Jobs, apprentices on Aramoho voters' minds

In the lead-up to this year's general election, the Wanganui Chronicle is visiting the city's suburbs to see how local voters are feeling as they get ready to cast their vote. Today, we meet the residents of Caffray Ave in Aramoho.

 

Caffray Ave has been Betty Green's address for the past 50 years.

It's where she and her husband have lived their entire married life.

"My husband's 85 now and we've been heading up that hill [Roberts Ave], five days a week, since he was 60," Mrs Green says.

Mrs Green said she didn't vote for MMP last time and she won't be doing so this time either.

"I don't like it, and there are far too many [politicians] in [Parliament], too," she said.

The couple vote for Labour, despite Phil Goff.

"Although he's not as bad as 'the smiling assassin'," Mrs Green says. John Key gained that nickname during his days at the top of financial management and advisory company Merrill Lynch in London. "They drag out the same fibs, the same policies, and most of them are incompetent."

Mrs Green said the government must concentrate on job creation and apprenticeships.

When she was younger, people would go from school into an entry-level position and work their way up while training on the job.

Her granddaughter, who recently graduated from the University of Waikato, couldn't find work, even with a degree, and ended up heading overseas.

Last year, a World Bank study revealed that nearly a quarter of New Zealand's graduates lived outside the country. That was much greater than Australia, where 2.5 per cent of graduates lived outside their homeland.

This brain drain was also mentioned by another of the street's residents, who did not want to be named.

The invalid beneficiary once worked in a large bakery, which provided the opportunity to work in the USSR (now Russia) in 1991.

While there, an unsuccessful coup against Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev took place in August and although it collapsed after two days, the Soviet Union was dissolved just four months later.

She said the country was still controlled by the wealthy at that time, even though communism preached equality.

The experience gave her a different perspective of New Zealand politics, but she said it was the same game of power everywhere. The 61-year-old said the government should encourage manufacturers to do business here.

"Because you can't take people off the benefit, unless they have a job to go to," she said.

It's an opinion shared by Ken Grimes, who said that it's fair enough to come down hard on the unemployed, but only if work is available.

He lost his job when the construction division of Fulton Hogan in Wanganui was wound up in 2007, and despite having "every licence you could dream of", Mr Grimes remained unemployed.

He also said more support should be afforded to small schools, which play a central role in their communities.

Like Mrs Green, he says there are too many politicians in Parliament and is disheartened by the fact many pre-election promises are never followed through.

Another Caffray Ave local said he thought the compulsory savings scheme devised by former Labour Prime Minister Norman Kirk, but thrown out by National's Rob Muldoon in 1975, would have ensured the country was much wealthier than it now is.

The self-employed builder also remembers when the pension eligibility age began to rise from 60 to 65 in the early 1990s and thought Labour's proposal gave people ample time to prepare for a retirement age of 67 by 2033.

He said Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson had made some effort to cut red tape and bureaucracy within the industry.

Last month, Mr Williamson said the Government was working on law changes to allow minor construction work to be done with fewer consent requirements.

ARAMOHO FIGURES

The 2006 census recorded 1548 households in Aramoho (from Russell St to Aramoho Park), each with an average of 2.5 occupants.

The suburb had a population of 3963 people and the median age was 35.

The unemployment rate was 8.1per cent in upper Aramoho and 8.8 per cent in lower Aramoho.

The median income in the suburb was $18,000, compared with $21,600 for the Manawatu-Wanganui region.