Budget 2022 a focus at a busy time
Youth and sign language loom large of late
What a week last week was; being both Youth Week and also New Zealand Sign Language
Week.
Youth Week this year was centred around the theme “Our voices matter, and we deserve to be heard!” which definitely resonates with both of us. Young people aren’t just the voices of tomorrow, but of today. We have the absolute pleasure of getting to work alongside our Youth MPs, Alyssa Smaling and Elijah Mareko, who will represent both the Mana and Ō taki Electorates in the Youth Parliament event come July in discussions about the future of our communities, and Aotearoa. There are so many incredible rangatahi in our electorate, raising their voices, working for people and the planet and serving in the most creating and caring of ways. So grateful for these youth, and organisations who support them such as Zeal, Kā piti Youth Support and Work Ready Kā piti, that we have in our hā pori.
With it also having been NZ Sign Language Week, we’ve been learning and practising our signing! This year’s NZSL theme was NZSL is essential. The meaning behind this theme is multifaceted. The word “essential” is well used these days and was drawn on to put a spotlight on essential workers who are deaf, as well as the fact that NZSL is essential for deaf people in education, health, workplaces and to be able to participate equally in society.
This is also one of our driving aspirations as a Government, for people to be able to participate equally in society and to have plenty of opportunities to learn and grow.
Soon after the pandemic began we introduced Apprenticeship Boost to train Kiwis to build the homes and infrastructure we need. Since then it’s been a booming success — Kiwis have stayed in work despite Covid-19 and thousands have upskilled while on the job. It’s helped our economy remain one of the strongest in the world, with unemployment at a record low and economic activity higher than it was pre-Covid. To bed in these gains, we’ve announced the extension of the Apprenticeship Boost to support 38,000 apprentices, as we continue our strong economic recovery. We’ve committed, as a preBudget announcement, $114.5 million over four years to roll out Te Aorerekura — a national strategy aiming to eliminate sexual and family violence in a generation. And $37.6m will go towards existing initiatives — such as the Campaign for Action on Family Violence, E Tū Whā nau and Pasifika Proud — as well as developing three further initiatives for ethnic communities, older people and youth. This is work we are proud of, as we aspire to rid Aotearoa of this violence which has no place here.
We are also proud to be able to announce an early opening of New Zealand’s border and a simplification of immigration settings, to address the immediate skill shortages in New Zealand and speed up the economic recovery from Covid-19.
Our international border will reopen to all tourists and visa holders two months earlier than planned, on July 31. We know this will be welcome news for whā nau, businesses and our migrant communities.
So much happening! It’s this week that Budget 2022 will be released, and we’ve identified two policy areas that will be a particular focus: Embedding the health reforms; and making progress towards our emissions reduction goals. We look forward to bringing you more on this next week.