Make-work works for society

IT was good to read Liz Wylie's recent article documenting the success of programmes for Whanganui youth in providing training and employment.

For some years I worked in the adult literacy field in the Far North - an area with a plethora of socio-economic-related problems, many of which radiated around a youth unemployment rate much higher than here, as with many other regions. Most had quit school at the earliest possible opportunity with no formal qualifications to speak of.

A bevy of social and educational agencies exist to try to upskill those so disenfranchised. But the sticking point is in trying to parlay new (albeit perhaps still modest) skills into employment - especially when there's a dearth of private sector low-skill jobs anyway.

No surprise, then, when the bored, discouraged and disengaged end up in all sorts of mischief often for want of something gainful to do. A chain of dysfunction kicks in that ripples expensively throughout the community. Tragically, even though the sector is relatively small, dealing with it has now become a major growth industry. Corrections, Youth Justice, CYFs, Drug and Alcohol Counselling, Police, Winz et al - all chewing up literally hundreds of millions of dollars on bottom-of-the-cliff consequences.

Often I would be attending Family Group Conferences, ostensibly trying to work out a rehabilitative programme for some hapless kid, with the proverbial 10 cars in the driveway - all representatives of various government and community agencies. Often, too, I would know the youth in question, and all along be pretty certain that if he/she had had even a part-time job, with wages coming in, having self-confidence and skills boosted, improving literacy and numeracy in "embedded" situations, being exposed to role models and mentoring, then chances were the individual would never have got offside in the first place.

Easy fixed, some might say. Just give them a job. I agree. Just give them a job! A Government-funded job, if necessary. Anything reasonable will do for starters, where they're engaged and upskilling, and until they're in a position to get something better.

But suggest what seems the obvious at any meaningful level and watch the pollies and bureaucrats run a mile. The cry goes up as though a contagion has reared its head, "It's Make-Work, it's Make-Work! It's not real work!"

Oh, really? Isn't that a bit rich coming from these employees of ours who are in Make-Work schemes themselves? The local body or national politician is in a Make-Work job, as is the government bureaucrat. The Public Health doctor or nurse is in a Make-Work job. The Public School teacher is also in Make-Work, as too is the police constable or firefighter. These jobs don't drop out of the sky. We as a society decide that it's beneficial to have such publicly funded positions in order to function reasonably efficiently. In other words, we "make" the jobs available for our own good.

In the same way we need, as a society, to agree that it's not a healthy dynamic to have a crucial sector disenfranchised, disengaged and dysfunctional, with billions of dollars haemorrhaging out of the system in downstream consequences. Put a fraction of that at the top of the cliff and "make" the jobs.

Let's have a full kapa haka reception for every international plane arriving! Let's build the swing bridge. Let's extend the cycleways. Riparian planting. Possum harvesting. It doesn't really matter what it is - it's got to be heaps better and cheaper than 10 cars at the Family Group Conference or the $100k per inmate per annum expense of keeping in prison cages the collateral casualties of not having such work options.