Harawira Hone: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHarawira Hone: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 08 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17694. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.HONE HARAWIRA (Leader—Mana) to theMinister of Finance: How is the Government able to claim its management of the economy is “on the right track” when Māori youth unemployment continues to be unacceptably high at 22.1 percent which is higher than when they took office and nearly four times higher than the latest population-wide unemployment rate?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): An economy headed in the right direction including for Māori youth is one that is growing consistently and generating thousands more jobs. We do have one of those economies. There are a number of ways of calculating the rate of unemployment for youth. In the case of the figure the member mentioned for instance about a third of the 22 percent is classified as caregivers. However the number is certainly too high. I have to say that this Government though has a good track record of concentrating on those factors that will assist Māori youth to get better access to the labour market such as getting better results from school and ensuring that our training systems actually give those young people qualifications not just a place to go to. For instance National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 achievement by Māori school-leavers has improved from 44 percent in 2008 to almost 59 percent in 2013. We are also supporting them through initiatives such as Youth Guarantee New Zealand Apprenticeships and the persistent work the Māori Party has done to introduce Māori Trade Training which has provided opportunities for hundreds of young Māori. I think the Government though would collectively agree thatthis result is not good enough. It is another reason why we need a persistently growing economy and a strong focus on results.Hone Harawira: Does the fact that tens of thousands of Māori have already left our shores in search of jobs in Australia mean that the Māori youth unemployment rate would probably be twice as high as the current rate of 22.1 percent if they all stayed at home?Hon BILL ENGLISH: There is something in the view that as fewer people leave New Zealand—and a lot fewer are leaving—it makes it a bit more difficult for those who are here and without jobs to find jobs. I share with the member his concern that too many Māori have left particularly the far north and that is why it is good to see that he is taking a bit more of a positive approach to economic development up there. Although I respect his view that he is opposed to mining he does I understand work constructively to enable Treaty settlements in the far north where several hundreds of millions of dollars are waiting in the Government’s bank account simply forNgāpuhi to agree to accept it.Hone Harawira: What kind of future can young Māori possibly have in Aotearoa when the statistics show that they are destined for long-term consistently high levels of unemployment under National and why has this Government along with its friends in the Māori Party failed so spectacularly to address the appalling racism inherent in these figures?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I think the difference between the National Party and the Māori Party on the one hand and that member and his fellow travellers in the Labour Party is that we do not accept that that is the destiny of young Māori. It does not matter how many statistics he quotes. It does not matter what the track record has been. This Government has committed to changing that trajectory starting right from participation in early childhood education through to higher levels of achievement at secondary school. That is the difference. We do not accept that being a poor Māori from the far north means you are destined to no hope. We have set out on the path to give them hope and I particularly compliment the Māori Party on its efforts in that respect.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: In light of that response is it acceptable that the rate of Māori youth not in employment education or training has stagnated under his Government at 21.9 percent and that this compounds the fact that long-term unemployment trends for young Māori is the brighter future that they can look forward to under a National Government?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No it is not acceptable and that is why this Government has worked very hard to undo all the damage the last Government did by wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on training that took people nowhere and giving young people false hope that if they went along to some course they would get a job.Grant Robertson: You’ve done nothing.Hon BILL ENGLISH: In fact I invite the members opposite to go along and talk to all the people involved in Youth Guarantee in Youth Service in the pipeline work that has been done in the trades academies and in the Māori Trade Training programme. They will tell those members that this Government has done more than any previous Government. In fact those members criticised the Minister of Education for trying too hard and going out and pushing schools to actually teach these kids.