Faafoi Kris: Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Faafoi Kris: Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:9104. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
:  
Five minutes—it is a shame I do not have 10 minutes to fulfil the needs of Mike Sabin around the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. During the Committee stage the member who has just resumed his seat Mike Sabin said that this bill basically succeeded in the Government’s pursuit of creating conditions for businesses to create jobs. 
When we look through the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill I do not see much that helps any businesses to create an environment that creates jobs. In fact this is the kind of bill that gets introduced to the House when the Government has done exactly the opposite and has not done anything to try to create conditions to create jobs. That has been borne out by the unemployment rate which has stayed high under the current Government. 
If you want to have a look at a subset of the unemployment rate the Pacific unemployment rate—and I think Asenati Lole-Taylor will probably want to concur with me on this—it is close to an all-time high at around 16 percent. This piece of legislation does nothing to address that issue especially dealing with unemployment for a vulnerable part of New Zealand’s communities the Pacific Island community. 
In respect of Mr Sabin’s comments in the Committee stage of this bill I would have to question the validity of that statement. I am glad he did take the opportunity just to take stock of what bill he was talking on because for the 3 minutes prior to that I did not know what he was talking about. I did not know at all what Mr Sabin was talking about. This is the bill that he said in previous readings created the conditions for businesses to create jobs which is certainly not what is done here. Labour is not supporting this bill as the three previous Labour speakers on this side of the House have said because we do not believe it does anything to address the issues that have been identified as barriers to work and they are the creation of jobs and the availability to work childcare costs and whether an individual has the necessary skills required. In those three respects the Government has failed quite miserably. 
I have already talked about the Government’s lack of action on creating an environment to have more jobs. But in the area of childcare costs we are seeing a stick approach from the Government. It will punish those beneficiaries who do not get their children into childcare. Early childhood education is something that is very much valued on this side of the House and that is why we want to make sure we get as many of our young people as possible into early childhood education centres with 100 percent qualified teachers. But what this Government has done has not created the number of places in early childhood education centres to meet the numbers required under this piece of legislation. In terms of that aspect of this bill it is a hollow attempt and a hollow promise to try to get the rates of early childhood education lifted. And where do we start with the Government struggling to get the people with the necessary skills in this country? 
I believe it was about 3 years ago when the Government cut a considerable amount of funding from trades training. What that has meant post-Christchurch is that we do not have enough properly qualified builders plumbers and sparkies there to help in the rebuild. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Gasfitters and drainlayers. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Gasfitters and drainlayers—a very interesting group at the moment. 
So the Government has not addressed the aspect of making sure we have got enough trained and qualified people out there with the right skills in the workforce. We have got Christchurch screaming out for skilled labour and we have not been able to deliver that because this Government in its first term in office considerably cut the budget for trades training. As I said this— 
Mike Sabin 
: That’s a long 5 minutes. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: I can get hotter if you like. 
As I said this bill takes a stick approach to beneficiaries and brings in some social obligations. The introduction of obligations implies that parents who are getting Government support are poor parents. We believe that this is both wrong and unfair but I am sure you will hear the next speaker from the National Government saying that that is just. The use of sanctions— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! The member’s time has expired. 
Kris Faafoi 
: Thank you very much. I wish everyone a happy Easter.