3. Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does he stand by his answers to Oral Question No 1 yesterday when he said that the Leader of the Opposition is “just plain wrong” in relation to skills training?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) Link to this
How was the Leader of the Opposition “just plain wrong” when the Government’s Youth Guarantee programme, which is supposed to provide a pathway to work for young people, has enrolled just 2,475 people, equivalent to 6 percent of those 15 to 19-year-olds who are currently unemployed?
Because that is roughly the number of places the Government has allocated to the Youth Guarantee programme, which I might say is an innovative policy that is dealing with a significant group of teenagers—and it will deal with more of them—whom the previous Government just left out of the system. Once they left school, nothing happened for them. We are trying to keep these kids on track to get more training when school does not suit them.
How can it be “just plain wrong” when the number of Modern Apprenticeships, a scheme that is focused on upskilling 16 to 21-year-olds, has declined by 10 percent since early 2009 without any intervention or support from the Government?
One of the reasons there has been some decline in apprenticeships is that industries such as the construction industry, which were built on the false hope of endless debt under the previous Government, have gone through major reductions in the volume of work that they are doing. We are doing our best to rebuild this economy so that those young people can get training opportunities. The member also needs to understand that her Government’s focus purely on driving up numbers in trade training and industry training led to a massive waste of money. My colleague the Hon Steven Joyce is fixing it.
If the skills training cuts that he has made are due to wanting to get better value for money, how does he explain the disestablishment of the Skill Enhancement programme this year, which has run since 1993 and had an 82 percent rate of positive outcome for young New Zealanders?
That member should explain why, under her Government’s system, they were funding dead people to get qualifications.
Mr SPEAKERThe question asked about a specific programme. It may be that the Deputy Prime Minister, on behalf of the Prime Minister, may not have that specific information, but I think to attack the Opposition is not on if the Minister does not have the information. I invite him to indicate whether he can answer the question.
I cannot answer specifically about that programme, but I can say that it is part of a massive clean-up job this Government is having to do on the system. The previous Government said that the only thing that mattered was driving up the numbers. Thousands of young people were being misled because the taxpayer was spending money on their training, and they were getting no qualifications whatsoever. So why should we pay tens of millions of dollars for programmes that do not deliver any qualifications?
Is he satisfied that after almost 3 years his Government is doing everything possible to provide skills training opportunities for young people, given that the recent report from the New Zealand Institute shows that youth account for 45 percent of our unemployment, the highest rate in the OECD, and at a cost of $900 million to taxpayers each year?
Yes, the Government is doing as much as it can, particularly given the fiscal constraints we have. Next year we will have 13,000 more post-school training places than in 2008, despite the fact that the budget is very tight. The Government has taken steps in primary and secondary schools to make sure that young people who leave our education system will be literate and numerate because of national standards, and that they will have choices because of policies like the Youth Guarantee. The Government is doing a much better job than that member’s Government did.
Has he seen the statement made by the Human Rights Commission 3 weeks ago in its report Tracking Equality at Work, which said that “unless action is taken urgently, the youth situation will become unsustainable, representing a threat to social cohesion” in New Zealand?
No, I have not seen that statement, but I can tell the member that the Government has spent a couple of years going through the mess of wasteful spending, conflicting programmes, and lack of accountability that were the characteristics of the previous Labour Government’s spending in this area. We are making considerable progress, despite the fact that there is a recession and that the Government has no new money. I must compliment my colleagues who have worked in this area on how much progress they have made.
What advice has he sought about the likelihood of social disharmony occurring in New Zealand as a result of high youth unemployment and disconnection, given the unrest that has occurred in Britain in recent days, which British commentators are saying arose from young unemployed people?
What erodes the confidence of young people in a community is false hope—the false hope that badly managed Government programmes and an economy fuelled by borrowing will give them sustainable jobs. That is why so many young people are pleased with this Government, which, in a realistic and effective way, is rebuilding their confidence in the economy.