Mahuta Nanaia: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Mahuta Nanaia: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20435] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
: 
 I could not let the comments of the Minister for Social Development and Employment on this particular issue Vote Employment and how it affects a lot of young people in New Zealand go unnoticed. Labour believes that the escalating level of youth unemployment is unacceptable in a country like New Zealand where we pride ourselves on being the best place to bring up our kids. Labour believes that youth rates are no response to tackling the real and serious issue of ensuring that our kids have a great future. Youth rates just will not cut it. We have to invest in lifting kids’ skills while they are at school ensure that our kids stay at school longer invest in their training opportunities and if we need to pathway them earlier towards their career choice. That is why programmes like Gateway and the Secondary Tertiary Alignment Resource—and many schools throughout the country will tell us this—provided real opportunities to get a job. Youth rates are not the answer. 
In fact employers currently have the ability to introduce a training wage but they must be committed to contributing to the training of that young employee. That starting rate is $10.40 an hour but employers must continue to invest in training opportunities for young people on that rate. Labour says we should lift the minimum wage to $15 yet the Minister is doing nothing about it. She says it is OK for young people not to have their skills invested in and to be shipped off to the Limited Service Volunteers programme. Well we have actually had feedback in our communities that that is not all it is cracked up to be. Yes although some young people who are disenfranchised from their communities or have been disengaged from education have got on to the programme and had some positive gains long term in terms of employment opportunities the Limited Service Volunteers programme frankly does not cut it. It does not secure those young people a commitment from the Defence Force that they will get a placement. 
In fact I visited a military training entity and it had about five kids at the time who were all doing their test to get into the Navy. Some of them had fallen out of school early. Some were absolutely committed to a future in the Defence Force. Do members know what I heard? A couple of them had done their test but they were at the lower level of the achievement standards for the Defence Force and they just had to wait until a space was available. They were being told that actually the Defence Force is taking higher - skilled and qualified young people into the defence forces. These young kids that we are talking about—the ones who have been disengaged from school and are trying to make a start for themselves—are left languishing. I suspect that the Minister has no sense at all about what is happening with regard to this group of young people. 
If members visit private training establishments they will hear real concerns being expressed about the changes afoot in funding for 18 to 24-year-olds to secure their places on level 1 and 2 National Certificate of Educational Achievement courses that are being introduced by the Tertiary Education Commission. That will do nothing to build and invest in the skills of those young people so that they can have at least the foundation skills to scaffold on to a career pathway. What is the Government doing about that? Real solutions to youth unemployment have to ensure that we invest in young people’s skills that we invest in real opportunities for apprenticeships—and there is nothing about that; the Government is being very silent about the issue of apprenticeships—and that there are jobs out there. 
The Government is also being very silent about the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs which was absolutely committed to ensuring that youth unemployment would be tackled and reduced community by community by community. It took the leadership of local mayors for us to see youth unemployment in communities like Te Kuiti brought down to the level of single figures. That was incredible because it was a stakeholder commitment to say: “This is a challenge for all of us but we will commit to it as long as the Government can partner it. And the business community has to partner it as well.” It was a whole response. Government members are very quiet about the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs and its achievements. Instead we are hearing that the Limited Service Volunteers programme is the solution to youth unemployment. Well I think not. Far too many Maori and Pacific young people are suffering at the hands of the extensive changes in the education sector and in the investment in skills sector by this Government and that has meant that youth unemployment continues to increase. That is unacceptable—and the Minister sits there silent. 
Vote agreed to.