12. SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) Link to this
to the Minister of Youth Affairs
What is the Government doing to help build partnerships between young people in communities around New Zealand?
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister of Youth Affairs) Link to this
Last week we announced a new round of funding from the Youth Development Partnership Fund, which will help to support a variety of projects to benefit youth at a local level. More than $700,000 will be provided to 11 councils for projects such as youth mentoring and upskilling.
Can the Minister give us an example of one local authority that has received funding and the project it plans to implement?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
I certainly can. The Wairoa District Council will be working in partnership with the Wairoa Community Development Trust on the YROA YNOT! project. This project will assist young people to develop safe activities, create safe places to gather, develop leadership and mentoring projects for young people, and encourage young people to engage with education and training.
Jacinda ArdernHow does the Minister think that the cuts in Budget 2009 to skills training, the scholarship schemes that help low-income young people to attend university, and the Enterprising Communities fund, which schemes like the Ōtorohanga youth apprenticeship support programme depended on, will help young people in communities around New Zealand, when these cuts represent a loss of over $160 million?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
Actually, that figure is not correct. I am proud that this Government has a real focus on youth—youth in jobs and youth in training. I think the Youth Guarantee will make a huge difference to those young people being able to continue through the spectrum to training and upskilling.
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
Youth unemployment is increasing, and that is very serious. The Youth Guarantee is just one step in a number of Government measures that are currently under way to address that issue. As I said, the Youth Guarantee will make a fundamental difference to those young people as they stay in training and education, and that will lead them to take further steps. The Mayors Task Force for Jobs has been doing good work around some of the job summits, which means that those youth will stay in work. This is important and it is something this Government is concentrating on.
I seek leave to table the Budget 2009 documents that demonstrate that the schemes I just listed do tally up to over $160 million in cuts.
Mr SPEAKERCan I just check this. Is the honourable member seeking leave to table the Budget documents, which have already been tabled?
Hon Gerry Brownlee Link to this
Is it a document, a series of documents, or something that is going to be tabled later?
I am trying to establish what on earth the member is seeking leave to table. Is it a single document out of a set of Budget documents, or which Budget document is she is seeking to table?
The member will resume her seat. Is the member now making it clear there is no document she is seeking to table, and it is a set of information that she wishes to table?
I am seeking leave to table the Budget documents, because the Minister questioned my figures, which came directly from her Government’s Budget. [ Interruption]
We will not have this. The Budget documents are all in the public domain. I invite the honourable member just to reflect on the time of the House she is wasting. [ Interruption] I have been very tolerant today in terms of putting leave for press statements and radio transcripts, but there is a limit—[ Interruption] Both sides of the House will be quiet. There is a limit to how much time we waste on point-scoring, when the procedure under the Standing Orders for leave that is being sought to table documents is there to provide information for the House that it does not otherwise have access to. Clearly, the House has access to the information in the Budget documents. I invite the honourable member to reflect on how she is contributing to the good order of the House by seeking leave to do this. Does she still wish to proceed?
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. This point is one that I have brought up before, and it is a question about whether members do have the right to seek leave. At the moment, under the Standing Orders they have the right to seek leave to do anything. I would make two points. The first is that I actually agree with you; I think the Standing Orders need a change. But the second is that until the Standing Orders have that change made, I think we would be losing more time by your interventions than we would have lost by the leave just being put and turned down.
Hon Gerry Brownlee Link to this
It is true that members do have a right to seek leave for anything that the House might consider to be outside the Standing Orders’ prescription. However, in the case of leave being sought to table a document, the House has a right to know what is proposed. In this case the document does not exist. That member has also changed her position from, at one point, saying she was prepared to collate some information for the House and table that, to then saying she would table the page out of the Budget documents, etc. The Budget documents have been tabled; they sit on the Table. So it was important that we bored down to find out the actual fact that what was being asked for was something that does not exist.
We are in a curious situation. I accept the point the Hon Trevor Mallard has made, absolutely. Although I am trying to discourage the seeking of leave to table documents that contain information the House already has in its possession, the Hon Trevor Mallard is quite correct that, as Speaker, I am obliged to put the leave when it is sought. But also I am obliged to make sure it is clear that it is a document and not something that the member proposes to collate subsequently. If the document already sits on the Table, then really I do question the ability of a member to seek leave to table a document that is already sitting on the Table in the House. I will come back to the member once more. Is the document she is seeking leave to table already sitting on the Table, and is it a clear document? I give her the chance to answer those questions and describe the document clearly.
To be clear, it is from a tabled document. I would take excerpts from the Budget, for the ease of the Minister’s reference, to demonstrate the figure that I have mentioned.