Goodhew Jo: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoodhew Jo: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 29 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15627. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon JO GOODHEW (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector): I rise with much pleasure to support the Prime Minister’s statement and his speech. In doing so I rise absolutely sure that this Government continues to implement its plan to build a faster-growing economy with more jobs and higher incomes and to support New Zealanders and their families. There are so many different examples that I just cannot wait to tell you. I am going to start however with something that is an absolute example happening in my electorate announced today by the Minister for Social Development. You see this Government is the Government that does not just talk about things. This is the Government that actually has action that eventuates in outcomes that are good for New Zealanders and that is the way it should be.Today the Hon Paula Bennett announced the results of a recruitment partnership in mid-Canterbury in my electorate of Rangitata. TheTerraceView Retirement Village opened back in November and it needed at least 25 new staff—probably closer to 30—most of them working part-time hours. What it did was it went to Work and Income and said that it was going to need some more staff and got itself into this recruitment partnership. The people who were actually successful in going into work from Work and Income numbered 11 and there were others as well whom the retirement village recruited. This was indeed a partnership made in heaven because some of these people were beneficiaries who were referred for the job openings. Some of them had been on a benefit for a while. Some of them had never worked. But in fact there were jobs—real jobs not imaginary jobs—there for them and this has been very very successful. This is about case managers who actually understand what their job is—not just to simply have people trundling in and out through the office but actually to take these real people and assist them into jobs. So what have we got? We have got thousands and thousands of New Zealanders now in jobs who had been relying on benefits for some years. They also do a New Zealand Qualifications Authority - approved caregiving course. They are getting qualifications. Over 1500 people are leaving the benefit every single week and becoming financially independent as a result.Actually this is where we have got another disconnect because apparently we have huge amounts of poverty in New Zealand. What is the way out of poverty? There are two ways: education and work and they are very intricately linked. What we have got on the other side of the House is something that this week was called a Best Start. Well I would have to say that it was a mediocre start maybe even a worst start but Labour is calling it a Best Start. What I would suggest—Mike Sabin: Possibly a false start.Hon JO GOODHEW: A false start?Mike Sabin: Yes.Hon JO GOODHEW: A false start. What I would suggest to the Opposition is that when it tries to sell this policy—when it decides what this policy actually is when it has determined how many people might actually be able to apply for it and receive this $60—it actually hands out free magnifying glasses because by golly any policy under this Labour Opposition is going to need the fine print read very carefully. So free magnifying glasses out of the Labour Party budget would be a really really good idea.It is evidence-based policies that actually create real change for New Zealanders that will continue to keep this country humming. And it is humming. What did we have last year? We had 3.5 percent growth. It will be at least that this coming year. Boy that must be hard to swallow for a Labour-Greens Opposition which is wanting to convince New Zealanders that they are going backwards when they do not feel like they are. Business confidence is soaring. It is at its highest in how many years? Thirteen years?Mike Sabin: 20.Hon JO GOODHEW: Oh 20 years is it? Well there you go. This is what we have got happening under this Government. It has been steady as you go because actually although the Opposition trumpets surpluses what it has forgotten was the sorry end to its surpluses: a tradable economy going south before the global financial crisis even arrived. Opposition members have forgotten about that. Their short-term memory—there must be a bit of a health problem there. Presented with 10 years of deficits they wonder why we have not experienced a surplus—their 10 years of deficits left on a plate for us before the global financial crisis really even kicked in. And then there was a small thing like oh a couple of large earthquakes and the biggest hit on a GDP basis or the second-biggest I think for any sort of Western nation around the world. So from an insurance perspective yes we now have the opportunity for lots of jobs but that has been a significant fiscal thump that this Government has had to negotiate its way through.What happened during the global financial crisis? Did this Government cut benefits? No. Did this Government protect New Zealanders from what we called the potential sharp edges of the recession? Absolutely we did. And one of the things I am going to go on to is older New Zealanders because one of my responsibilities is older New Zealanders and they give me lots of feedback. They are very good at giving feedback. Not only do they engage in voting but they engage with politicians. That is great because we know what they are thinking. They are actually pretty comfortable with the fact that their superannuation has increased by 25 percent since 2008. It is not a bad story that under this Government we actually enshrined in legislation that they would get superannuation from the age of 65 at 66 percent of the average wage—not the ethereal 65 percent it must be or maybe 66 percent this year but we cannot promise it ongoing. One would think that the Opposition could have done that while it was in Government.Older New Zealanders care about crime. They really care about being safe in their communities. And I tell you the country is outraged when we read about crime against older people. So it really does help their sense of security to know that crime is at itslowest in 33 years. Do we still need to make more inroads into that? Absolutely we do but we have now tougher bail sentencing and parole laws and we are keeping the worst of the criminals behind bars.Older New Zealanders disproportionately are the people who are requiring elective surgery. That is just the nature of growing older. We know that. So when we tell them that although there are some people who are still waiting for their surgery—and nothing has changed since the Opposition was in Government I might remind those members. So there was no one waiting for surgery back then? Actually we had 30000 people who were sent off the list. Nobody was interested in them. We did not send them back to their GP. We did not engage them in exercise classes that would help them until their surgery came along. None of that happened under the previous Government. So what have we got? In 2007-08 we had 118000 people who got elective surgery. Any way you put it 158000 this last year is a—what have we got—34 percent increase. It is a 34 percent increase. That is reassuring. What is more we are giving certainty that when you go on that list for your appointment when you go on the list you know you are going to get your surgery. You are not going to be on—Hon Annette King: Yeah but what about the 170000 who don’t get surgery?Hon JO GOODHEW: Oh I can remember the stories about waiting lists. People were on them for a year for 2 years for 3 years. They never knew when their surgery was going to happen but they were reassured because they were on a list. They thought that it was actually going to happen.The other thing that older people care about is their children and grandchildren and particularly about their grandchildren getting a good education. What they will tell you is that they remember the schoolteachers who made a difference for them. I absolutely remember the principals who made a difference for me. Unfortunately I also remember the ones who did not but that is the way it is. We know the ones and we watched it with our own children when they were growing up. We saw which teachers inspired them and we wanted them to stay in that class for every year. That is because that is where they really learnt. That is where they loved education. Those were the subjects—goodness I can remember one subject that I sat at high school where the whole class failed.Hon Hekia Parata: Oh!Hon JO GOODHEW: I know. Fortunately that person left teaching. Older New Zealanders are also really keen to know that their children and grandchildren are going to be getting jobs. We have reduced unemployment by 53000. If you talk to an older person and they say that their child their son or daughter is out of work it breaks their heart because they know that they want to be in work.We are heading as a Government in the right direction under the stewardship of Prime Minister John Key. He has an absolutely united caucus with everyone doing their bit. We have got fantastic things happening in primary industries and I am proud to be associated with that. We have got irrigation happening in my constituency. We have got the Irrigation Acceleration Fund and we have also got the irrigation investment company. We are not resting on our laurels. We are not throwing cash around in a lolly scramble. What we are doing is getting absolute real results out of New Zealanders. They come up to me in my electorate every week. They come up to me and they tell me that they appreciate the fact that we understand fiscal responsibility as a Government—this National-led Government. Thank you.