Barker Rick: General Debate 
Barker Rick: General Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9052] 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 It was an extraordinary thing for Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith to make pejorative remarks about the Hon Steve Maharey the Minister of Education. Everybody in this House knows and remembers Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith’s unseemly exit via a window in front of thousands of upset students. That is what they did to that member as a Minister of Education; they chased him out of office. He has been out of office for a long time and on the basis of that speech he will not be back into office for a long long time. 
There are obvious cracks in the leadership of the National Party—internal cracks external cracks and cracks in policy. The internal cracks are quite profound. We have had the ignominious situation of all the National members in this House being lined up by the voice of one person John Key about a decision; there was no consultation whatsoever. National Party members are muttering around the country that they have been betrayed. They are angry. They are upset. They did not agree with the decision but they did not want to overturn the leader of the National Party this time. But this is a festering burning sore within the National Party. There is no leadership without taking one’s team with one. 
On the policy and external front it was very interesting to see an article in the  
Independent 
 a short time ago quoting a business person in Auckland as saying that Bill English had turned up and told the business group there that the National Party would do whatever it takes to get into Government next time and that it would say whatever people wanted to hear to get into office. We have many examples of that. People hear one thing from the National Party then if we change the audience we hear a different story. If we change the day then we hear a different policy. If we change the week then the issue changes. Every time there is a change by the National Party. There is no consistency. It is quite simply a case of whatever it takes. 
The National Party has fallen into the trap that politicians from time to time fall into when they do not have policy. They identify trouble where there is not any they diagnose it incorrectly and they apply the wrong remedy. Nothing could be a better example of that than John Key’s speech to the North Island conference in which he identified as one of his ten points the Employment Relations Act. He said that National was going to make changes to the Act. His speech ignored the issues and the evidence that showed the Employment Relations Act is working very well. It ignored the fact that unemployment has fallen dramatically. It ignored the fact that the number of days lost through industrial action has fallen dramatically. It ignored the fact that the number of people in vocational training and apprenticeships has gone up. But what National’s John Key was interesting in doing because he had an old-fashioned audience was to apply the remedies of the last decade to the problems of our century. 
Let us get some facts on the table. When National was last in office unemployment was rising dramatically and unstoppably; 161000 people were dumped on to the scrapheap of despair with no hope and no opportunity. Today we have 28845 people around New Zealand on the unemployment benefit; that is a difference of 132000—approximately the population of Hawke’s Bay. 
We also have a dramatic change in youth unemployment. The National Party says that it is interested in young people but that it wants to change the 90-day rule to make the conditions of employment for young people much weaker. It says it is concerned about young people but the National Government took away from them the very opportunity to train themselves and to get the skills to enter the modern economy. The Labour Government repealed the Employment Contracts Act. The National Government sacked all of the provisions for vocational training. The Labour Government has reinstated the apprenticeship system and invested heavily in vocational training and it shows. In 1999 there were approximately 16000 young people aged 18 to 19 on the unemployment benefit. Today there are 1500. That is a reduction of 90 percent in the number of young people on the unemployment benefit. That is directly attributable to the policies of this Government. 
National members try to say that the improvements are luck. Well I say to National members it is like the words of the great golfer the Great White Shark Greg Norman who said the harder he tried the more he practised and the harder he worked then the luckier he got. This Government is working at reducing unemployment and giving opportunities to all New Zealanders. The National Party is also advocating Work for the Dole; it wants the Ministry of Social Development and Work and Income to run around trying to get make-believe jobs. The Labour Party says it wants to get people into jobs that are real jobs. That shows a difference in attitude. 
The National Party flip-flops on different issues. It said years ago that it would get rid of 4 weeks’ annual leave. Dr Lockwood Smith asks why so many people are leaving for Australia. I say to Dr Lockwood Smith that one of the reasons they are going to Australia is for 4 weeks’ annual leave. The National Party opposes 4 weeks’ annual leave here for New Zealanders. Australia also has savings schemes. Labour brings in the KiwiSaver scheme. What does the National Party do? It says it is opposed to it.