Bradford Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Bradford Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:615;Page:11081] 
2.  
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: Is he still planning to create so-called “no go” zones for recipients of the unemployment benefit; if so when will the Government be announcing the location of these zones? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 No despite some media usage of that phrase it has never been Government policy to create no-go zones. 
Sue Bradford 
: In what way is saying “You can’t live here and get a benefit.” not creating a no-go zone? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: What the policy says is that a person must be able to meet the terms of the work test. That is the essence of the policy. 
Katherine Rich 
: When in an answer to me to a written question the Minister cannot point to even one Work and Income New Zealand client in the last 5 years who has failed any work-test requirement by moving to a remote area where is the “evidence-based research” that he says underpins the Jobs Jolt? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: In the same way that the National Party when it was in Government had a remote areas policy I imagine that it also gained the same evidence that we do; that is when we circulated policies to front-line staff one of the things they indicated was that quite often when they lived in a town such as Nelson and a person was shifting to a small town in the far north that they had no idea of the front-line staff had no way of being alerted as to whether there were jobs there. This policy is aimed at giving front-line staff that kind of alert list. 
Georgina Beyer 
: How will the Government’s limited employment locations policy assist unemployed people seeking work? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The policy is designed to encourage people to seek work in locations where there are good job opportunities to discourage people from moving to locations where few opportunities exist for them and to ensure local people already seeking work in locations where there are limited opportunities are not further disadvantaged by job seekers moving in. In other words we have a very low rate of unemployment in this country and we are seeking to ensure everybody gets a job. I can tell from the National Party spokesperson that that is not their interest but it is ours. 
Bill Gudgeon 
: When the no-go zones for recipients of the unemployment benefit are identified as proposed how will these areas be policed and what form of identification will be used if any and is the Minister proposing to use identification cards? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: They are not no-go zones. I remind the member that that has already been cleared up in a previous question. The system works simply on the basis of people being able to comply with the work test. As I have just explained people who tell a case manager that they want to shift somewhere else will now have a question asked of them on the basis of information that the case manager has as to how they will meet the work test when this particular area has say jobs only in agriculture and the persons want to work in retailing or there are no jobs at the current time in that area because basically there is no work. That is the essence of the question. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: Does the Minister stand by his statement in the Christchurch  
Press 
 on 18 August 2003 on Jobs Jolt that Maori beneficiaries “living in their ‘ancestral papakainga district’ will not be subject to the policy”; if so how on earth can he possibly claim that the Labour Government does not have race-based laws? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The policy is not retrospective—in other words whether people are Maori Pacific Island Chinese or any other basic ethnicity the policy does not apply backwards. Wherever people live at the present time we are not applying the policy. As I just pointed out it is for people who are moving so the current policy would apply to them. Yes I stand by the policy that people will be whatever their ethnicity in a particular place at this time and they will stay there. However people who choose to shift in the future whether they are Maori Pacific Island Chinese or of European extraction this policy will apply to them—one rule for all. 
Judy Turner 
: In light of the focus in the Jobs Jolt package on discouraging unemployed people from moving into regions with few available jobs what specific initiatives have been considered to make it easier for those already living in such areas to be made aware of jobs in other regions with labour shortages such as reclassifying Work and Income’s job bank to list vacancies by the skills required rather than geographical location as I suggested last year? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: That is a good idea and Work and Income is ensuring that its job bank is available across the country and provides a wider range of information. I should point to new policies such as the mobile employment services. People now living in a remote area will be able to access those services through a case manager who will be in their region by dint of a van that will carry computers and information and he or she will be able to take it right to the doorstep of those people. 
Sue Bradford 
: In the light of the Minister’s answer to Muriel Newman’s question will Maori people returning to their papakainga or home rohe be subject to the new provisions of the remote areas policy or whatever it is to be called? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: As I said going into the future whether people are Maori Pacific Island Chinese or European extraction the policy will apply to them. So if people have indicated that they are returning to Maori land then they will still be subjected to the same test—that is whether they can comply with the work test. I should also point out that Work and Income case managers do take into account such cases as a person saying: “Returning because my children are in that area. I have access rights to them. I would like to be able to visit them.” Those kinds of individual circumstances are taken into account but I repeat because I can tell the ACT people who seem to have antennae for anything of this nature one rule will apply to all people. 
Sue Bradford 
: Whatever the name of the scheme is there actually a new policy about to be implemented by the Government in this area and can the Minister advise when the delineation of these areas will be announced? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: As the member will be aware over the summer period we have consulted mayors and regions around the country. I intend to announce an update on all of what were called mutual obligations parts of Jobs Jolt within the next 2 to 3 weeks.