Robertson Grant: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 03 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7560. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) to the Minister of Finance: Is it correct that Treasury have advised him that they expect unemployment to rise above 6 percent in the coming months and that there will be “weak earnings growth over the rest of 2015”?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes and that is on the basis of the economy being a bit softer in the first half of this year.Grant Robertson: What has gone so wrong with the economy that more than 150000 people are expected to be out of work over the next year and expectations of wage increases are the lowest in more than a decade?Hon BILL ENGLISH: It is not surprising that the expectation of wage increases is low because inflation is low. In fact in the year to September Treasury expects average hourly earnings to increase by 2.5 percent—well ahead of inflation of 0.4 percentfor that year. Households are getting bigger real-wage increases than they have for many of the past 10 or 15 years.Grant Robertson: With unemployment going over 6 percent—meaning that over 150000 New Zealanders will be out of work—can he tell the House one new thing that he will do to reduce unemployment or does he not care about that?Hon BILL ENGLISH: It is disappointing that unemployment has risen slightly off the back of a softer economy. One thing that we can do is protect innovative policies like the 90-day trial period from criticism by the Opposition because that enables people who are on welfare and who may be penalised for that to have an opportunity to show an employer that they have got what it takes but the Labour Party would want to stop that person from getting that opportunity.Grant Robertson: In light of the Minister not having one new idea for what to do about unemployment can he tell the House whether he thinks the economy is a success when growth is now slipping below 2 percent and unemployment is rising well above 6 percent? How is that a success?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The economy has adapted well and quite rapidly to a sharp drop in dairy prices. One of the reasons they have confidence is that the National-led Government has now signed up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. A lot of New Zealanders are wondering whether the Labour Party can take the step of supporting that agreement because that agreement will support new jobs. The Greenswill oppose it of course because they are against jobs. New Zealand First members will oppose it because they are against jobs. We are hoping that the Labour Party members might support it because apparently they are for new jobs.Grant Robertson: If as forecast unemployment goes over 7 percent early next year will he come up with one new idea to create jobs in New Zealand or is unemployment of that rate acceptable to him?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government does not wait around for unemployment to go up. We got on and negotiated—and were an integral part of negotiating—the world’s largest free-trade agreement. It will support in the future thousands of jobs in New Zealand. The only question mark over it is whether the Labour Party will support it or not. That is an idea from the Government. It will support jobs and we invite the Labour Party to sort out its internal differences and support the Trans-Pacific Partnership.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The policy of the Labour Party or of any other party has nothing to do with the answer—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Can I have the point of order please?Rt Hon Winston Peters: The point of order is that he should have been brought back to the question to answer it.Mr SPEAKER: No. As I have explained to the member on many occasions the length of time and scope I give to any Minister answering a question depends on the type of question that was asked. In this case the question asked probably was not strictly in line with the Standing Orders. I certainly allowed it but I gave a very wide berth to the Minister in answering.Grant Robertson: Is an unemployment rate of over 7 percent acceptable to the Minister; if not what will he do to change that given that his Government’s policies have seen unemployment continually rise over the past four quarters?Mr SPEAKER: Either one of those two supplementary questions.Hon BILL ENGLISH: A 7 percent unemployment rate is not the case actually—it is nowhere near that. If it were there it would be unacceptable. The next step that the House can take is to support the Korean free-trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement because that would show to business that this Parliament—not just the National-led Government—understands what it takes to get jobs.