When Nicola Willis was questioned about the alarmingly high unemployment rate under her and Christopher Luxon’s watch (now 5.2%), she said that people needed to take it less ‘personally'.
This is a tone-deaf and inhumane mindset that makes me worried about people in our community being further undermined.
I spent 25 years as an employment lawyer because good employment is so valuable to people. Making sure that there are secure, well-paying jobs should be a top priority for any government. Losing a job is one of the most soul-destroying, disempowering things that can happen to a person. Its ramifications ripple out to the whānau beyond that person too. It destabilises families, particularly those with the least capital. The money people have saved up to pay the rent or the mortgage quickly runs out. As the MP for Mt Albert, I get to see the very real and personal price people are paying for this.
I also see this damage in my portfolios as Labour’s spokesperson for the Community and Voluntary Sector and the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence. I recently met with a drug rehabilitation centre and visited our domestic violence and drug courts. A secure job, a stable home and decent healthcare are integrally linked to getting people out of violent relationships and avoiding or recovering from drug addiction.
Nicola Willis is not the only member of the National Government making out-of-touch comments on the value of a well-paid job. In recent weeks, I’ve also heard a similar speech from the Prime Minister given to audiences of both the Indian and Pakistani communities. I’ve heard variations of this speech to many different audiences of ethnic communities over his term in government; Luxon congratulates the audience on coming to New Zealand and bringing their work ethic, often working two or more jobs to get ahead. This disturbs me because I want New Zealand to be a place where people can get ahead with one well-paid job, not scraping by and having to work two or more. I want to see migrants offered this opportunity as our country grows.
There is a disdain for the rest of the population implicit in Luxon’s framing, which I think is patronising and utterly out-of-touch. Many in the audience have been living in New Zealand all their lives; others have come here with valuable and cutting-edge qualifications. Where would we be without, for example, workers in healthcare and IT, who have chosen to come and help New Zealand grow?
How did the Prime Minister and a senior minister in a new Government become so out-of-touch so fast? The PM has an electorate and plenty of opportunity to connect with people. It is one of the pleasures of the job of an MP: people open their homes and communities to you. The nature of the representative role means Government MPs should be seeing the devastation they are causing by not building a job-rich economy. Not prioritising growing well paid jobs and staying in employment is harming the community I represent, and I get to see it every day. Don’t they?
Under Labour, we had record-low unemployment. Since then, unemployment has steadily been rising, even more dramatically for some groups. If your teenager tells you that it’s hard to find a job, they are not just making an excuse. Youth unemployment is 20.7 percent for 15 to 19-year-olds and 8 percent for 20 to 24-year-olds. The unemployment rate in the Auckland region increased 1.5 percent in the last year, from 4.6 percent in June 2024 to 6.1 percent in June 2025. The underutilisation rate (the underemployed) has risen 3.5 percentage points in the same period (Stats NZ).
People warned me that being in opposition was tough because I have a front-row seat to watch the damage being done in the wake of decisions based on a hugely different value set. Leaders have got to be focused and grounded in the experience of the day-to-day struggle of ordinary New Zealanders.(Helen White)
helen.white@parliament.govt.nz www.labour.org.nz/HelenWhite
