Christopher Luxon presents his leader's address at National Party Conference
OPINION
Prior to coming into Parliament, I spent much of my career working in education as a primary school teacher, an at-risk youth educator and with tertiary students.
I've seen what works and what doesn't and punitive approaches to young people (or people in general really) already experiencing complex challengesdon't. I liken it to pushing someone over who is wanting and trying to get up, whilst yelling at them to get up.
Let's make one thing clear – I absolutely believe that our young people deserve to be supported into employment. That's why as a Government this has always been a priority. We have set up a range of effective initiatives that are leading to record numbers of people moving off the benefit and into work.
Over 35,000 young people moved off the benefit and into employment last year, a 56 per cent increase on the last time National were in Government.
What we are seeing alongside record exits off the benefit and into work, is almost 50,000 apprentices picking up a trade, over 5000 people in job placements through Mana in Mahi, almost 18,000 people through Flexi-Wage, and 3800 young people engaged in He Poutama Rangitahi. This sits alongside MSD's usual employment offerings such as industry partnerships.
We've been both relentless and deliberate in our approach and efforts to support Kiwis into employment, education or training. I make no apologies for wanting the very best for our young people – that includes ensuring they get every opportunity to learn, earn, upskill and thrive. That's how they will be successful in the labour market.
It's the pastoral care, wrap-around support, and targeted support for Māori, Pacific, disabled and young peoples, and a shared determination from employers, business, providers and Government that will get people into meaningful work – and keep them in work.
The hard truth, that Christopher Luxon doesn't want to admit, is that we inherited an employment and training system that the Welfare Expert Advisory Group said, "had been badly neglected for years".
It was a world where case management services had also been run down and staff went from spending 50 per cent of their time on getting people into work in 2014, to just 20 per cent in 2018. We had to change that.
That's also why we set about fixing it, which included money for 263 new frontline work-focused case managers in Budget 2019 to help people into work. Followed by year-on-year investment into employment support.
National's solution to a system that is working well, is to waste money incentivising young people to stay on the benefit longer in order to collect $1000. It seems they want to strip back front-line work-focused case management to where it was before 2019, which will mean a longer duration on benefits.
It came as no surprise to see that the National Party's latest welfare policy announcement was lacking in more areas than one – it was predictable, out-of-touch, with no evidence-base.
It did however, seem "in-touch" with what we know about the National Party – their track record with demonising young people and beneficiaries still stands. The irony of their policy which they've heralded as "Welfare that Works" – is that it won't.
We're not done repairing the damage done by the previous government and have been evaluating our employment programmes regularly and aligning our approach with that of the WEAG. We even report publicly now on the effectiveness of our programmes. The previous National Government didn't provide that transparency to New Zealand.
Carmel Sepuloni. Photo / Supplied, File
Recently we announced $86.5m to increase the number of people with driver's licences (a requirement for more than 70 per cent of entry-level jobs). This will have big implications for young people. It's policies like this that will make a difference.
