Listen: Nicola Willis and Carmel Sepuloni go head-to-head on Morning Report's new political panel
Photo:
RNZ
Unemployment is forecast to hit a nine-year high in figures due out on Wednesday.
Economists expect the rate to rise to 5.3 percent for the June quarter - the highest since the end of 2016. Wage growth is also expected to cool further.
National deputy leader Nicola Willis and Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni debated this, along with emergency housing, on
Morning Report
's new political panel.
Willis said the government was working hard to try and bring unemployment down. She was mindful that at the time of the last election in 2023 experts were forecasting that unemployment would be 5.4 percent by now.
She said by managing the basics well, such as inflation and interest rates, the jobless numbers would drop.
Sepuloni responded that thousands of jobs had been lost in the construction sector in the last 18 months because the government had axed Labour's projects. The health sector had a hiring freeze and this meant thousands of jobs went unfilled.
Willis said people's livelihoods were the main reason the government needed to get the economy growing and this would encourage employers to hire more.
On the topic of homelessness she said the government was working closely with community social services to try and reduce the numbers.
However, Sepuloni countered that the government's changes to the emergency housing criteria were a major reason for more people couch surfing or sleeping in risky situations.
"We're really concerned about what the criteria are ... the vast majority are not homeless because they're on P ..."
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