-
Te Puni Kokiri
- Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Maori Development, says that while current
employment policy has focused on reducing the percentage of long-term unemployed, the policies have
failed to make a positive impact on Maori unemployment as a whole.
TPK: "Maori unemployment has been trending up in both net and relative terms for the past three years. This suggests that the system is more efficient at `churning' the unemployed, but that the underlying causes of employment disparities remain unaddressed.
- TPK notes that the treatment of and value attached to "unpaid" work in employment policy is an area of difficulty yet to be adequately resolved: "Currently, `work', as a concept, is closely associated with paid employment. This tends to devalue the contribution that can be and is made through people undertaking unpaid activity, such as voluntary work or parenting. Current policy acts as an impediment to community development and demonstrates how the system continues to enshrine gender bias in its resource allocation systems (as caregivers and voluntary workers are predominantly female)..."
- The TPK briefing papers also argue that there is a need to better link employment and training programmes together, so that beneficiaries can `staircase' into sustainable full-time employment. The ministry points to the Schools Employment Programme (SEP) being run in Christchurch as a good example of a locally-grown initiative attempting to meet the need for staircased services: "Employer-community networks are an important informal mechanism for linking job seekers with employment opportunities. Staircasing compensates for the under-representation of Maori as employers and the consequent lack of these networks..."
- TPK also criticises government employment and training initiatives for not being linked
to economic and community development policies: "In employment-poor communities and
regions, current employment and training products and services are too restrictive to support
staircasing communities as a whole towards greater levels of self-reliance, asset development and
business growth."
"Communities and regions with underdeveloped economies need to focus on developing those economies before they can worry about the niceties of employment policy. The rules that are required to protect an employment-rich environment are an impediment to the efficient use of human capabilities to meet community needs and goals in an employment-poor environment. More thought will need to be given to further developing the means to use local discretion in applying/relaxing employment policy strictures..."
Source Ministry of Maori Development Post Election Brief 1999 (Te Puni Kokiri)
The full version of this Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister is available to the public on the internet.
type: MS Word (.doc) file
internet link: http://www.tpk.govt.nz/publish/SubjectPublications/peb1999.doc
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— from the briefing papers
from The Jobs Letter No.115 / 17 January 2000
