Mahuta Nanaia: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Mahuta Nanaia: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:664;Page:11823] 
8. 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: Does she stand by all her statements? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 Yes. 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: Given her statement that “Community Max has been a great success” why has she not extended that programme instead of cutting it when by doing so she will leave people out of work and no better off because her Government has not created any jobs? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I certainly do stand by Community Max. It has been a fantastic programme. In fact—[ 
Interruption 
]—Sorry does the member Carmel Sepuloni not agree that it has been a fantastic programme? That is all right. So it is not a fantastic programme so Labour members do not like Community Max so Labour members do like Community Max—they cannot quite make up their minds on it. They want us to extend it but they think that it is not any good. It gets a bit— 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: I seek leave to ask the question again because she is clearly not answering it. 
Hon Member 
: Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No I do not need assistance on this matter. If the member had not added the last statement in her question it might have been treated a little differently. We have heard enough answer to that question. Does the member have a supplementary question? 
Carmel Sepuloni 
: What target has she set for reducing youth unemployment particularly for the 37 percent of 15 to 19-year-old Maori boys who are not currently in education or in employment; if no target has been set how can she possibly stand by her statement: “We want every single one of them to be engaged in education training or employment.”? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I think the member just answered her own question: it is that we would like every single one of them to be engaged in education training or employment. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Before we go any further I ask the Minister to answer the question again. Because of the interjections going across in front of me I just could not hear that answer. I ask the Minister to start that answer again. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Certainly Mr Speaker. What I was saying was that I thought that the member answered the question herself when she said “I would like to see every one of them engaged in education employment or training.” 
Carmel Sepuloni 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question asked whether she had set a target with regard to reducing youth unemployment. She did not give me an answer with regard to that. I would like an answer please Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Before we get into an exchange of points of order I say that if the member had asked just that question we would have got an answer to it. But there was a whole lot more stuff in the member’s question that the Minister picked up on. The remedy lies in the member’s hands. If she had asked just that question I would have done my best to help her get an answer to it. But I cannot insist on the Minister answering a particular part when there is a whole lot more in a question. 
Hekia Parata 
: Does she also stand by her statement to a select committee yesterday that “We have invested an extra $285 million in responding to the recession.”? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Yes I do. A large proportion of that money went to young people. Of that $285 million $91 million was spent on young people. That delivered 1200 job opportunities more than 3000 Community Max places and 2500 places on the Limited Service Volunteer programme. A figure of $17.4 million went to the Job Support Scheme helping to save jobs. A figure of $17.5 million was given to ReStart. There was extra employment assistance of $12.6 million. There were summer jobs for students. Of course we set aside $104 million to help non-governmental organisations ride out the recession. 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: Will the Minister continue to go down the track— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I apologise to the honourable member. I just ask Government backbenchers on this occasion to be reasonable with interjection levels; I cannot hear the question. 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: Will the Minister continue to go down the track of short-term training schemes like Job Ops when young people want to work but there are no jobs or is she developing these sound-good schemes to make her statistics look good? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: To give the House an update on where we are at with job opportunities I tell members that we have 5656 young people on Job Ops at the moment. Of the number who have completed their Job Ops at this time we have seen that 94 percent of them have not gone on a benefit—94 percent of those who finished Job Ops have not gone on a benefit. I think that is fantastic. Yes we will back it. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: If the Minister’s target is that 100 percent of young people are in training education or employment will she concede that she is failing on her own measure given that 60000 young people are not? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Obviously I am not the Minister of Education. I am also not the Minister for Tertiary Education who actually plays a part in that. I am a Minister who is part of a team that is directly focused on our young people and that is making a real difference in their lives leading to real jobs and real opportunities. 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: I seek leave to table an article showing young people who were on Community Max but who are now out of work and not able to get a benefit. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I inquire from the member the source of that document. 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: The  
New Zealand Herald. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: We will not be doing that.