Ardern Jacinda: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Jacinda: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 19 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3762. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to rise on behalf of the Labour Party and give what I think is a very considered response from our party to this piece of legislation the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill and to the Government’s welfare reforms generally. I have said it before in this House: Labour’s approach to reform around welfare has always been to look through the perception that is often perpetuated by politicians in this space—dangerously so sometimes I would say—and to look to the reality because we ignore the reality at our peril. The more that perception is perpetuated the more we risk our own ability to fulfil the fundamental principle of doing what is right and what works and that is something that I will defend staunchly in this area.  
If we were to come back to the evidence when it comes to welfare reform what is the context in which these reforms are being introduced? Well in 2009 when the Government came in if you look at the unemployment benefit numbers we were sitting at roughly 18000 people on an unemployment benefit. We are now looking at almost 50000 people sitting on an unemployment benefit. I know that on this matter the Minister and I will agree: that has not happened because New Zealanders have had a sudden change of attitude to work. There has been a change in the economic environment in New Zealand. Laying aside all of Labour’s views on whether the Government could and should have done more on that—laying that aside—there have been economic circumstances that have led to more Kiwis joining the dole queue and reluctantly so. I must emphasise that. Unemployment is currently at 6.7 percent. We need only to look in our local areas where a job is advertised and at the enormous queues that extend outside of for instance supermarkets advertising a handful of jobs to know that Kiwis want to work.  
The Minister claims that she believes that too. Why then during this debate and in the outside world have we heard statements like “The dream is over.” and members in this House in this debate talk about the lifestyle of living on welfare? That kind of language makes it much more difficult for us to get to the core of the issue and address the real barriers that exist for people moving from welfare into work because there is no denying that Labour is a believer in work—the value of work the dignity that work provides—and we will do everything we can to assist Kiwis into work.  
So what are the barriers to that? Well at the moment you cannot deny that it is the availability of work. We have touched on that. But also there was a survey conducted by the Inland Revenue Department which we have referred to consistently that demonstrated that the other barriers for people entering into work were the cost of childcare and for 64 percent of people whether they had the right training and education to move into the jobs that were available. So on those measures what does this bill do? On work and on job creation obviously it does very little. It is a social development bill. But what has the Government done on it? Again it has done very little. It has not even met its own projections on job creation that were set out by Treasury. So on that count we consider that the Government has not done enough. If you want to fix welfare fix the economy—and on that count we believe the Government has failed.  
The second measure is training and education. If you are under 19 and on a benefit—if you are a sole parent for instance—then there are some measures in this bill that are training and education focused and also if you are on an independent youth benefit. But let us put it into context. That actually equates to roughly 2500 to 3000 young people on welfare who will be affected by that. For the vast majority—for instance domestic purposes benefit recipients who used to be eligible for a training incentive allowance—that is still gone. All other incentives and support around training and education do not exist in this bill so let us be under no illusions there.  
On childcare to an extent the Ministry of Social Development and the Minister have acknowledged that this is a barrier because she has extended the childcare subsidy for 1500 people. The big question we have asked is what about the 112000 who continue to struggle with that cost? On those measures this bill will not substantively assist those who need it the most. So what if you are not 18 or 19? Well it is very easy I think to be misled by the Minister’s statement. In her last speech alone she said: “the welfare system itself has failed too many New Zealanders. The Government will not stand by and let that continue.”  
Show me how you are changing that with this bill. If you are not 18 or 19 years old and you are on welfare all you get from this bill is more work testing. We are asking what about the rest Minister? What about the rest? I understand that she is targeting 16 and 17-year-olds but there are hundreds of thousands on the benefit now who are not 16 and 17 who need that assistance. She says: “We will not let it continue. We are modernising the welfare system.” I would like to see the evidence of that for those who are on an unemployment benefit on the DPB or on the sickness benefit.  
If we are looking at those who are on the domestic purposes benefit for instance we have already had a set of reforms brought in by the Minister. We have had Future Focus which brought in extra part-time work testing and now we have this set of reforms. But even on the Ministry of Social Development’s own projections even after these $287 million reforms are brought in the number on the domestic purposes benefit is still projected to be 10000 higher than when the Minister started. Surely that raises some flags over whether or not work testing alone is going to provide what is needed to make a real difference for those women in particular because they do represent the most significant number of people on that form of support.  
So we highlight again that if you want to fix welfare fix the economy but address the other barriers at the same time. But in the meantime we do agree to the extent that the Government is targeting young people. The question becomes how you do it. Again we want to come back to the evidence and the reality on the ground for those who are already working in the space of Youth Transition Services. Now this bill will assist 14000 young people. This is what the ministry and the Minister have projected. There are over 80000 young people not in employment education or training and they are not just 16 and 17. We heard from Youth Transition Services operating on the ground that 60 percent of the young people they help actually fall off the track after they are 17 and need some kind of service that is targeted to their needs and will assist them to get back into work training education or whatever fits their individual circumstances.  
We instead have contended that the Government needed to work with more not less and I will highlight that we are spending more and working with less via this piece of legislation. We needed to give the existing providers who are out there doing a great job the flexibility they needed to take into account the circumstances of the young person. Some are exiting from school because school was a rough place for them. They were not on track educationally. The last thing they want to do is be shoved back into school. We have got to try to fit their aspirations with a programme that keeps them on track. So we wanted to give providers that flexibility. We did not want to skew incentives and we feel that that is what this bill does. Again always having the best interests and the sustainability of a young person in training in mind not just short-term gains is our approach when it comes to young people.  
I want to flag though in the concluding remarks of my speech a fundamental part of these reforms that has not been canvassed broadly and that is that this legislation means that providers in the community—some private providers—will now be administering part of the Social Security Act to a degree that we have not seen in New Zealand. If a young person in need has previously been dealt with by Work and Income—an emergency hardship grant or any kind of grant that Work and Income previously would have dealt with—that has now been contracted out to the community. Our concern as Labour members is what is next. This may be only 2500 or 3000 young people but we believe that with any partitioning off of the welfare state to community organisations to a large degree—perhaps the sickness benefit might be next the invalids benefit—we have real concerns over that kind of track. I ask the Minister if that is not part of your agenda to stand up and give this House those assurances.  
But in conclusion I say that Labour is the party of work. We are the party of opportunity. We understand the dignity that comes with work and that families will always be better off in work. For us the question is how we get there. We do not focus on rhetoric and perception in this party. We focus on evidence and the reality of what is happening on the ground and in that sense it is time we went back to true social security—a dignified system that transitions people into the work they deserve.