money goes out. You have to pay taxes and you have to have economic spin-offs before anything happens in that regard.Why is the Government not doing anything? Well firstly it claims that the rebate at the moment is somehow at a break-even point. Well I ask one question. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment should go and look at why the UK Australia Hungary Ireland the USA and Canada are doing things differently. That is one simple question I ask of those members. Secondly the Government claims that our skills base will naturally attract people but our skills are just one part of the mix. If the rest of the mix does not attract production it does not matter whether we have good people here.In fact the Government tried to argue that one of the reasons that the rebate regime was cost-neutral was that if all those skilled people did not have work in screen production they would just go somewhere else.I have met good people talented people at the top of their game who have been unemployed for months. They will leave this country leave these shores and we will not have the talent base for those production companies when they come back into this country. The fact the Government does not acknowledge that shows that it is completely out of touch and does not understand this industry. It is not just talent; it is capital. I challenge Steven Joyce to go and visit the companies that invested in the rigging the kit and the props. Those props are going to landfills because the companies cannot afford to store them any more. It is kit that they can no longer afford to keep and are selling off. It is not just about the big projects. The big projects prop up the little projects the New Zealand projects that help us tell stories about ourselves.This Government is standing on the sidelines while an important skilled industry is being decimated and jobs are being lost. Let that be on those members’ heads if they continue to stand on the sidelines and do nothing while we lose this critical industry.