$82m jobs scheme for regions lagging behind
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a new regional unemployment scheme funded with $82 million from the Provincial Growth Fund.
Sixty million dollars of the investment will mostly be focused in five ‘‘surge’’ regions that face high unemployment, low wages and low productivity when compared with the rest of the country: Northland, Bay of Plenty, Taira¯ whiti, Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu¯ -Whanganui.
The money will go towards a set of hubs in those regions which bring together government services in order to help both employers and employees, and two already-existing government programmes focused on Ma¯ori and Pasifica.
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said the country as a whole was doing quite well economically – meaning these regions should not be left behind.
‘‘Regional New Zealand deserves to share in the economic prosperity of a strong economy, and this funding will equip them with the skills and capability to succeed,’’ he said.
Ardern announced the ‘‘Te Ara Mahi’’ (Pathways to Work) initiative at an event in Northland yesterday with Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson, ahead of a day filled with events in and around Waitangi. ‘‘These hubs will empower communities by bringing people and business together to access the full range of government employment support services, including access to workreadiness courses and training opportunities,’’ Ardern said.
A further $21m will go towards regional connectivity schemes, including internet access on maraes and separate digital hubs.
‘‘In remote communities there are not always locations where local business people can access the internet or where local and visiting business people can come together or where tourists can access the internet.
‘‘All New Zealanders should be able to have that access and the knowledge of how to use it regardless of where they live,’’ Ardern said.
Alongside investments
the hubs are in two existing programmes – $13.2m for He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) and
$8.8m for the Pacific Employment Support Service.
HPR focuses on getting 15 to
24-year-olds who are not currently in education, training, or employment either earning or learning, mostly through combining job placements with intensive pastoral care.
Some worried it would end as a traditional ‘‘work-for-the-dole’’ scheme but it differs from these in that it offers a minimum wage.
Jones has spoken at length about the need to get unemployed ‘‘nephs off the couch’’ and HPR is the scheme most aligned with that policy goal.
The Pacific Employment Support Service currently supports young Pacific people in Auckland and Hamilton to get into education or work.
The new $8.8m in funding will allow it to expand to the wider Waikato, Manawatu¯ -Whanganui, Otago, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay and Murihuku/Southland.
It will also be expanded to cover Pacific people aged up to 39 who are not earning or learning.
Pacific Peoples Minister Aupito William Sio welcomed the news.
‘‘Pacific unemployment has outpaced the overall unemployment rate for too long . . . at 6.2 per cent compared with 3.9 per cent of the overall population.’’
Sio is the electorate MP for Mangere, at the heart of one of largest population centres for Pacific people in the world.
About twice as many Pacific people live in Mangere than in the Cook Islands.