Curran Clare: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Curran Clare: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
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CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this debate because I say the member opposite is a fraud. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: That is a very unparliamentary comment to make. I ask the member to withdraw and apologise for that. 
CLARE CURRAN 
: I withdraw and apologise. What we would like to hear from the member Michael Woodhouse a National list member who lives in Dunedin is that he will go to Dunedin and tell the people who work at the Hillside railway workshops what he thinks.  
Michael Woodhouse has sat around the table for 18 months telling the workers the union the Dunedin City Council and the chamber of commerce how much he supports Hillside but now we hear basically a story of collusion. It is about how to construct a story—that was what we hear from that side of the House—that would paint the work that is done by the workers at the Hillside and Woburn workshops in rail engineering as being somehow unaffordable. Michael Woodhouse said they could not meet the requirements in terms of price quality and timeliness. Yet I have heard him say face to face at those meetings how much he believes that that workforce and the rail engineering business can deliver. Now we hear today that he does not believe they can deliver.  
Well that is the fraud of this and that— 
Michael Woodhouse 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member may not have said it but it is very clear from her earlier comments at whom that comment was directed. I would again ask that she withdraw and apologise. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I just caution the member who is speaking that these terms can cause concern to members of the House. I ask that in future she bears that in mind. 
CLARE CURRAN 
: Forty-one skilled jobs are being lost at Hillside right now because of the Government’s lack of investment in its own workforce and in its own nation. Instead it wants to purchase rail from outside New Zealand for the lowest cost and of doubtful quality and doubtful timeliness. I spoke of collusion because a story is being developed to make out that the workers at Hillside cannot produce the product when we know that they can. And that member a National list member who happens to live in Dunedin knows that too. Those 41 jobs 41 families and 41 incomes will be lost to Dunedin.  
We heard again in question time today from the Prime Minister that 170000 jobs will miraculously be produced in this country in the next 4 years. He cannot say where they are coming from. None of the Ministers whom I have seen come before the Commerce Committee which I sit on have been able to say where the jobs are coming from. They include David Carter who is the Acting Minister for Economic Development. He was asked specifically what analysis had been done of the sectors that those jobs will come from and he said there had been none. No analysis has been done because it is a mirage—it is making stuff up. This Government and the member Michael Woodhouse are making stuff up. They are making a case so that the skilled workforce in New Zealand that has produced trains and has the skills to do that will not be able to do so any more and the industry will close down as a result. The member will be accountable on that issue. I dare him to come to another one of those meetings and I dare him to go to Cargill Enterprises tomorrow night at 7 o’clock and face to face tell the people there what he really thinks. Over the last few months he has been talking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue. Yes that makes me angry and so it should. It should make the people of Dunedin angry and it should make the workers at Hillside angry.  
What Kiwis want is to have security. They want to have jobs and they want them to be skilled jobs. As members have heard John Key and his Ministers cannot give people a credible answer. The Associate Minister of Tourism Jonathan Coleman came before the select committee last week. He was asked where the jobs would come from and what analysis there had been. He hummed and ha’ed for a few minutes and then said maybe there would be about 5000 jobs. Most of them will be in low-skilled low-wage areas and the ones that are created probably will not last very long. They will not be permanent jobs.  
Then there is the Minister for Communications and Information Technology who is handing over $1 billion of New Zealand taxpayers’ money to Telecom a monopoly. That was brought forward in this year’s Budget. Concerns were raised in the last few days about the level of the skilled workforce needed in order to roll out his ultra-fast broadband scheme and he breezily replied that we should not worry about that. He said there was no issue with skills and if there was the industry would fix that itself. Instead the training standards body questioned in the last couple of days whether there will be enough skilled workers to service and maintain the Government’s $1 billion fibre internet network. That body sets the standards for telecommunications workers. It said the sector needs to think about training staff now rather than waiting until they are needed. It warned that the industry may have to rely on overseas workers if needed because the skills were not being developed now. What did the Minister for Communications and Information Technology say? He breezily said there was no immediate skills shortage and that if funding was required then it would be made available. He is not interested in actually looking at the facts.  
The Minister for Communications and Information Technology has been asked to come clean on whether Telecom will employ a low-wage foreign workforce through a company such as Visionstream which started this practice 2 years ago. That move was fought tooth and nail by the workers and the union. He has been asked whether that is the plan—whether Telecom in order to roll out ultra-fast broadband at the price that it is doing it for needs to bring in a foreign workforce that is not as skilled as Kiwi workers are and that is prepared to work for less money than Kiwi workers are. We have asked whether he can confirm that the Government will actually commit to providing jobs for Kiwis because this Government does not commit to that. Where is this Government committing to provide Kiwi jobs? Perhaps it is on a cycleway with about a couple of hundred jobs. That is over 2½ years.  
Where are the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are supposed to be produced miraculously in this economy? Where are they? That is what I would like to hear from the members across the way rather than hear them running down the skills of our workforce and running down the skills of our rail engineering workforce at Hillside and rather than hear the member opposite talking out of both sides of his mouth on the issue. Michael Woodhouse is supportive of Hillside when he is in Dunedin but he then comes to this House and says basically we cannot deliver on price we cannot deliver on quality and we cannot deliver on timeliness. He should go to Dunedin and tell the people of Dunedin what he really thinks. 
There is no plan for the creation of skilled jobs. This Government has no plan and there will be no plan but 170000 jobs are supposed to somehow miraculously appear in the next 4 years. I would like to know which sectors those jobs are coming from who is driving them what sorts of jobs they will be what kinds of pay levels they will offer and what kind of investment in skills is happening right now in respect of them. The Minister for Communications and Information Technology does not believe that we have an issue with regard to skills despite the organisation that licenses those skills and trains people having said there is a problem. Somebody has got it wrong and I would like to hear what members opposite think about that.  
There is no plan but in the meantime 41 skilled workers in Dunedin with families and good incomes are losing their jobs right now. Those jobs will not be replaced. What will those people do? They will either leave Dunedin or go offshore because Australia is recruiting rail engineering workers. Australian firms as the member across the way knows have been in Dunedin to recruit workers because they are building trains.