Curran Clare: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 28 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10429. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): Talofa lava.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): O a mai oe? Now I’ve got you!CLARE CURRAN: Now you have got me.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Manuia fa’afetai.CLARE CURRAN: Thank you Mr Speaker. What a lot of froth bubble bogus claims and excuses have come out of the mouths of the members on the other side of the House the Government speakers today. Bill English today promised 60000 new jobs in the 2013 Budget but 2 years ago he promised 170000 jobs. The truth is that there are no jobs. Our unemployment rates continue to go up. Since this Government has been in power 41000 more people have become out of work. I draw your attention—if you can see the bar graph in the document I am holding up—to the grey column which is what was projected for jobs. The blue column is where there have been some jobs.John Key’s and Bill English’s and Steven Joyce’s ghost jobs—their ghost job promises—will be their undoing. There are no jobs in the regions. There are certainly none in the southern part of New Zealand because this Government is delivering a two-speed economy that is advantaging the people whom it likes and the parts of New Zealand that it likes and disadvantaging our regions. It is disadvantaging our youngpeople and our exporters and entrenching inequalities. It is morally wrong to entrench inequality. It is wrong for our kids and it is wrong for a country that considers itself to be egalitarian. It is wrong economically and it is not only wrong but stupid. An economy has to work for the ordinary person so that they have got a job so that they can stay in New Zealand so that their families will thrive and so that they will pay tax they will spend they will invest their wage and they will help our economy to stay on track. Otherwise what happens is that they leave. They become disenfranchised or they leave.Our economy has to also work for manufacturing. We have to make things. We have to make things and export them to be a productive economy. It is not rocket science. Instead we are hollowing out our manufacturing base and the loss of so many middle-income skilled jobs has made New Zealand a very unequal society.Why is this Government propping up its mates at Skycity and not lifting a finger to support manufacturing businesses like the Hillside railway workshops in Dunedin? Just what New Zealand businesses are going to benefit from the Government’s new pretend procurement policy which was announced after a significant manufacturing outlet with more than 100 skilled jobs was allowed to go down the gurgler?This Government is not benefiting our regions and it is not benefiting the increasing number of working poor and elderly who are struggling with low incomes and rising costs of living. Most of all though it is not benefiting our young people—our future workforce our future. That is the area in which entrenched inequality policies are criminal in nature because they are doing us harm.Although the national average for youth not in education employment or training is 14 percent Dunedin has a rate of 34 percent. The number of people participating in training programmes in Otago has dropped by 24 percent or 1805 people since December 2008. Why? Not because of the demand but because the number of funded places has dropped. Seventy percent of the Dunedin South electorate earns less than $40000 a year. The median income in Dunedin city is $19400 compared with the national median of $24400. In Otago it is marginally higher at $21600 compared with that national median of $24400.The average power bill in Otago is almost $3000 which is acknowledged by the ministry itself as probably being too low. Since November 2008 power bills in Otago have increased by 25 percent. In 2010 an Otago University study calculated that 30 percent of households in Dunedin are living in fuel poverty. Fuel poverty is a recognised measurement whereby the household spending on power equates to 10 percent or more of income. That figure of 30 percent sounds right at least and it could be higher.Thank God that Labour’s NZ Power policy will reduce average household power bills by 10 percent a year and lower the cost to businesses by up to 7 percent a year because that means something to the ordinary person. It means something to them. It is concrete. It is not froth and bogus promises. It will mean something to the 70 percent of people in my electorate who earn under $40000 a year and who may be spending up to $4000 a year on electricity and living in fuel poverty.We have got to have a new approach. We have got to have a major rethink on how to grow jobs wealth and fairness. The fact is that the merchant banking outlook has failed. The way the National Government looks at this has failed. Clinging to that way harms people. It does us harm. It does not help the economy. The new outlook is industrial. This view holds that economic growth must be based in a real economy a productive economy where people actually make things and where businesses create products and services that bring real growth and real jobs not speculation. But unfortunately National still views the economy through that lens of merchant bankingwhich has dominated the Western World for the last 30 years. It has to change. The productive economy requires a productive workforce and a skilled workforce for the jobs of the future. It is a digital world that we live in now and we have to equip our kids for the digital workforce.Another huge issue of concern for all of our communities—and where that two-speed economy is so stark—is the growing digital divide in our economy. This Government should be putting its heart and soul into equipping our kids to be the workforce of the future. But again what it is doing is entrenching a digital divide. We cannot have a digital divide. It will kill our future economy. If we are not providing our kids and their families with access to digital literacy we will kill our future economy.It is estimated by the most up-to-date data that around 20 percent of New Zealand households currently do not have a computer. Computers in Homes has estimated that there are 100000 families with dependent children who do not have access to a computer at home. Those unconnected homes are predominantly in lower socio-economic areas. They are often home to Pasifika and Māori families where children cannot participate equitably in digital learning and using technology and where programmes such as Computers in Homes Computer Clubhouse and Aotearoa People’s Network Kaharoa do great work in increasing digital literacy; but where their success is sporadic because of limited and uncertain funding. Well it is about to become more limited more sporadic and more uncertain.When Nikki Kaye was made a Minister and given special responsibility for digital education she said that she wanted New Zealand to lead the world and her vision was to enable more children to have access to online learning and resources. Well access to infrastructure is great if you can afford it and great if you actually do have the access. Hidden in the Budget was a nasty and an unnecessary cut. It was a cut to Computers in Homes through the digital literacy fund—a cut of $1.7 million which could affect more than 1000 families a year. In the last 12 years Computers in Homes has supported more than 10000 families in this country. It supports communities in 17 different regions across the country from the far north to Otago. It has widespread support and flow-on effects. For every $1 invested by the Government another $2 is invested by the community and by local businesses.It is an absolute travesty that this is being cut. This is mean-spirited it is unnecessary and it is a cut to the heart of an initiative that is making inroads into closing the gaps in increasing inequality. Cuts like these affect people who need the help the most while 100000 families with no computer access have bleaker prospects. This is truly a two-speed economy—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. Her time has expired.