THIS WEEK ON BACK BENCHES—YOUTH WING SPECIAL
PAY IT BACK: The kids have been bludging from the taxpayer too long by buggering off to the UK or Oz rather than paying off their school loans, right? True or not, the Government is tackling student debt by making those borrowing more accountable. How? A shorter repayment holiday and the IRD chasing you down. Will this lower the debt? Is the Government being too tough? Is it in the country’s best interest for our youth to get a uni-degree? Do students understand what they’re getting into? And how many are dodging vs. how many are broke?
GETTING THE JOB: Now that you’ve got the student loans, it’s time to get a job. How on earth do you start? Does University prepare you for the work force? What on earth do you do with a BA in History? What are employers looking for? Are there jobs for the Uni-grad? And should we be advising our young what’s in demand?
TIME FOR BABY: How long should new parents stay home with baby? A bill by Labour’s Sue Moroney says 6 months(26 weeks) rather than the current 3.5 months/14 weeks. Is that affordable? Do we need the time for the country to recover financially? Will our country EVER be able to afford extended leave? Or should the leave time be longer? Are there benefits, bigger than financial to consider?
Live pub politics from the Backbencher Pub: Wednesday, 11th of April, 9:05pm and on TVNZ7.
This week the panel is representing the Youth Wing of the parties: ACT on Campus Hayden Fitzgerald, Young Greens Wilbur Townsend, Young Labour Glenn Riddell, New Zealand First Youth Curwen Rolinson, and Young Nationals Sean Topham.
Go Glenn!
WOO HOO! 
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Shortening the holiday does bleep all if you ask me!
Ma and bub need time together, it’s good for the brain and stuff!
Can’t put a price on that! 
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, isn’t it possible that advertising a temporay job for six months to a year would be more appealing for Joe Jobhunter than only giving up their dole for 14 weeks? 
I’m not an employer, but,
P.S. I bleepin p****d that this fine programme is going to be killed off by the TVNZ7 cut!
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SAVE TVNZ7 !!!!!!!!!
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Totally agree with you about TVNZ 7, Spud.
Don’t give up hope, though. You never know what’ll happen after the next election in a few months.
I’m betting someone will post “if you can’t afford to have children, then don’t have them” (Breed’ was a term, I recall).
I say, if you want to stop on this level of evolution, then go right ahead. Knock yourselves out.
I’m hoping for a Hawkins, a Mandela, some Nightingales, Assissis and plenty of Koffi Annans.
Make love not war
Afford every child the chance to enter the world as intended, with their parents.
Paying someone to look after your newborn baby just seems as wrong as paying for gym membership, driving to a room full of sweaty people and spending an hour on a treadmill. Like the rat race isn’t enough for some, they have to use human pet shop toys instead of going for a walk in the fresh air.
Educate them, nuture them and reap the reardsof a society of bright kids.
“…. Is it in the country’s best interest for our youth to get a uni-degree? ….”
The Cambridge based Korean economist Chang’s “Thing 17″ in “23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism” is very good on this issue.
@spud – its no silver bullet, but I think there’s a lot of merit in that argument. There’s also some force in the fact that often extra staff hired to cover maternity leave end up as permanents, and this actually GROWS their business. That has happened in every job I’ve ever worked in.
But don’t let the right wing trolls know, or they’ll post personal attacks about how we need to learn how to argue/think/how much smarter than us they are/how we always resort to personal attacks. Hehe.
@al1ens – I’m with you on that. We are “Aspirational” for New Zealand’s children.
Remember when aspirational meant something other than dream on?
@Al1ens – You make some good points!
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@George – Sounds interesting!
@Tim G – That’s great! I hope the Nats don’t screw this up!
@Spud – silly National making their position re: veto known already, huh? http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6719884/Govt-to-veto-paid-parental-leave-bill
Shutting down democracy because they’re afraid that a majority of our elected representatives will decide against them.