Sio William: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sio William: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 29 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7547. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 I think that speech from Maurice Williamson confirms for all hard-working New Zealanders that this Government is not committed to affordable housing. In fact it seems like this Government prefers to kill the dream for young couples to own their first home and prefers that people living in Otara Mangere and South Auckland continue to live in cars and garages. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: What a lot of nonsense. 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO 
: That is what I heard and I suspect Mr Williamson that that is what hard-working New Zealanders listening to that speech will have interpreted as the meaning of that speech. He says he does not want to accept that Government members are sitting on their hands but all that speech said was: “We’re not going to be doing anything about the dream of owning your first home.” 
Mr Deputy Speaker I want to wish you a happy New Year. I suspect that for many hard-working Kiwi families the only way that they would know that this is the new year is that they have seen the change of numbers of the year from 2012 to 2013. For the majority of hard-working New Zealanders and their families very little has improved if anything at all in their lives after 5 years of a John Key - National Government. When John Key and the National Government came into power in 2008 the majority of New Zealanders were open-minded and wanted to give him and his Government the opportunity to prove everyone wrong. New Zealanders wanted to believe that he is not your typical National Party Prime Minister fashioned in the same mould as the late Robert Muldoon or Jenny Shipley or Don Brash. New Zealanders wanted to give him the opportunity to show that he is better than any of the former National Party leaders but people are now saying that he is worse. I have read newspaper reports of allegations that he is this smiling assassin. That is what is being reported in many of our local papers. 
We all lapped up his many promises of being ambitious for New Zealand of being an aspirational leader. He promised that no one would be worse off when he introduced the tax switch that favoured the top 10 percent of income earners the most. He promised that he would not raise GST and then increased it to 15 percent hitting the poorest in our communities the most—solo mothers the unemployed the jobless and particularly families with young children. He promised to create 170000 jobs and then failed to meet those targets in the first year. Then we heard the 10-point plan the six-point plan and the revised plan all of which amounted to no more jobs being created in the private sector. He promised to reduce the number of New Zealanders moving overseas and living permanently in Australia and what we have seen is 180000 people in the last year leaving for Australia. 
The majority of New Zealanders have had a gutsful of empty rhetoric from Mr Key and his Government. I think for many there might have been some hope that the Prime Minister’s speech today would provide a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately for the 175000 people unemployed for the close to 300000 who are jobless and for the many thousands who are underemployed there was a glaring omission about how this Government will address the unemployment issue in 2013. Look at the figures that we have seen so far: 7.3 percent unemployment is the worst in 13 years. When the last Labour Government came in in 1999 we had to deal with similar numbers and we were able to reduce them significantly from double-digit figures to close to 3 percent by the end of 2008. With the John Key - National Government from single-digit figures we are now back again at higher numbers at 7.3 percent. For young people 15 to 19 years old unemployment is 25.5 percent. For the regions such as in Northland it has gone up. For the Auckland region if I look at the figures of late in November it is now 10.3 percent if you have no qualification and 8.5 percent if you have got some school qualification. In other parts of the country such as in the Bay of Plenty we have seen unemployment rise and in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay we have seen unemployment rise. In Taranaki in Manawatu and in the Whanganui area it has gone up. 
The groups that are hurt the most by the lack of effort by this Government in addressing unemployment are Maori Pacific and Asian people and women. For Maori we are now back at 15.1 percent. For Pacific people we are at 15.6 percent. Asians are again at double-digit figures and for women unemployment is 7.4 percent. Nothing in the Prime Minister’s speech today gave us any indication whatsoever for people on the unemployment roll those looking for jobs those who were made redundant in the last years and those who are struggling to find permanent and better-paid jobs. So what message did the Prime Minister send today to the majority of New Zealanders? They have to continue working harder and harder and for longer hours—when they can find jobs—for less and less and less. 
In many ways this Prime Minister and his Government are creating two different New Zealands: a New Zealand for the wealthier whom the Government promotes and supports and a New Zealand that just cannot figure out how this occurred under somebody they thought had great promise. This is I tell you a reflection that gives an indication to members across that side of the House just how difficult the struggles are for Maori and Pacific people. Close to Christmas time when the tsunami hit Samoa before Christmas there was a call that went out to families particularly targeting families who had relatives in particular parts of Samoa who had lost literally everything. There were six containers that were contributed free of charge by a company. We could not fill those six containers when we asked the local families in Auckland whether they would be prepared to help. Despite their desire to help their families they just could not fill those containers. Why? Because they have struggled through the high cost of living. They are struggling through unemployment. They are struggling with low pay. 
Labour sees creating jobs as the most urgent priority that we need to focus on. As our leader David Shearer said earlier today this year we will continue to hold this Government to account. But where it has ideas that will support the rest of New Zealand we will support those. In fact we will aim to improve those ideas. But so far from the speech we heard today from the Prime Minister there was nothing in there that will give the brighter future that was promised in 2011. I ask families now listening to this debate and having listened to the Prime Minister whether after 5 years of this Government things have improved in their lives. Have they got better? Are they earning better money? Do they see a brighter future at the end of the tunnel? 
Hon Members 
: No. 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO 
: The answer as you hear from my colleagues here is no no no. The only way we can improve things is by doing what the executive said at the manufacturing inquiry yesterday: change the Government change the Government change the Government. That is going to be our task in 2013 and 2014. The mood has changed and I would say that the rest of New Zealand is seeing Mr Key and his Government for what they truly are. They do not care. They do not care one iota about this country or about the young people who need training skills development and education. They do not care about investing in the brighter future of this country. It has all been empty rhetoric.