My message to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon: Stop playing tough – Shane Te Pou

Tough love on young jobseekers won't fix the country's unemployment issues, Shane Te Pou says. Photo / 123rf

THE FACTS

• The plan to deny benefits to unemployed young people living with parents is criticised as unfair.
• Government policies are blamed for job shortages, with over 150,000 unemployed and fewer than 10,000 jobs advertised.
• Calls are made to invest in housing, energy, education and health to create jobs and opportunities for youth.

Tēnā koe Prime Minister. When I heard you calling your new plan to deny access to benefits for unemployed young people living with their parents “tough love”, it reminded me of when you used the same phrase about another failed policy – bootcamps.

Your dismissive response to a very reasonable point – it’s unfair to punish unemployed young people when there are no jobs – also reminded me of what you said about bootcamps: “I don’t care what you say about whether it does or doesn’t work.”

It seems, to me, that you’re very focused on looking “tough” to try to arrest your falling poll numbers. I’m asking you to show some real love for our rangatahi (youth) by doing some things that will actually work.

You say: “The world doesn’t owe you a living.” Maybe not, but we do owe our kids a better future and that includes a real shot at finding work.

And that’s just not the case today. Since you came to power, the number of jobs has fallen by 46,000. There are over 150,000 Kiwis out of work and less than 10,000 jobs advertised on TradeMe.

In my hometown, Kawerau, there are 549 people on the Jobseeker benefit and just four jobs advertised. The energy crisis is killing the manufacturing sector that used to offer good jobs for our rangatahi.

Government policies like cancelling infrastructure projects, cancelling state house building projects and underfunding public services have contributed to this jobs shortage. And it’s our young people who are getting the worst of it.

In the past two years, one in 10 Kiwis under 25 have lost their jobs. Nearly a quarter of 15- to 19-year-olds who are in the labour force, looking for work, are unemployed. The unemployment rate is not just a number; it represents real lives and dreams being stifled.

Our rangatahi are not only struggling to find work, they are facing a series of obstacles that make their paths to independence increasingly daunting.

Housing affordability is getting worse for young people. Rents rose 2.1% on average in the past year, while you increased the minimum wage by only 1.5%. You have surely seen the increasing number of homeless people on our streets.

The burden of student debt makes the lives of rangatahi harder. As of March, about 627,000 borrowers owe over $16 billion, limiting their choices in life, from starting a family to purchasing a home. Forcing our young people to get into significant debt just to get an education is an unfair burden. And you’re making it harder to study too, with higher tertiary fees and plans to cut over 500 courses at polytechs.

We cannot ignore the mental health crisis that has unfolded over the past decade. Suicide is the leading cause of death in our 15- to 19-year-olds.

Telling them to “get off the couch, stop playing PlayStation” trivialises the struggle of lives that feel hopeless when there are no jobs, nowhere to live and studying is too expensive. No wonder our rangatahi are leaving these shores in such huge numbers.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has told Rotorua business leaders that unemployed school leavers need to "get off the couch, stop playing PlayStation and go find a job”. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“Tough” ain’t working. It’s time to give love a chance. Let’s build more homes. Get back to the 7000 homes a year the Government was building before Chris Bishop’s cuts to Kāinga Ora. That’ll create thousands more training and work opportunities in the construction sector, as well as helping to lower the cost of renting.

Let’s build more solar and wind farms and subsidise families to invest in solar, insulation and heat pumps. We cannot wait for gentailers who only care about profits to save us. We need Government leadership. More energy means lower power prices, which will lower the cost of living, help factories stay in business and create thousands of jobs in the process.

Let’s invest in education and health. The Ministry of Education estimates there is a shortage of 1250 teachers nationwide, while Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora calculates a shortage of 6000 nurses. Funding those positions will not only help fix the jobs shortage, it’ll improve the education of our kids and the health of all of us.

Every job the Government could help to create would create at least one more in the private sector, through increased spending in our communities.

Don’t tell me there’s no money, Prime Minister. You found over $20b for tax cuts and $2.7b for a few helicopters. You can find the money to fix our crises in housing, energy, health and education – and create jobs and hope for our young people at the same time.

Prime Minister, you and I have had our fair share of opportunities. It is our responsibility to ensure that the next generation has even better prospects than we did. Our rangatahi are worse off and that it is not their generation’s fault – it is ours.

It’s not too late to fix this. So, Prime Minister: stop playing tough and show some love.