Bennett Paula: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5644] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I stand to take a call on Vote Employment and I am sure that the Opposition will take calls as well with it being such an important vote and such an important issue at the moment as far as what is happening in the country is concerned. It will not surprise the Committee to know though that when the ministry officials and I were before the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee for the estimates Opposition members did not have enough questions on employment and we finished early. With the way that things are at the moment our economy is strongly influenced by the performance of the labour market and employment is obviously a key issue not just for this Government but also for the country. However Labour members did not have enough questions and we finished early on that day because they did not have enough questions to ask us. But that is all right. 
Members might be interested to know that the first question we had was from the previous Minister Ruth Dyson asking me to define productivity. It will not surprise members that she did not know what productivity was even though for 9 years members may have thought that Labour members had been concentrating on that. What happened though was that we had an Opposition that was so keen to be so clever its members did not end up addressing any of the real questions that needed to be addressed. 
Our economy is strongly influenced by the performance of the labour market. We are facing the biggest economic downturn since the Depression yet we heard very few questions coming from the Opposition. We know that a well-functioning and flexible labour market is the key to improving economic performance and it is absolutely vital that we get this stuff right. We are responsible for the labour market analysis for that information to support our national our regional and our sector labour market engagements. We are keenly interested in what is happening in the overall picture. I think the vote has a good interest in where we are heading longer term—getting us through these tougher times recognising what skills we need to move further ahead and making sure we are upskilling the workforce where it is needed. Recently there was a good report on aged care which is of vital importance if we are to look at how we move ahead. 
I want to talk a bit about the unemployment rate and where we are at at the moment. Members should make no mistake: we are at 6 percent at the June 2009 quarter but we do compare favourably internationally. We are ninth out of 30 of the OECD countries. 
Sue Moroney 
: Not any more. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Actually we are. I know that it is hard for Labour to understand but we are ranked ninth out of 30 OECD countries. [ 
Interruption 
] By all means if Opposition members would like to take calls on this very important Vote Employment which is possibly one of the most important votes then I would be very interested in hearing from them. We have seen employment losses in a number of industries—the wholesale and retail trade agriculture fishing and forestry and communications services. But the losses have been partly offset by what we have seen happening in health and community services the accommodation industry cafes restaurants and property and business services and a little still in the construction industry which is of interest to some. 
Our labour force participation rate remains unexpectedly high indicating that people still want to be in work. Some have moved to part-time work or they have reduced their hours wherever possible. There is no doubt about the fact that people want to be in work wherever possible. The labour force participation rate currently sits at 68.4 percent. It is only 0.1 percent under what it was in December 2007 which is when we acknowledge the recession started. 
We know that we are not catching up with Australia as far as productivity is concerned. We saw 9 years of that not being of interest at all and we have a lot of catching up to do on that. We have recently got the task force on board and to get that there we had to start making moves towards it. For 9 years we did not see productivity as a priority in this country. There was no real acknowledgment of where the economy had to grow in the good times but now fortunately this Government is picking it up and doing well through the tough times. These are tough times I tell Opposition members and they do not realise it. As we go around our electorates we are certainly told that there are people out there who are struggling. They recognise though that they can get through this shorter term in order to see us grow throughout the longer term and that is certainly where this Government’s focus is. Thank you.