Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister of Employment): What an honour to finish the coalition Government's speaking order on the Prime Minister's statement. I think as probably the most unbiased member in the House it's probably appropriate that I give my critique of the debate—and it's been a brilliant debate from this side. What an outstanding contribution from our Prime Minister—absolutely exceptional. It set the agenda. It talked about what we'd achieved in the past year turning people's lives around and talked about manaakitanga and āwhinatanga in the year to come.It was a brilliant speech from Grant Robertson who talked about the aspirations of the National Party and how they're trying to cut mine and Peeni and Nanaia Mahuta's relation Simon Bridges' throat. Grant talked about it about what Judith Collins was up to. Winston Peters—I mean it just goes on and on and on. I can't even recall one reasonable National Party speech. It was just disgraceful really and I listened to Simon O'Connor and the way he was carrying on. And Simon Bridges' speech would be one of the worst Opposition speeches I've ever heard in the history of Parliament. It was desperate it was disgraceful and it was as bad as the attitude of the National Party members the other day who at the Finance and Expenditure Committee disgraced themselves shamed their party and shamed their history.You must ask yourself why the New Zealand public can't stand this party at the moment. I'll tell you why: because they play the people; they don't play the kaupapa. Fancy leaving people who are coming to make submissions over Pharmac over Pike River over sexual violence—fancy playing politics and leaving them outside. The former Speaker should hang his head in shame—hang his head in shame—in terms of what they did to the New Zealand public. That's why they're going down in the polls down the tubes. No one cares what they're saying.But I want to reiterate like Megan Woods said today that the Māori caucus is 100 percent behind Simon Bridges! He is Nanaia Mahuta's Ngāti Maniapoto relation and we'll back him despite the shameful behaviour at the Finance and Expenditure Committee. Clearly our relation wasn't about to roll our tikanga to the former Speaker who wouldn't have a clue—shamed himself shamed the office and shamed this Parliament.Coming back to my work as an employment Minister over the last year when I took over as employment Minister sadly I found a sorry state of affairs—a sorry state of affairs. When we looked at investment and resourcing in terms of the regions in terms of the people and in terms of the different industries there was no investment. There was no resourcing. Is it little wonder why we have a skills shortage at the moment—a skills shortage in nursing in teaching as the Hon Chris Hipkins knows and in building?Everything in the last nine years in terms of what National did was nothing. It was nothing in terms of trying to turn this economy around and in terms of making an employment policy for everyone. Was there an employment policy strategy? No there was not—no there was not. When things got bad for the Opposition they brought in more immigrants and they kept the low-wage economy. That was their strategy: a low wage economy and more immigrants and never mind developing an economy for everyone. An economy has to be built for everyone.What we have done is we've set up the lowest rate of unemployment for the last decade seen the lowest unemployment rates for women and Māori in more than a decade. Coincidentally we've also achieved the highest employment rates for women and Māori since the household labour force survey was introduced.Employment growth has not just been confined to the major cities. We've seen strong growth in Taranaki Eastern Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay just to name a few areas. We've got more people in employment now: 2664000. And we raised the minimum wage and—surprise surprise National—the sky didn't fall in. Although you keep waffling on about business confidence business confidence is growing by the day. It doesn't matter what the Opposition say the polls are telling the story: no one trusts the Opposition at this stage.Now we also have gone out to our communities and we've restored the ability for young people rangatahi Māori to have dreams and aspirations. He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) was created and rolled out to deliver skills training and employment back to our young people ensuring that they don't have to leave the Hokianga don't have to leave Ōpōtiki and don't have to leave Ruatōria and their whānau and their community. We've tried to give them a future that they deserve. I'm proud of He Poutama Rangatahi and the work the Government is doing to ensure the future of these regional places and I'm proud that Shane Jones is also joining us with the Provincial Growth Fund in supporting them.He Poutama Rangatahi is an employment and skills programme that is for young people in the four regions of New Zealand who are not currently in education training or employment. They come from the high-risk areas but we want to support them. We want to support them through pastoral care and we want to do this through community-based initiatives. Early last year we invested $13 million from the Minister of Finance in terms of He Poutama Rangatahi and I've just got to another $13 million from Shane Jones. And what have we done in terms of numbers? We've activated 2300 young people. Now the National Party's into numbers—2300 young people earning or learning. I'm incredibly proud of this mahi in terms of what we're doing.That's the number of people who have been activated. HPR is a long-term investment in skills training and development that will lead to long-term sustainable work and the way the programme works is a mixture of skills learning on-the-job training and work experience.Right now though—and these numbers are important because you know I've been challenged about numbers in the House before—and always got it right might I add. I'm going to be clear on these numbers. There are 1461 young people enrolled and participating currently on HPR programmes. Eighty percent of those are currently training and 20 percent are actively in work experience job placements or earning. Let's have a think about that: 282 young people are now working in the four regions that have been left behind by the previous National Government. I think it's important—282 are realising their aspirations. They're breaking that benefit dependency—I want to be serious here—that the whole house is concerned about—the whole house is concerned about.I've heard kōrero in the past before from both sides that dependency is something that we've got to knock out and 282 people are now contributing to the regeneration of their whenua and local community and another 1180 are on their way to doing the same thing. I'm incredibly proud along with my colleagues over there.We haven't just stopped there. We've rolled out Mana in Mahi. The Prime Minister rolled that out with myself and the Hon Carmel Sepuloni last year with full support from New Zealand First. It was announced and we were able to visit with Downer Construction in Christchurch and Work and Income in Auckland where we got to meet and talk with young people.As a Minister of Employment again it's fantastic to watch young people be given an opportunity in terms of apprenticeships moving from the dole to work. We're supporting employers supporting these young people and we're hoping to see a transition of their skills across the spectrum—so great. It will come as no surprise to those in the House and those listening that I'm committed to bringing the rate of Māori unemployment down to match that of the general population. It's so imperative that we bring this down. Last year—for goodness sake—we had two National MPs comparing this aspiration of bringing Māori unemployment down to searching for the mythical unicorn. This is the type of criticism we get from the other side. But I say to those members opposite that I'm committed to this. I said that on The Nation last year and I reiterate that today. I won't apologise for trying to reduce the Māori unemployment. We've made a great start. Māori unemployment is down to 8.1 percent down from double digits when we took the office and the lowest in a decade. But we can do more.We are committed to the remaining phase of Mana in Mahi. We see the rollout of Pae Aronui directing urban youth and we want to expand in every area. We want an economy—in summing up—that looks after everyone. The National Party ruled over a rock star economy. They ruled over a rock star economy. Everything was fine; although it wasn't fine for Māori for Pasifika for disabled people or for women. We need an economy that is for everyone. That's certainly our belief. Employment doesn't just mean having an income; there's a sense of accomplishment and of physical and mental well-being that comes with it. There's the ability to make choices and the ability to provide for yourself and your whānau. There's the benefit of lifting kids out of poverty and knowing that they can contribute to their community and local economies. Most importantly through employment we can break horrendous intergenerational dependency. So in the year of delivery that's exactly what we're going to do. Kia ora tātou.