Brown Peter: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Brown Peter: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:610;Page:7981] 
1. PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: What options are presently available for teenagers deciding to leave school without having obtained work? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Before I call the Minister can I say he did advise me that his answer was a little longer than usual. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 We have a very wide range of options. We have a youth employment education and training partnership with the Mayors Task Force for Jobs and a range of specific initiatives including Gateway Modern Apprenticeships industry training the Training Opportunities Programme and specialist youth employment services worth $5.4 million over 4 years in the last Budget alone. In question No. 4 today I will mention something else. Finally people under 18 years of age who are not supported by their families can receive the independent youth benefit while they complete school and find work. 
Peter Brown 
: Noting that answer is he aware—and if so is he at all concerned—that according to the coordinator of Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry street people project many unemployed teenagers are turning to prostitution rather than going on the dole? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I have heard that. If there are individual cases the member would like to bring to my attention I ask him to please do that because he will know that under the new Prostitution Reform Act under-18-year-olds are specifically prohibited from working in the sex industry. 
Georgina Beyer 
: What have been the results of initiatives to engage young people in education training or employment? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The latest household labour force survey reports that the fall in unemployment was driven largely by the 15 to 24-year-old age group. This is backed up by information showing a lift in tertiary education participation decline in the number of young people receiving an independent youth benefit and since 1999 a 39 percent drop in the number of people on the unemployment benefit in the 18 to 24-year-old age group. 
Katherine Rich 
: Can he confirm that last week’s re-announcement of $1.5 million over 3 years to help young people move from school to work was something Work and Income was already doing and is approximately one-quarter of what Work and Income spends in 1 day? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I think the money the member is referring to is the $1.5 million that goes to the Mayors Task Force for Jobs and is focused on youth. It is new money. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: What options are available for teenagers forced to leave school because they have been expelled for experimental use of cannabis outside school grounds outside school time and outside their wearing school uniform? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am not warning anyone. I said no interjections during questions. That applies to everyone. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: If the member has a particular case he would like to bring up he should do so. I think the main place to which such people would go would be youth training programmes outside the school that provide them with a skill base to get a job. 
Peter Brown 
: Noting those answers has the Minister’s department noticed any reduction at all in the number of those claiming unemployment benefits since prostitution was made legal? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: It is too soon to tell. 
Peter Brown 
: Will the Minister tell the House what monitoring processes he has in place to determine whether young people are turning to prostitution instead of claiming the dole? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Through particularly the Ministry of Youth Affairs and the Ministry of Social Development we have a range of programmes to track the well-being of young people and those would be the best places we could go for information. But I say to the member that the bill was passed only a little while ago so doing anything that might require research would be pretty hard given that length of time.