Hipkins Chris: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hipkins Chris: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:13173] 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 I will start at the very beginning by asking how the Minister dares to accuse Labour of stereotyping beneficiaries. Paula Bennett sat in the National caucus when Don Brash talked about beneficiaries breeding for business—solo mothers breeding for business. That was what a National member said but what did Paula Bennett have to say about that? Absolutely nothing—so how dare she stand in this Chamber and accuse Labour of stereotyping beneficiaries. 
The Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill is about National resorting to the type of thing it loves to do. There is nothing that National loves to do more than bash beneficiaries and kick people when they are down and that is what this bill is all about. It is about kicking people when they are down. It is not about lifting them up it is not about giving them a go and it is not about finding them a real job because if the jobs were there New Zealanders would take them. 
New Zealanders want to work. Thousands of people have been lining up outside supermarkets looking for work. If the jobs were there they would take them. But this Government has not created jobs. It has not closed the wage gap with Australia. The only gap it has closed with Australia is the unemployment gap. We used to have an unemployment rate that was lower than Australia’s but under this Government it is higher and the gap is getting wider. The unemployment rate went from 6 percent to 6.8 percent in the last quarter alone. What is the National Government doing about that? It is not doing a heck of a lot. It would rather pick on beneficiaries and tell them they lack ambition because they are not out there applying for jobs that do not exist. If the jobs were there people would be applying for them. But the jobs are not there. 
What have we had from National? We had a Job Summit. But no jobs came out of the Job Summit. In fact the Government did not even bother to measure whether any jobs came out of the Job Summit. There was the cycleway but it was an absolute flop. How many jobs came out of the cycleway? There were not many if any. Then the Government was going to mine national parks. But not many jobs were coming out of that. If the jobs were there beneficiaries would be looking for them and applying for them. 
Can anyone on the National benches explain the fact that thousands of people recently lined up outside a supermarket looking for work? There is not an answer from them not a word. Those members have no explanation for the fact that thousands of people have been lining up looking for jobs and that the jobs are not there. Where is the plan to create jobs? But there is a plan to pick on people who cannot find jobs kick them when they are down say they lack ambition because they are unemployed and say that they should stop breeding for business. 
Paula Bennett said that this debate would get ugly. Well most of the ugly comments about beneficiaries have come from members opposite—National members. As Annette King pointed out Judith Collins was the one who talked about beneficiaries sitting around watching Sky television and getting stoned. That was when the debate got ugly. It was when the National members waded into it and started stereotyping beneficiaries and kicking people when they are down. 
In the Labour Party we do not take that approach. We think we should actually enable people to find work. We should help them raise their skills. We should intervene early. Early childhood education is critical but what has the National Government done? It has cut funding to early childhood education and it has cut a whole raft of second-chance learning opportunities. Night classes used to provide a stepping stone for people on benefits to get back into work. 
I would be interested in the Minister’s comments about night classes. They provided a stepping stone for people who might have been out of work for some time. Night classes helped people to lift their skills and to catch up in some instances. People need new computing skills as technology changes and they could go to night classes and get those skills but that rug has totally been pulled out from under them by the National Government. Night classes have gone altogether in the Hutt Valley. There is not a single night class for a beneficiary in my electorate who wants to raise his or her skills before going back into work. There is not a single night class that beneficiaries can go to. 
The training incentive allowance has been cut by Paula Bennett. That was a second-chance opportunity for people to get back into work through developing skills so that they can get real jobs—real jobs not some make-work scheme and not something that the Government is dreaming is there but simply does not exist. 
Real jobs require some skill levels but the Government is doing nothing to help people to get them. That is the case even at the higher end of the job market. People who have found themselves out of work and have thought they would take the opportunity to upskill and maybe go to university have found the doors closed. The doors to the universities have been closed.