There are plenty of jobs out there if people look really hard, with New Zealand's horticulture sector an example of where business owners have to hire foreign workers for harvest work, Prime Minister John Key says.
Under opposition attacks following announcement of his government's tougher welfare policy, Key this morning told TV3's Firstline programme that he didnt' buy the 'where are the jobs' opposition to the welfare reforms.
"Obviously if the economy is poorer, and not creating as many jobs or in fact contracting jobs - that hasn't been the case in the last few years - but if that's the case, of course the unemployment roll will rise," Key said.
"But it's worth pointing out that in all of the changes we are making, it is about people, if they can, being work ready. If they don't get a job, if there isn't a job there for them, then nothing changes in terms of their entitlements," he said.
"But there are plenty of jobs out there for people if they look really hard. Now obviously not for every single person - we need to continue to work to drive the economy - but people do find work, and the economy is constantly creating new jobs and different jobs are there," he said.
"We bring in people from overseas to work in the New Zealand economy because we can't staff them in times of the harvest for horticulture, for instance," Key said.
Underlying education problem?
Meanwhile, Key did not accept the argument that the issue stemmed from a deeper problem with New Zealand’s education system. International studies of education outcomes ranked New Zealand “extremely well” relative to other countries, he said.
However those studies represented the average child, and 20% of children had substandard literacy and numeracy skills, which was what the government’s ‘national standards’ education policy would tackle.
“We certainly know there are a lot of youngsters dropping out without those skills. But I wouldn’t actually make the case that we don’t do enough when it comes to education funding,” Key said.
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