Mallard Trevor: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Mallard Trevor: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15071] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Labour) 
: 
 I want to thank that member Kate Wilkinson for the opening she has just given us and to give her if she likes a relatively simple explanation because I think for that member it needs to be about labour productivity. When unemployment is rising people who are in the lower skilled jobs and who are the least productive are more likely to get the sack and when the National Government was in office that happened. When that happens—when the people who are less productive because their skills are lower and the machines they use are less sophisticated get the sack—average productivity goes up unemployment goes up and average labour productivity goes up. When we have a Labour Government and unemployment comes down a whole pile of people who have never had a job who would not know how to work a sophisticated machine and who are not in the professional category get jobs and average labour productivity is exactly— 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: What about capital productivity? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: We will get to capital soon. What happens then is that productivity drops. Instead of celebrating the fact that more people have got jobs that member is moaning about it. 
Now having said that I do not think it is good enough that many people who are coming into the workforce now or who have been in the workforce for a number of years have skills that are not adequate for the modern world. There are a number of reasons for it—probably the abolition of the Apprenticeship Act was part of it and probably a very important part is that the National Party got rid of trade training including Maori Trade Training and a number of areas like that. Our skill development both in pre-workforce and especially within the workforce was abysmal under the National Party. That is why we have had to have a massive growth in spending in that area and in the numbers involved. The number of apprentices has gone from almost none to I think 40000 entering Modern Apprenticeships since we have been in Government and there are a number of areas like that. 
I do want to go back away from some of the more general employment and training issues that the member referred to and say that at some stage soon the National Party will have to front up. Its current policy for example is to cut back paid parental leave. Its current policy is to make the fourth week of leave negotiable—to take it away from workers and say “You’ve got to negotiate it.” Its current policy as far as sick leave is concerned is to cut back the eligibility for sick leave. Its current policy is to make a large number of changes to the Employment Relations Act all of which go against the interests of workers. I was looking forward in fact a number of people were looking forward to Kate Wilkinson speaking I think it was last week or the week before when it was announced that she would be giving a comprehensive update on the National Party policy— 
Charles Chauvel 
: The same as Bill English? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Well the same as Bill English on KiwiSaver. She turned up read from the research unit notes and gave no policy at all. There are some things that I can say about that member. She is a relatively new member and not very experienced. But I can tell the member that when she promises an audience that she is going to give a comprehensive explanation of industrial relations policy and it states that on the invitation the audience thinks she is fraudulent when she does not do it. They think that member committed fraud. A whole pile of people some of whom were silly enough to think that the National Party might have a chance to be in Government turned up to listen. They were shocked. There were people who were not only from a left-wing perspective— 
Kate Wilkinson 
: You weren’t there. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No but I have had reports from all over the place on how poorly that member performed then.