8. CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does he stand by the statement made on his behalf that “this Government is focused on improvements within the economy in order to create the platform on which business and New Zealanders can invest and grow jobs”?
Hon BILL ENGLISHHow does his Government putting over 2,000 New Zealanders out of jobs in the public sector contribute to his Government’s commitment to create jobs?
In the next 10 years this economy will need to grow by earning a living selling things to the rest of the world, whereas in the last 10 years it grew by borrowing money and increasing Government spending. So the Government has to contain its growth. New Zealanders have stopped borrowing, and now we are all focused on earning a living in the world. That is the only way we will get higher incomes. It does mean that the real estate sector and the Government sector will have to contain their growth and perhaps shrink in places. I know that earning a living instead of borrowing is not how Labour sees the world, but it is how the rest of New Zealand sees it.
If his Government is truly committed to creating more highly skilled jobs in the New Zealand economy, how does National’s decision to buy trains and carriages from China while laying off skilled workers at the Hillside and, possibly, Woburn workshops contribute to that goal?
The background to that decision has been covered by the Minister of Transport in this House over the last week. The best opportunity for those workers would be to be able to move into an export-oriented industry, such as the one near the Hillside workshops that sells very high-value gas-powered fireboxes to the top end of the market in the US. It is an expanding business, with new investment, and exporting, and a business that actually took a number of the workers from Fisher and Paykel Appliances when it took its factory to Mexico. We want to create the opportunity for those workers from Hillside to get new, better-paid, and more sustainable jobs.
If his Government is truly committed to creating more highly skilled jobs in the New Zealand economy, why has it cut industry training funding by $100 million, and overseen thousands of students being turned away from university and a drop in the number of Modern Apprentices of over 1,000?
The member should get his facts right. In fact, there are more places in tertiary education than there have ever been, particularly in universities. In respect of industry training, the Labour Government used it as a political scheme to make it look like it was attached to skills. In fact, it was a scheme that was badly run, and tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars were wasted on industry trainees who got no credits or qualifications at all. The Minister for Tertiary Education is cleaning up yet another Labour mess of extravagance and waste.
If his Government is truly committed to building a skilled workforce that will meet our future needs, why is he encouraging skilled tradespeople from overseas to come here to help with the rebuild of Christchurch, rather than ensuring we train more tradespeople locally, particularly given the skills shortages we are likely to face in the future as baby boom retirement reaches its peak?