Latest / Best of Business / 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 · Best of Business

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