Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:606;Page:3637] 
5.  
GEORGINA BEYER (NZ Labour—Wairarapa) 
 to the  
Minister of Social Services and Employment 
: What recent reports has he received on Department of Work and Income employment placements? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Social Services and Employment) 
: 
 I am advised that in the last 6 months of 2002 the Work and Income service of the Ministry of Social Development improved its long-term employment placements by 7.6 percent. In other words Work and Income helped 25000 New Zealanders into jobs lasting at least 3 months—up from 23000 the year before. With unemployment at a 15-year low the Work and Income folks are managing to offer sustainable work opportunities to thousands of New Zealand families. 
Georgina Beyer 
: How do the most recent employment placement results compare with earlier years? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Work and Income has achieved a more than 100 percent improvement in long-term employment placements in each duration band compared with the same period in 1998. This includes people who have been unemployed for 4 years or more who often have difficulty re-entering the paid workforce where their performance has improved by over 250 percent; as well as those who have been unemployed for up to 6 months where Work and Income has placed a staggering 372 percent more people into work compared with the last full year of a National-led Government. 
Katherine Rich 
: In the light of his comments about employment placements can the Minister explain why there is still a dire shortage of workers in some industries like trucking and the fruit industry why Maori unemployment is still at 11.5 percent and the cost of the invalids benefit is predicted to nearly double under his stewardship to $1.2 billion by 2007? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The reasons that we have shortages in areas like trucking and the seasonal fruit-picking industry and unemployment amongst Maori of course take longer to explain than I can take today. One of the things I would say about trucking for example which the industry itself acknowledges is that it has not planned for its own needs in that industry. So we are working with the industry training organisation to cure that. In the fruit-picking area we have for example labour shortages in many of the areas of the South Island at the present time. We simply do not have the people to pick fruit because we have been so successful in getting them into jobs in that area. Can I say in relation to Maori that the unemployment rate has dropped from around 19 percent to around 11 percent under this Government.  
Dr Muriel Newman 
: Can the Minister explain why he gloats about stable employment placements when his own answers show that nearly half of all those people are not in stable placements at all but end up back on the dole within 6 months? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: It is never the intention of this Government to gloat about anything to do with employment and unemployment. We realise that these areas have a lot of complex reasons as to why we are doing so well. What we do is simply report the facts and the facts are that we are staggeringly successful in this country at the moment—a 15-year low in unemployment figures.