John MacDonald: The community work sanction is an opportunity

The Government is describing the 20 hours unpaid community work that people on the Jobseeker benefit will be made to do from today if they don’t follow the rules, as a penalty.

And there’ll be no shortage of people cheering on from the sidelines, who will also be seeing it as a penalty.

I think it’s great too. But not for the obvious reasons.

The Opposition doesn’t like it, saying it will mean people getting stuck on the benefit for longer; that it could push people into homelessness, and they’re describing the community work as “forced labour”.

The Green Party’s social development spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March is saying: “This community work sanction will leave people without homes, without food, and with worse employment outcomes. Louise Upston is making it harder for beneficiaries to find employment.”

But he needs to open his eyes a bit.

Because I think the complete opposite. I’m seeing it as an opportunity for people - not a punishment.

Because we all know how easy it is for someone to go down a rabbit hole and how difficult it can be for them to come out of it. For all sorts of reasons - including unemployment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from news Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
The government is describing the twenty hours unpaid community work
that people on the Job Seeker Benefit will be made
to do from today if they don't follow the rules.
The government's describing that as a penalty, and there will
be no shortage of people cheering on from the sidelines
who will also be seeing it as a penalty as well. Yeah,
get the buggets ahe. I think it's great too, but

(00:36):
not for the obvious reasons. The other penalty coming into
effect today is this thing will where they'll put half
of someone's benefit on a payment card which they will
only be able to use to buy essentials like food.
But it's the community service work bit that I really
like because it's actually an opportunity for people. I'll explain

(01:01):
what I mean. The opposition doesn't like it though, saying
it will mean people getting stuck on the benefit for longer,
that it could push people into homelessness, and they're describing
the community workers quote forced labor. The Green Party Social
Development spokesperson Ricardo Menendez Marsh is saying today, quote this

(01:23):
community work sanction will leave people without homes without food
and with worse employment outcomes. He says Louise Upston, who's
the Social Development minister. He says, Louise Upston is making
it harder for beneficiaries to find employment, end of quote.
And he probably would say that, wouldn't he. But he

(01:45):
needs to open his eyes a bit because I'm thinking
the complete opposite. I'm seeing it as an opportunity for people,
not a punishment. And I'll explain why we all know,
don't we, how easy it is for someone to go
down a rabbit hole and how difficult as can be

(02:06):
for them to come out of it for all sorts
of reasons, unemployment being one of them being a major
one actually, and it can happen to people in all
sorts of situations. And I reckon it must be very
easy for someone who is unemployed to fall into the
trap of putting stuff off, isolating themselves, thinking they'll get
around to riding up that CV tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow,

(02:30):
thinking they've got heaps of time to get that job application,
and generally letting time drift away on them. And in
the process of all that delay, delay, delay, what happens
where they start to feel worse about themselves, don't they
And they cut themselves off from people in society to
the point where to the point where they look up

(02:53):
one day and they think, where the hell is that
year gone, And they know themselves that if they just
got out of bit and mixed with people, then they
might start to feel a bit better about themselves and
might be more motivated, more motivated to sort their life out.
But straight away, even just the prospect of trying to

(03:14):
organize something, it's all too much and nothing changes. And
these are the types of people who don't do what
the government says is expected of people and the job
seeker benefit. They don't apply for jobs, they don't show
up for interviews, and they don't attend employment expos because
they are broken. But if they get a call from

(03:38):
MSD one day telling them to turn up at such
and such a place on this day, at this time
to do some community service work, I reckon it could
flick a switch inside some people, the types of people
I've just described, I reckon they'll see it as they
kick up the pants they know they need, and they
will turn up and they will do their five hours

(04:01):
of unpaid community service work each week for four weeks
and this is the clinch ship. While they're doing it,
they'll be meeting people. They'll feel like they're contributing something,
and they won't. They won't be as stuck as they
have been. And for some of them, I mean not
all of them, of course, but for some of them,

(04:21):
they won't want to let go of that feeling of
belonging somewhere and being part of something. They won't want
to let that go, and they will do all the
things that the government wants them to do. They'll start
doing them, and they will have a much greater chance
of finding work and turning their lives around. Now you
might think, oh, you're making a bit over optimistic, mate.

(04:42):
You might think I'm giving people on the dole too
much credit. You might think, oh, someone wants a job,
they'll find a job. But there's more to it than that. Yes,
I've I've made my way in the world. Whenever I
found myself out of work, I've always managed to find
something or been able to make something happen. But I
don't take that for granted. And I know very well

(05:04):
they're just like the next person, just like you. Then
I'm only a few steps away from going down that
rabbit hole. I'm talking about you and I. Both our
lives could go pair shape very quickly. And this may
have already happened to you and you know you or
I could be that person I described before who loses

(05:25):
their job, loses their confidence, loses their self respect, and
who looks up and finds it they've pretty much sat
on the couch for a year, hiding from the noise
and letting their world get smaller and smaller and smaller.
And that's why I think the government is actually doing
unemployed people who don't follow the rules a favor. It

(05:48):
might think twenty hours of unpaid community workers of punishment,
and the Anti Beneficiary crew will certainly see it that way,
and they'll be cheering the government on for doing it,
and the Opposition sees it as a punishment too. But
here's what I think, I reckon it could be the
best thing any government has done for the unemployed.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
For more from Category Mornings with John McDonald, listen live
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