8. DAVE HEREORA (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
What reports, if any, has he received on the Government’s progress at reducing the number of New Zealanders reliant on the benefit?
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
As members will be aware, the unemployment rate has fallen by 76 percent since the Labour-led Government took office. In 1999 the number of unemployed people stood at 161,000. It went below 40,000 for the first time in June 2006. Members will be pleased to hear that the number of unemployed people has continued to fall since that time, and now it stands at 37,595—less than a quarter of what the figure was when this Government came to office. It is worth noting in addition, of course, that we are the only OECD country that has kept its unemployment rate below 4 percent for 10 consecutive quarters.
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
The number of people unemployed for more than a year has fallen from 70,000—that is, 70,000—under National in 1999 to around 14,000 today. That is a reduction of 56,000. There has been, I am pleased to tell the House, a similar drop in the number of unemployed youth aged between 18 and 19. Although 18,000 such young people were unemployed in 1999, that figure is now less than 3,000 and falling—a reflection, of course, of this Government’s determination to see all young people in education, training, or work.
Judith CollinsWhy is it that despite all the so-called innovative employment programmes that have been funded over the past year to deal with the sickness benefit and invalids benefit numbers, sickness benefit numbers have risen by another 2,000 to yet another record high, at a time when the Minister of Health keeps telling us that we are a much healthier country these days?
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
Although I and members of this House will be understandably pleased that the rate of unemployment has dropped by 76 percent, I am equally pleased that the total benefit roll number has reduced by around 25 percent. The most instructive comment I could make for that member’s information is about the international comparison between ourselves, the UK, and Australia. [ Interruption] Between 2000—
Madam SPEAKERThe member will please be seated. The level of interjections is getting to the point where speakers cannot be heard. Members ask questions, and they expect to be able to get those questions addressed. But if answers cannot be heard through the interjections, it makes a nonsense of the whole exercise. I ask members to please control themselves, and the Minister to continue.
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
To provide some perspective for the benefit of members opposite, who understandably do not want to hear these figures, I say that between 2000 and 2005 the United Kingdom had a net reduction of 6.4 percent in the number of people in receipt of an unemployment benefit or some form of incapacity benefit. Australia, comparatively, achieved a 0.8 percent reduction in those benefits, and in New Zealand over the same period our achievement was a 25.8 percent reduction.