The Green Party has announced a jobs guarantee for young New Zealanders, giving every 16- to 24-year-old who has been out of work for six months a pathway into a job in their local community.
“All around our country, infrastructure and nature need maintenance and renewal, and community services are short of the people they need. We will guarantee young people a job doing this important work,” says Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson.
“When there is so much real work to be done, it doesn’t make sense that our young people are struggling to get by, losing hope after receiving hundreds of job rejections. Thanks to Luxon’s Government, there aren’t enough jobs for our young people.”
“The Green Party will fix this problem head-on, instead of blaming young people, by setting up a Jobs for Young People programme. Because when the market is failing our young people, it’s time for the government to step in to support them.”
Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says, “Real economic development means investing in our people and our infrastructure. A Green Government will actually drive the economy, replacing Luxon’s approach of cutting, sitting back and hoping for the best.”
“Unemployment is the highest it has been in 11 years, and three times worse for young people than across the general population. That’s a ticking time bomb the government has the power to defuse.”
“You can’t punish people into ghost jobs. We can instead connect people out of work with work that so clearly needs to be done.”
“The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs has supported thousands of young people into work across our regions. Jobs for Nature proved that we can invest to restore nature and build resilience, employing our own people to do good in their communities.”
“The Greens will invest in and expand on these successes.”
Davidson says, “Our country is not working for young New Zealanders right now. And when something is broken, you fix it. The Greens will make sure every young person who wants to work has a good job, so that they can put down their roots and build a future made in Aotearoa.”
