﻿Mr SPEAKER: Question No 6, Grant Robertson.
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) to the Minister of Finance:
Does he stand by his statement
that “the Government would not be chasing around the unemployment numbers,
"3 months to 3 months. We take a longer-term point of view
"because that is the realistic one”;
if so, how many quarters in a row has unemployment risen?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes. The unemployment rate has risen 0.1%
in each of the past four quarters, after falling in each of the five quarters prior.
Statistics NZ reports that over the past four quarters an extra 34,000 people
have gone into work, the labour force participation rate has remained
near record levels, and migration into NZ remains at record levels.
Grant Robertson: In light of his focus on the long term,
how many NZers are now considered to be long-term unemployed—
i.e., they have been unemployed for 26 weeks or more?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: I cannot give that member that number
off the top of my head, but we evaluate that in great detail,
actually, when the welfare liability is updated every 6 months,
and that shows us not just who is unemployed today
or who has been unemployed for a longer period but what the likely path is
for those people over the next few months.
We have a very proactive system in Work and Income NZ
for dealing with them individually.
Grant Robertson: Why are there now 46,000 people
who are long-term unemployed if he has so much activity
going on to address their concerns?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: Dealing with them one by one
is about as precise a focus on them as you can get. Of course,
that number has gone up a little bit because the economy has been a bit softer
and there are record numbers of people showing up to the labour market.
As the economy strengthens again, which looks likely, then that number
may well come back down again.
Grant Robertson: Is it correct that the 46,000 long-term unemployed
is the highest level since 1999, other than two quarters in 2012?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: I would certainly want to investigate the number,
because, as the member will be aware, in the welfare reform process
there has been a lot of reclassification of people,
and the product of that reclassification is that a lot more people are now regarded
as available for work. They used to languish on the sickness benefit
under the Labour Government, which decided they were hopeless
and gave up on them. We do not give up on people like that.
Even if they cannot get a job immediately, we try to help them
get ready to get a job.
Grant Robertson: Given that the Australian economy
was recently described as “a basket case”,
with unemployment at 5.9%, why should that description not apply to NZ,
now that we have a higher unemployment rate than Australia?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: To be fair to our cousins across the Tasman,
“basket case” is probably exaggerating the challenges that that economy has.
Our unemployment rates have been remarkably similar.
Our GDP growth rates are pretty similar, even though we are really
quite different economies. One measure of it, though,
is that for the last 6 months we have had a net inflow of people from Australia—
for the first time in a generation— which tells you something about
what normal Kiwis think are the relative job prospects.
Grant Robertson: Why does he not get up front with NZers
about the fact that his policies have led to unemployment rising
for four consecutive quarters and more NZers spending longer out of work,
and that for all of the glossy Business Growth Agenda,
none of his policies are working?
Hon BILL ENGLISH: Normal NZers have been listening to that member say
that alongside the manufacturing crisis, and they are not actually taking any notice
of the ongoing negativity about the economy.
The fact is that the economy has had a significant shock
from the sharp reduction in dairy prices, and it is actually handling it pretty well.
And we expect that as the economy strengthens, the employment numbers
will gradually—and, I may say, slower than we would like—improve.
Mr SPEAKER: Question No 7, Chris Bishop.
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