Prime Minister Bill English has blamed unemployment rates on young people failing workplace drug tests; despite admitting the comments he made were based entirely on anecdotal evidence.
English explained that high unemployment figures do not reflect a need to limit the amount of unskilled immigrants into New Zealand, as he has been called on to do, but rather they reflect the amount of young people who are failing workplace drug tests.
The ‘record level’ of net migration for 2016, which stood at 71,000, was up from approximately 66,000 in 2015.
Critic couldn’t get hold of Bill English for an explanation, but Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, Michael Woodhouse told Critic that we “have a Kiwis first policy, meaning employers have to first see if they can hire locals, before they employ migrants.”
The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) described English’s comments as a use of “alternative facts”, with CTU President Richard Wagstaff going on to say: “We as a society are better than this. By completely overstating the issue of drug use by people looking for work, the Prime Minister justifies the widening of immigration policies.”
Michael Woodhouse agreed with English, telling Critic “I also hear of numerous anecdotes from employers about drug use being a barrier to employment.”
“Employers tell us that there are a number of barriers to employment for some young Kiwi jobseekers, including a mismatch between where the jobs and jobseekers are, skills mismatch, literacy, attitude, and recreational drug use.”
A press release from Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson, entitled ‘What’s Bill been smoking?’, said that the comments were a diversionary tactic to hide the National Government’s failure in relation to housing.
“New Zealanders might get the impression that Bill English is the one on mind altering drugs, given the facts about how National has let down workers and young people over the last eight years.”