Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Louise Upston and Willow-Jean Prime: National Social Development Minister and Labour social development and employment spokesperson on their new policies

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Louise Upston and Willow-Jean Prime: National Social Development Minister and Labour social development and employment spokesperson on their new policies · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We come to the first of one of our little
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: mini debates, which will happen on Mondays, where we look
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: at one issue and we talk to spokespeople. Now, today
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: we're looking at social policy and we've got Louise Upston,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the Social Development and Employment Minister with us. Good morning
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to you.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: And on the phone we've got Willow-Jean Prime, who's Labour's
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Social Development and Employment spokesperson. Hello, Willow-Jean.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: First question for you, Willow-Jean. Should we drug test beneficiaries?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Yes. Well, this is National responding to their huge failures
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: in the social development and employment portfolio where they have
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: failed to meet their own job seeker target. And what
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: they are doing is turning around and introducing things like this.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: And Andrew, what they have said is that this could
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: lead to cuts. to cancer patients, these policies that they've announced, sorry,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: could lead to cuts to cancer patients who can't work
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: because they are recovering. And that's just outrageous.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: All right, so Louise, what do you say? How do
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you defend your policy?
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have introduced the next range of welfare reform,
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: which is all about supporting people into work. So whether
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: it's additional case management, stronger expectations, and yes, random drug testing.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: We've seen 84,000 people leave welfare into work in the
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: last year. So we're really confident that the measures that
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: we are making are working. But there's more measures. That's
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: why we've introduced the policy last week.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Well, is Willa Jean right, though, that someone with cancer
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: is going to get their benefit cut because of your
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: drug testing policy and the way you run things?
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Well, if somebody is having treatment and they're having treatment
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: for three years, then they won't be on a job
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: seeker benefit because they won't be capable of looking for work.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: But what we want to do is make sure that
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: people's expectations when they are job seekers and they are
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: ready for work and available for work are met. Drug
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: taking should not be a barrier to them getting a job.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: OK, as part of it as well, and you've mentioned
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: it already, changes are coming for job seekers in November
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: to exclude 18 and 19 year olds who should then
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: be supported by their parents. Willow Jean, is that fair?
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Well, Andrew, we have currently got one of the highest
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: youth unemployment rate. It's at a 30-year high under Nationals Watch.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: They've also scrapped a whole lot of employment programmes. We've
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: had hiring freezes. We've had thousands of job cuts. We've
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: had stalled construction. And so what we can see here
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: is an abysmal record from the National Party. and no
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: actual plan to create more jobs and job opportunities for
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: young people, whereas Labour has a plan where we are
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: talking about expanding apprenticeship boosts, introducing the Māori trades training
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: and expanding that, and a start work package which is
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: going to create a whole lot of jobs, building the
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: infrastructure that New Zealand so desperately needs.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: So Louise, I mean, then again, if you've got so
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: many 18 and 19-year-olds who are unemployed, why should they
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: be paid for by the taxpayer? Isn't it our parents' responsibility?
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why we want to see 18 and 19-year-olds
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: in education, training or work. We don't want them on welfare.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: What we do know is under the six years of Labour,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: we saw an absolute explosion of the length of time
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: people were spending on benefit. And so if a young
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: person goes on to welfare under the age of 25,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: on average, they will spend now another 18 years of welfare.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: We don't think that's good enough. There's 220,000 jobs forecast
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: in the next four years. We want to make sure
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: it's Kiwis in line for those jobs. That's why we've
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: put more money into employment initiatives, particularly for young people
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: and into case management, which we know is really effective.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: We don't believe in race-based jobs. employment initiatives like Labour's announced.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: All right, over the weekend, ACT released its plan to
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: raise the retirement age by 2035 to 67, doing it
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: at three months at a time. Willow-Jean, is that a
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: good idea?
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Labour's committed to keeping the superannuation retirement age at 65
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: and we won't be means testing it.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: What do you think of it, Louise?
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Well, we also won't means test it. And we believe
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: that superannuation should be universal. I think it was a
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: good thing yesterday that both National and Labour finance spokespeople
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: talked about the fact that we should actually have agreement
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: between the two major parties on retirement for certainty.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Well, that is my next question, because ACT came out
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: and David Seymour came out and said, we've got to
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: have cross-party support on retirement. Do you agree with that, Willow-Jean?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Well, Chris Hipkins has spoken to that and said that
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: we've long been open to having a constructive bipartisan conversation
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: to work to ensure that we have a better, secure
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: plan for New Zealanders' retirement incomes. It's hugely important that
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: we're backing our seniors to lead dignified and fulfilling lives.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Louise Upston, do you want cross-party support on a retirement plan?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Yes or no?
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: Yes, definitely.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: All right, very good. Willow-Jean, winter energy payments, should they continue,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: particularly when much of the money is going to wealthy superannuitants?
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, well, Andrew, I'm glad you have given us the
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: opportunity to talk about what happened under this government's botched
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: benefits and more than 16,000 superannuitants missing out on their
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: winter energy payments through no fault of their own.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: All right. What do you say to that, Louise?
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Well, I think absolutely seniors and under-national, they will continue
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: to get winter energy payments. Listen, the point that Willow-Jean
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: just raised, yes, there was a problem. These problems do
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: occur from time to time. It's actually about how you
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: fix it. I was advised on Thursday evening, and within
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: 40 hours, every superannuitant who had mistakenly had winter energy
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: payment stopped, it was reinstated.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Louise, we're about the future, not the past, but I
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: do thank you for your time. That's our first mini-debate
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: on a Monday about social issues with Louise Upston, Social
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Development and Employment Minister, and Willow-Jean Prime. the Labour spokesperson
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: on the same topics.