Cunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 18 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16723. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]1.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition)to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement that his approach is “to make New Zealand a better place for Kiwis and their families”; if so will he commit to building a high-value high-wage economy?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister)Yes the Prime Minister does stand by that statement and the second statement as well. He also stands by other statements in the speech from which the member is quoting: “The economy is growing. More jobs are being created. Family incomes are rising. Crime is falling. More elective surgery is being done in public hospitals. Long-term welfare dependency is falling. And we’re continuing to help families and older New Zealanders with generous income support.” New Zealand is on the right track.Hon David Cunliffe: How is his Government making New Zealand a better place when the number of long-term unemployed has increased from 14800 in December 2008 to 44600 in December 2013?Hon BILL ENGLISH: As has been pointed out in this House before on “Planet Labour” there was no recession but in the real world there was one. The best hope for those who do not have jobs is a strong economy generating new jobs and that is what is happening. Of course there is more to be done and if we persist with the Government’s current positive policies a good number of those people will get jobs in the next couple of years.Hon David Cunliffe: Why were 22.7 percent of young Māori and 20.1 percent of Pacific people aged 15 to 24 not in employment education or training last year?Hon BILL ENGLISH: One reason is that quite a few of them went through our schooling system when there was a Government in charge that thought that because they were low income they could not learn. That deprived many of those young New Zealanders of opportunities they should have had. The Government is working intensively on the pipeline into work for young people and is making considerable progress.Hon David Cunliffe: By what percentage did Pacific unemployment grow from December 2008 to December 2013?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I cannot give the member the exact number but what we do know is it was too much and too many Pacific people do not have the jobs they deserve to have. But I can tell you that the Government is working very robustly to ensure that young Pacific people at our schools are treated with respect and as if they can learn and that they do in fact learn. If the member wants one measure in the last year the number of young Pasifika people achieving National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 went up by 7 percent.Louise Upston: What reports has he seen supporting the Government’s approach to making New Zealand a better place for Kiwis and their families?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Before I outline some of those reports I would of course emphasise to the member that the Government believes there is much more to do to ensure that people get jobs and have higher incomes. But the indications are promising. Consumer confidence is running at a 9-year high. Business confidence is approaching a 20-year high and that matters because it means businesses are more likely to invest capital in new jobs and in plant machinery which creates higher incomes. We are particularly pleased to see that manufacturing activity has expanded for 16 consecutive months and around 66000 extra jobs were created in the past year. The outlook is for further job growth.Hon David Cunliffe: Has productivity growth grown faster in New Zealand than in Australia in the last 5 years; if so why?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I cannot answer that question in detail. What I do know is that the most recent figures—published I think today—had productivity growth at around 2.1 percent. We do not pretend it has been easy to turn round the damage done by the last Government; it has not. It has been quite difficult. A lot of New Zealanders are beginning to understand that putting the Labour Party back in power would give them 10 percent first mortgage rates.Hon David Cunliffe: As one example of productivity can the Prime Minister give us any rough idea of what proportion of New Zealand logs are being shipped overseas as raw logs rather than as processed timber or timber products?Hon BILL ENGLISH: As I understand it it has been a growing proportion although I cannot give the member the exact number. I am familiar with that because a sawmill in my own electorate has gone into receivership. Fortunately job growth in the South Island and increasingly in the North Island is so robust that we would expect almost all of those people who may lose their jobs—if they lose their jobs at that sawmill—to be able to get other jobs.Louise Upston: What other reports has he received supporting the Government’s approach to making New Zealand a better place for Kiwis and their children?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Some of the most satisfying reports are the anecdotal ones of parents for instance who are now pleased that their schools are required to inform all parents—not just the ones who turn up at the school—of the progress their children are making on achievement. The other reports are from older people who are now starting to understand that their community is safer because there is less crime and particularly less crime from younger people. But we are always trying to make New Zealand a better place for Kiwis and their families. For instance we would quite like to make the Labour Party caucus—Mr SPEAKER: Order!