4. Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
What reports has he received about the impact of his Government’s policies on unemployment?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
Statistics New Zealand reported this morning that New Zealand’s unemployment rate for the March quarter, as measured by the household labour force survey, was 5 percent, up from 4.7 percent in December. This rate is somewhat below market forecasts of around 5.3 percent, and puts New Zealand’s unemployment rate in the bottom third of the OECD. Of course, the Government is concerned about anyone losing their jobs; that is why we will do anything we can to help people to keep secure the jobs they have or to get new ones if they lose them.
Hon David Cunliffe Link to this
What does the Minister say to the 35,700 more New Zealanders who in the last quarter either have lost their jobs or could not find work, or to the more than 55,000 others whom the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research predicts will be thrown on the scrap heap this year? Does he agree with the institute and the Manufacturers and Exporters Association that his tax cuts and the 9-day working fortnight scheme are unlikely to make a significant difference, and that the money would be better spent on job-rich investments that boost skills and productivity?
I say to them that the most important thing we can do is take steps that will build the confidence for business to invest and actually create new jobs. The best hope for people who have lost their jobs is the hope of new jobs. I also tell them that the Government has been borrowing money and injecting it into the economy to protect all of us from the sharpest edges of recession, with one of the more significant fiscal stimulus measures in the OECD.
Amy AdamsThe Government has put in place a wide range of measures to assist New Zealand businesses. First of all, we are getting the Government’s own house in order by dumping some of Labour’s silly and expensive ideas, such as the $1 million we saved by canning a programme to teach kids how to pat dogs. We have also implemented a $480 million package to assist small and medium sized businesses, brought forward $500 million of spending on infrastructure projects, and delivered tax cuts on 1 April to 1.5 million New Zealanders.
Hon David Cunliffe Link to this
Having signalled the failure of the Minister’s planned tax cuts, and accepted that the 9-day working fortnight has been ridiculously overhyped by his spin machine, what exactly is left of the Government’s recession-fighting jobs stimulus; and does the Minister still claim that that stimulus equals 5 percent of GDP if there are no tax cuts—or was all that stimulus just generated by Labour’s last Budget?
Opposition members need to get their lines sorted out. They have been telling us that we should copy the Australian fiscal stimulus, when Australia’s unemployment rate is close to 6 percent—whereas our fiscal stimulus has kept our unemployment rate down to 5 percent. So which one is it: copy Australia’s plan and force the unemployment rate up, or stick to our plan and keep the unemployment rate lower?