Louise Upston: Social Development Minister on the beneficiary task force to deal with flood clean up

The Government's reluctant to give work opportunities to beneficiaries outside of emergencies. 

It's activated a beneficiary task force in Tasman and Marlborough, with beneficiaries able to get paid for helping clean up debris and slush. 

Social Development Minister Louise Upston says the initiative is just for Civil Defence emergencies at this stage. 

But Upston told Heather du Plessis-Allan she's open to suggestions about how to reduce the number of people on the Jobseeker benefit. 

She says this takes a significant amount of funding, and the Government's coffers aren't a bottomless pit. 

Upston told du Plessis-Allan it's estimated 30 people are needed for the work. 

She says there'll be three clean-up crews, and understands there were 10 people interested within a few hours of putting the message out. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In something of a return to the old days, the
government is calling on beneficiaries to grab a shovel and
help clean up the Tasman and Marlborough flood damage. They're
going to be paid money on top of the doll.
Louise Upston is the Social Development Minister. High Luiz.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning, Heather, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Oh well, thank you? How much you're paying?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well, this is a living wage and it's a really
great opportunity for job seekers to get in there and
roll their sleeves up and help in the local flood
recovery efforts.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
So is that topping the doll up to the minimum
wage or is that the minimum wage on top of the.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Doll it's the minimum wage in total, and it's a
really great opportunity for those who are on job seeker
benefit who aren't working currently. They're readily available and can
get on and help the community with the really valuable
cleanup project that's necessary.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Are you offering this to people who are in the
regional people outside of the region as well.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
It's mainly in the region. We've got about six hundred
job seekers in the Tasman region, so we know there
are people available, but look they're well, they may also
be people who are out of work, who are not
on benefit, who are available and interested in getting involved.
So that's why we put the word out. We gather
the troops and then get everybody underway to do that

(01:13):
really important cleanup on farms and rural areas and also
community facilities that have been damaged in the Tasman Marlborough area.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
And how many have taken you up on the offer, Well, there.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Was good interest as of yesterday. We're probably looking at
about three crews, so about thirty people is the initial estimate,
and I'm really confident we'll have no problem meeting that number.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
So you've had interest from thirty people or you need
thirty people. No.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
End of yesterday we need about thirty people, so we
expect there'll be three crews. And there were about ten
people interested at the end of yesterday. I understand ten
people are and that was only within a number of hours,
a number of hours of putting the message out. So
the work brokers will now sort of get on the phones,
look at their suitable jobs seeking candidates and connect them

(02:01):
to those opportunities. What's really great is what we've seen
from the past events where this task force Green has
been activated that some of these job seekers have gone
into employment following these projects, which is great news. That's
the ultimate outcome.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Okay, I mean so when I looked at this, this
is a fantastic idea and I completely love it. But
the problem that I can see is that it's going
to motivate the people who are already motivated right and
they are going to get jobs anyway in the private
sector because they are motivated. What we really want to
do is get those really long term beneficiaries off the couch.
Are we seeing any sign that they are getting motivated

(02:39):
by it.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well, I think there's a range of people. There'll be
people who, because of the economic circumstances we have right now,
are newly unemployed and really keen to get back into it.
There will be others that this type of clean up,
they're motivated actually to support their community, and that's something
that might mean that they're more interested in getting out

(03:02):
and doing work outside on farms that they might not otherwise.
So listen, I'm agnostic. We've got a large number of
people on benefit because we've got challenging economics circumstances, the
opportunity for them to get work experience to do work
that's really valuable to the community is a win win
from my perspective.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Okay, if this works, and if we do start to
see that there are people who we've had real trouble
getting off the doll suddenly getting off the doll because
this work is there and it's easy for them to
kind of transition to it. Whatever, whatever the reason, would
you roll this out wider than this and outside of
civil defense emergencies.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's not something I'm actively considering, but listen, I'm open
to suggestions about how we reduce the number of people
on the job seeker benefit. Obviously, this takes a significant
amount of funding because it's fully paying a full time wage,
and as you would well know, the government's coffers aren't
a bottomless pit. So we want to do what works,

(04:00):
and where there are things that work, we'll definitely look
at doing more of it.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Would you ever look at compelling.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Well, I think we've put a lot of leavers in
place already around tightening up the work obligations and consequences
when people don't meet that, and because we know that
ninety eight percent are at green, the system's working really well.
But look if we get problems further down the line.
I'll always look at other options for how to support

(04:28):
more people off welfare and into work.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Louise, Thanks very much, Louis Epstein, Minister for Social Development
and Employment. For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen
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