Faafoi Kris: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Faafoi Kris: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 17 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3607. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 For as long as I have been a member of Parliament in this House I have sat and watched the Minister for Social Development say to those young Kiwis out there who are looking for work that “We back you. We are right behind you.” But in this bill the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill there are measures that say: “We back you and we are behind you but we don’t trust you. We don’t trust you enough so we are going to give you a payment card to make sure you can make all these payments. We don’t trust you enough so we are going to bring in these measures.” 
I think the amendment that has been put forward by my colleague Jacinda Ardern to slightly amend the way in which those payment cards are used is a sensible and wise amendment in the fact that it gives those young people on those benefits the opportunity to at least prove that they are trustworthy when they are getting their benefit. They might be able to get some assistance in terms of budgeting too and if they do get themselves into trouble after 8 weeks then the authorities can look to the payment card system for them as a possible option. But we do not believe as Jacinda Ardern told the Committee a couple of minutes ago that this payment card system should be applied to all of those young people which it currently does in the bill as it stands now. 
This bill is another case from the National Government—and there have been many since it took office—of wanting to make the rhetoric meet the reality. This is the kind of bill that you introduce when you have not done enough to create jobs in the 4 years that you have been in power. If it was serious about tackling unemployment we would have seen some measures in the economic growth department but as we have seen for the last 4 years it has done pretty much zero. That is why unemployment has increased and stayed around the relative level that it has now for some time. We can see the growing level of frustration around the country as Kiwis find it harder and harder to find work. This is what they are being given in terms of the great white hope from this Government in terms of trying to find ways to encourage young New Zealanders into work. 
This bill does not address the real issues that are stopping job seekers from finding work. It does not address the real issues. It does not address as I have said the availability of work and we have seen the many many instances where supermarkets have advertised the likes of 300 jobs and three and a half thousand people many of them well qualified for much better jobs have lined up wanting a job at their local supermarket. In that instance this Government has failed to address the unemployment problem and this is what it brings in to try to address it. This is what it tries to bring in to address it. 
The Government also has not addressed whether the people who are looking for work have the appropriate skills for the work that might be available and we have also heard of a Supplementary Order Paper from the Green MP Jan Logie around the training incentive allowance. We think along with the Greens that the Government should maybe take a rethink around that and reintroduce it given what it has achieved for many other people who have had the experience of having had the training incentive allowance available to them. 
I must go back to the inability of this Government to take any real action in terms of trying to create real jobs in our economy and to the fact that our unemployment rate has stayed static. I think this is a bit of a lazy effort to try to make it look like the Government is taking action to address the unemployment issue. It is sad in the way that it has addressed this issue for our youth. 
I also understand that youth receiving a benefit under these circumstances will have to meet certain obligations such as undertaking full-time education or budgeting programmes for parents. We believe that this is simply a bribe. You know if youth are going to get $10 more a week this is simply a $10 bribe for those young people to stay in training. It is not the sustainable response that is needed to help the 80000-plus New Zealanders who are out in our communities—and certainly the many young people out there in my community of Mana—and honestly trying to find work. They are finding it difficult given the conditions. It is not just young people I must add. There are a lot of older Kiwis out there especially. I have met a couple—