Work-for-dole backed by National and NZ First

Judith Collins

Unemployed people in three regions will be forced into work schemes within six months if the National Party and New Zealand First get into power in the coming elections.

National's welfare spokeswoman, Judith Collins, says the party's new "work for the dole" schemes will start next April in the three pilot areas, which the party is close to choosing.

People aged under 25 and those who have been out of work for more than six months will be offered the options of training or work, such as planting trees, removing graffiti and patrolling the streets to catch shoplifters and kids dodging school.

Winston Peters' New Zealand First, which looks set to hold the balance of power after the election based on recent polling, would go further and require training or work for the dole for all the unemployed, with "military-type discipline training" for those judged to be "at risk".

In effect, the two parties propose to bring back the work-for-the-dole schemes which they introduced when they were last in power from 1996-99. Similar schemes have been brought in by John Howard's conservative Government in Australia.

But evaluations of the 1996-99 schemes produced by Work and Income NZ, which ran the schemes, show that people who were made to work for the dole were less likely to get "real jobs" in the subsequent two years than those who had been out of work for the same length of time, but were not put on work schemes.

Labour's Employment Minister, Steve Maharey, said Mr Peters tried to get Labour to accept such schemes as part of a coalition deal after the 1996 election, but Labour refused because schemes locked job seekers into make-work jobs and undercut genuine jobs.

Work for the dole was a centrepiece of National leader Don Brash's "Orewa II" speech in January, when he said people on the dole should be "required to attend job schemes, take part in community service work or retraining".

Ms Collins said people who lost their jobs would be allowed a period of job searching on the dole before starting on training or work schemes.

"I'm thinking of about a six-month period on the basis that it's often very hard to get a job if you haven't got a job," she said.

After that job-search period, the dole would become conditional on undergoing training or work, which could not compete with the private sector and would have to be "meaningful".

"It may be something along the lines of some graffiti removal, and some planting of trees and things like that," she said.

Another example was Papakura's town centre "ambassadors", who patrol the streets looking for shoplifters and school truants and minding cars parked at the railway station.

"That's a great example of something that might well be what we are talking about," she said.

Australia's Work for the Dole scheme requires people to work for roughly the number of hours needed to earn their dole at minimum wage rates - 24 hours a fortnight for 18- to 20-year-olds, 30 hours a fortnight for those aged 21 to 39 and 12 hours a fortnight for those aged 40 and over.

Ms Collins said details might vary from region to region in New Zealand.

"For some [regions], that will be the right thing to do," she said.

"For others, there may be something that is a real need and it needs to be filled."

She said she had begun consulting local councils about the new scheme and would consult further after the election before finalising details.