Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 28 July 2009. Volume:656;Page:5142. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
2.  
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: What has been the impact of his Job Summit in addressing the increasing level of unemployment in New Zealand and what effect if any has this had on Treasury forecasts of the likely unemployment levels by July 2010? 
Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Mr Speaker I seek your forbearance because the answer will be quite long. Quite a lot came out of the Job Summit including of course the New Zealand cycleway and I announced the first seven routes yesterday. I am advised that the Warm Up New Zealand home insulation programme will provide about 2000 jobs over the next 4 years. The Job Support Scheme—which the unions identify as a priority—came out of the Job Summit as did increased flexibility for industry training organisations to help trainees find jobs; the issuing of a longer-dated Government bond and close examination of a bond bank to help reduce the cost of borrowing for local councils; an extension of the short-term trade credit insurance guarantee scheme for exporters; the 9-day working fortnight; the new business migration scheme which was announced today; and various initiatives relating to the fundamentals of the economy such as infrastructure spending improving regulations and the like. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: How many actual jobs have been created by the so-called three big ideas that emerged from the Job Summit and how does that number compare with the estimated 40000 jobs lost since the Job Summit was held? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: There are a few things to point out. Firstly I would not put at 40000 the number of jobs that have been lost since the Job Summit. Secondly— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: What is the number? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I do not have the exact number but I can say that out of the Job Summit came not only a whole range of initiatives which I have just detailed but also as Helen Kelly the head of the Council of Trade Unions has mentioned on previous occasions a format and a platform for unions businesses and the Government to try to work together to get us through this recession. The only people who are not on board are the miserable Opposition members. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: How will his Job Summit or his cycleway proposal help the 190 workers who have lost their jobs at Winstone Pulp International Ltd and Cedenco Foods in Gisborne in the last 3 days alone? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: It is unlikely that the cycleway will help them. No one has ever argued that the cycleway is the panacea for a global recession. I can say that in the last 8 months this Government has been reducing regulation making New Zealand a more productive country and doing a variety of things to unwind the bureaucracy that 9 years of a Labour Government put on the business community of New Zealand. 
Chester Borrows 
: Tena koe Mr Speaker. Tena tatou katoa. What report has the Prime Minister seen on reaction in the Wanganui-Ruapehu area to the cycleway project? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I have seen a report from the Mayor of Wanganui that says that it is very exciting news for Wanganui and the surrounding district and that it should contribute millions of dollars a year to our tourism economy. The Mayor of Ruapehu has also said that “It will be huge. It will definitely create the employment opportunities that we have been looking to have for some years.” 
Hon Phil Goff 
: What does the Prime Minister say to the numerous businesses whose workers are currently working 4-day weeks when the Government’s 9-day working fortnight proposal is so constrictive that it is irrelevant to those businesses in trying to help preserve the jobs of their workers? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Well I would not accept the argument that it is. 
Hon Sir Roger Douglas 
: Does the Prime Minister accept that spending taxpayers’ dollars to create jobs just shifts people from profitable businesses to often unprofitable Government ones; and why will he not help all businesses by kick-starting the economy through tax reduction the removal of Resource Management Act barriers to growth and the removal of labour market barriers to job creation? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I think the member has a point and that is that there is a limit to what the Government can do in relation to make-work schemes. Some can be of benefit and can take the sharp edges off the recession but in the end if New Zealand is to have an effective economy we need to have high levels of productivity and to do that many of the reforms the member is talking about need to be addressed. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why did the Prime Minister promote the cycleway as one of the three big ideas that emerged from the Job Summit when by his own figures probably no jobs will be created this year or very few and when he estimates that 160 to 280 jobs will have been created 18 months out from the Job Summit which is about the same number of jobs being lost each and every day in New Zealand? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I will say three things. Firstly I promoted the cycleway project because I think it is a good idea; it will be a tourist attraction both internationally and domestically. Secondly I promoted it because I think it will make a long-term difference to New Zealand. And thirdly I promoted it because I personally think a cycleway across New Zealand is a hell of a better idea than welfare for millionaires. 
Eric Roy 
: What reports has the Prime Minister seen on the reaction in the Southland and Queenstown areas to the cycleway project? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I have seen a report from the Destination Queenstown chief executive officer saying that the announcement of the Around the Mountain Rail Trail was “fantastic news for Queenstown” and that “The benefits of a cycleway to this region will be significant …”. The Southland District mayor said: “It’s a win-win situation for us all. The trail will be great for economic development throughout the region and will bring more tourists who can visit the many attractions that Southland and Otago are well-known for.” 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Did Bill English’s comments on  
Q+A  
about not funding the cycleway reflect a cost-benefit analysis by Treasury that showed that it was a very ineffective way of creating jobs; if not is he prepared to release that advice to the public? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: In answer to the first question no. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Tena koe Mr Speaker. Does the Prime Minister accept that the first part of the Green New Deal programme—that is insulating houses—has been a successful job generation project and will he now move to implement other parts of the Green New Deal programme such as energy efficiency forestry riparian planting and a greatly expanded State housing building programme? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: In relation to the last part of the member’s question no I do not think there will be a greatly expanded State housing building programme. In relation to the first part of the question which asked why I think the insulating houses part of the programme has been successful I think it has been successful because we know that around about 800000 homes in New Zealand are not properly insulated and 8 months into a National Government with the strong help support and encouragement of the Green Party progress is being made after 9 years of a Labour Government when no progress was made. 
Sandra Goudie 
: What reports has the Prime Minister seen on the reaction from local government to the cycleway project? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I have seen a report from the Local Government New Zealand president stating that the project announced yesterday “will create local jobs and a platform for economic development.” The project has been an excellent example of local and central government working together to deliver benefits and I would like to thank the councils for the support they have shown for the initiative. I will just make one final point: I am looking forward to election 2011 when National will be talking about extending the cycleway to even more parts of New Zealand and Phil Goff will be campaigning on ripping up the cycleway around New Zealand. Way you go tiger; give that one a whirl! 
Hon Phil Goff 
: The Prime Minister was looking forward to the Mt Albert by-election! Why did the Prime Minister tell Local Government New Zealand at its conference yesterday that it should be spending more money on cycleways when in April he approved a paper from his Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide that would have declared that a non-core activity that it could not be involved in? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Because that paper is a review document and that is exactly what we are going to do—review the core services. 
Chris Tremain 
: Kia ora Mr Speaker. Has the Prime Minister seen any reports of a Minister dealing with increasing levels of unemployment? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes. I have seen a newspaper report about a former employment Minister which stated: “There was a widespread expectation that Mr Goff could somehow bring his optimistic touch to the growing disaster of unemployment. The dream did not work. Unemployment has continued to climb to ruinous heights from 54000 people 2 years ago to registered unemployment last month of 101770.” OK fair enough that report was from 1988 but it finished with this line: “Seldom now is he referred to as the bright young hope of the Cabinet.”