With elections looming and political parties vying for your attention, we wanted to make your job easier by dissecting their employment policies!
Rangatahi in employment is where our values lie. Below is a list of NZ’s major political parties, followed by their employment policies/promises to improve the state of employment in New Zealand.
To help, we’ve put the policies that directly benefit workers under the age of 35 in BOLD.
Labour:
- Bring back the Training Incentive Allowance for degree level study.
- Increase the amount people can earn while on the benefit by raising the abatement threshold.
- Introduce a support package to assist businesses in hiring at least 40,000 New Zealanders whose employment is impacted by COVID-19.
- Extend Living Wage guarantees to contractors to the public sector – such as cleaners, caterers, and security guards.
- Increase minimum sick leave entitlements from five days to ten days a year.
- Increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour in 2021.
- Make it easier for women to gain pay equity, by ensuring there are better records of pay equity across New Zealand, including by ethnicity and age, as well as gender.
- Make it easier for workers to receive fair wages and conditions by implementing Fair Pay Agreements.
- Strengthen and simplify the Holidays Act to allow employees sick leave when needed.
- Protect vulnerable workers by legislating protections for “dependent contractors” and by recognising security guards as vulnerable workers to ensure their terms and conditions are protected.
- Raise the age for workers to be allowed to perform hazardous work, ensure all workers have the right to elect health and safety representatives, and ensure Seafarer Welfare Centres provide better services.
National:
- Retrain Kiwis who have lost their jobs to get them back into the workforce. Tertiary training providers will be eligible for $4000 payment for every unemployed person they retrain and get back into full-time work within a year.
- A 12-week business training and mentoring programme to provide unemployed Kiwis with the essential skills they need to start a business.
- A fund to deliver management training to small business owners, to help them grow their businesses and generate jobs.
- A specialist position within WINZ offices tasked with working with Kiwis under 25 on the JobSeeker benefit to develop personalised, intensive ‘path to work’ plans to get them back into the workforce.
- Expansion of National’s Skills and Jobs Hub model using purpose-built centres to match unemployed Kiwis with jobs generated from a long-term infrastructure upgrade.
- Ensure that WINZ assistance supports and encourages people to move from welfare back into work.
- Reverse the current Government’s restructuring of the vocational education sector to ensure NZ’s tertiary system is focussed on frontline education and delivering skills.
Green Party:
- Tax wealth fairly by introducing a new tax on individuals’ net wealth over $1 million. This would only apply to the wealthiest 6% of New Zealanders.
- Update progressive income tax so anyone earning a high income contribute a little more to help fund better social support for everyone.
- Close tax loopholes & minimise tax avoidance by taxing big digital giants such as Facebook and Amazon.
- Make changes to abatement and relationship rules so people can earn more from paid work before their income support entitlements are reduced.
- A 1% wealth tax for those with a net-worth over $1 million.
- Two new top income tax brackets for a more progressive tax system that redistributes wealth.
NZ First:
- Create an accreditation system for businesses of over 50 employees to use the 90 day trial period for newly released prisoners, at-risk youth, and single parents returning to the workforce.
- Re-establish Careers NZ as a separate entity to cover all New Zealanders regardless of age.
- Extend funding and professional development around career advice and job transition for librarians across New Zealand so they can better support their community with employment and training advice.
- Enhance local workforce development councils and industry workforce planning to better target financial support for on and off job training
- Streamline and target apprenticeship financial support to ensure a continual stream of skilled workers in New Zealand key industries.
- Reinstate Workbridge as the primary employment agency for Kiwis who are differently abled.
- Ensure the support put in place for the “newly unemployed” due to COVID-19 continue.
- Actively set up a seniors employment plan and support uptake of the employers toolkit for mature workers.
ACT:
- Re-introduce 90-day trials for all businesses.
- Three-year moratorium on minimum wage increases.
The Opportunities Party (TOP):
- Change competition law to remove the power held by big business over workers and competitors.
- Reward hard work by dropping income taxes, stopping immigration of lower skilled labour and introduce an unconditional Universal Basic Income.
- Make housing affordable and create more good jobs by closing tax loopholes.
The Māori Party:
- Raise the minimum wage to $25 per hour and legislate for an annual increase.
- Guarantee pay equity for Māori nurses and teachers.
- Remove financial penalties, sanctions, and work-test obligations.
- Raise abatement rates for benefits and student allowances.
- Work towards writing off the total student loan for those who work in Aotearoa for a period of five years.
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