Editorial - Tuesday November 26, 2013

Peter Jackson, editor, The Northland Age

IT IS becoming increasingly difficult to have sympathy for the unemployed (collectively) when we continue to hear about our need to import people to fill jobs that New Zealanders cannot, or more accurately will not do.

The first thing that any unemployed person who would like a job has to do is not sort out their addictions, learn to count to 20 without taking their shoes off or ask WINZ for an emergency grant so they can buy an alarm clock. The first thing they have to do is get off their bum, whether that's to sign on for a job or begin acquiring the skills needed to get one. Surely we have now reached the point where those who won't do that for themselves should get some real encouragement.

Let it be said that many who are unemployed do not lack motivation. Let it also be said that the current government is working on giving those who do lack motivation reason to change their philosophy, albeit at glacial speed. The sad fact is, however, that there are thousands of jobs up for grabs in this country, and New Zealanders are either so poorly skilled or so reluctant to get out of bed that the only hope of filling them lies with Immigration.

Last week we heard, again, that farm workers are in critically short supply. Filipinos were largely credited with making up the shortfall, although, typically, we were told (by a trade union spokesman) that the work doesn't pay enough to attract New Zealanders. There are two things wrong with that - firstly it is not true (latest figures claim that nationally farm workers earn significantly more than the overall average wage; last week's story cited a range between $38,000 and $70,000 a year, which in many cases probably doesn't include meals and accommodation). Any New Zealander who can do the job for that money should not be eligible for a benefit.

Secondly, we are never going to get over the unemployment hump if those without work wait for jobs that come with company cars and overseas holidays. Northland MP Mike Sabin, who is driving change as hard as he can, commented last week that very few people, previously unemployed or not, enter the workforce via their dream job. Most work towards it. Those who turn down paid work for any reason other than a genuine inability to do it obviously aren't prepared to work towards anything.

Immigration currently has three lists of skill shortages in this country, namely long-term, immediate-term, and one just for Christchurch. The long-term list includes social workers, chefs, auto electricians, diesel mechanics, electricians, linesmen, dietitians, midwives, special education teachers, all manner of engineers and almost anything to do with health (including registered nurses).

The immediate needs include apiarists, arborists, dairy and beef farm managers and assistant managers, poultry farmers, log plant operators, market gardeners, wine-makers, building inspectors, roading project foremen, cafe, restaurant and bar managers, jockeys and trackwork riders, bakers, mechanics, foundry workers, metal machinists, plastics technicians, upholsterers, scaffolders and truck drivers.

What's the problem? Can't we train people for these jobs? Have we all been dumbed down to the point where anything that involves application and some skill is beyond us? Why can New Zealanders not see the opportunities that employment offers them and their families? Filipinos and many other nationalities can see it, but thousands of Kiwis can't. Or is this just the price we are paying for a couple of generations of social welfare that has finally instilled in us that there is a comfortable enough alternative to shifting for ourselves, that nothing that goes wrong in our lives is our fault, and that if we wait long enough someone else will do what we could and should do for ourselves?

We have been so mollycoddled for so long, have seemingly become so utterly incapable of doing anything for ourselves, that we now apparently have Third World rates of antenatal care in some parts of this country. In South Auckland, that pit of deprivation and despair, 17 per cent of pregnant women have contact with antenatal services, we are told. This in a country where the entire birthing process is free to the user. All these women have to do is front up. What are they waiting for? Taxis? It is little short of obscene that all over this planet there are millions of people who are barely surviving, where water (clean or otherwise), food (nutritious or otherwise), shelter, the most basic medical care, are luxuries beyond their grasp, and in New Zealand we have urban communities where 83 per cent of pregnant women can't be bothered availing themselves of free services that are probably the equal of or better than any in the world.

And with children entitled to free dental care, why is it that an estimated 13 per cent of 5-year-olds in this country reportedly suffer tooth decay to the extent that the pain affects their ability to eat, sleep and learn?

Yet when someone (nowadays regarded as the extreme right) suggests doing something about this awful malaise, the left erupts into apoplexy. Last week the government made moves to review state housing tenancies, to identify those whose circumstances have changed to the point where they can fend for themselves, thus making room for families who can't. Labour's instant response was that that would do "incalculable harm". How, they didn't explain. Nor did they attempt to rationalise that prognosis with their repeated calls for the current government to do more for the homeless. Labour is apparently happy to leave state house tenants on seven-figure incomes unmolested, along with single adults living in five-bedroom homes and children who 'inherit' their parents' state houses, while families in real need look for a culvert with sea views.

The same party accuses the current government of selling state-owned assets to its rich mates then sympathises with 'mum and dad' investors when the share prices fall. The same party promises to chase the court-ordered reparation for the Pike River families, but has nothing to say about the countless thousands of New Zealanders who have been awarded reparation for their smaller tragedies but have not collected it, and never will. Why not? No votes there.

Perhaps one day we will see a new breed of politician, one with principles, who does not make promises and policies solely according to their potential popularity but to make this a better place for everyone. A politician who will see something distasteful about paying the dole to tens of thousands of constituents while foreigners are imported to do work that New Zealanders should be doing. One who will demand that New Zealanders make at least a modicum of effort on their own behalf, and will see the fundamental wrong in providing state assistance to those who don't need it while those who do miss out.

Federated Farmers clearly doesn't see much happening any time soon, however. It's launched an 'electronic document' that will ease the way for dairy farmers who are looking to hire immigrants. The federation says it would love to see "capable Kiwis" being employed, but there aren't enough who are willing to do the work, thanks to the "common misconception" that agricultural jobs don't pay well and don't require skill. It might have said that the problem was that the work does require effort, and we just don't seem to be into that these days.