Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:655;Page:4571] 
2.  
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: What evidence does he have to support the statement he made in the House yesterday “… the Job Summit has and will create thousands of jobs”? 
Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 I can give the member one simple example. One of the initiatives proposed at the Job Summit was to accelerate environmental initiatives for employment and productivity improvements. We have done that through the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart home insulation programme and I am advised that this will supply about 2000 jobs over the next 4 years. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why does the Prime Minister not simply admit that that programme was a Labour policy that he abolished on becoming Prime Minister and that he is now implementing a scheme that is one-third the size of it 6 months later? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: For a start what we know about Labour policies is that Labour promises a lot but does not fund its promises. That is the first thing. The other quite interesting thing is that last week I understand the Minister of Finance challenged the Opposition spokesperson on finance about the billions more going into the New Zealand Superannuation Fund the $3 billion going into the Waterview tunnel and the billions of dollars going into tax cuts and all the other initiatives that this Government is trying to get on top of in order to get our fiscal position in order and according to David Cunliffe they were not policies. No they are not policies. They are just a wish list like everything else that comes from Labour. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Is it evidence of the failure of “Mark I” and “Mark II” of the 9-day working fortnight programme that I have received this note from the Department of Labour which indicates that given the failure of the first two measures that the Prime Minister implemented the department is now looking at a third measure “Mark III” to try to get that scheme to deliver anything significant at all? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Call me old-fashioned but I say it is a perverse kind of Opposition that thinks it is a good thing when the country goes on to a 9-day fortnight. We are happy to do it to help companies out but why would we want to rush on to it? By the way I remember being in this House just a few months ago when the Opposition was criticising me for doing that programme for Fisher and Paykel Appliances. Well today Fisher and Paykel Appliances has got its balance sheet in order. The private sector has come to a solution. We have saved an iconic New Zealand company. We are acting on this side of the House. 
Jo Goodhew 
: Where does the Job Summit fit into the Government’s overall programme to support jobs? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: That is a very good question. The Job Summit is only a small part of the Government’s actions to support jobs during this recession. The most important thing the Government has done for jobs is to maintain its spending on entitlements and public services. This has created a very sizable fiscal stimulus to sustain economic activity in New Zealand and therefore support jobs. We have done a lot of other things as well including bringing forward nearly $500 million of capital spending on roads housing and school buildings introducing a tax assistance package for small and medium sized businesses and avoiding a credit downgrade which a Labour Government would have almost certainly delivered to New Zealand. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Is the Prime Minister’s “third time lucky” approach to the 9-day working fortnight just evidence of his Government’s ad hoc approach to the soaring rate of unemployment and evidence of the fact that the Government has no plan at all to keep Kiwis in work?