MORENA, GOOD MORNING AND WELCOME TO Q+A. I'M GREG BOYED. FIRST UP TODAY ` MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGNER AND COMEDIAN MIKE KING. HE TOURS THE COUNTRY TALKING TO SCHOOLS ABOUT SUICIDE PREVENTION. WHY IS HE GETTING PUSHBACK ON HIS MESSAGE? WHAT DOES HE SAY THAT HAS SOME HEALTH EXPERTS SO CONCERNED? A WEEK AFTER GREEN CO-LEADER METIRIA TUREI DROPPED A BOMBSHELL AT HER PARTY'S CAMPAIGN LAUNCH ` I HAD TO TELL A LIE. DOES SHE HAVE ANY REGRETS? WHAT DOES SHE THINK OF THE REACTION? AND WHAT IS HER REAL MESSAGE TO VOTERS? AROUND 90,000 YOUNG PEOPLE ARE OUT OF WORK BUT NOT IN TRAINING OR EDUCATION EITHER. AND YET, WE'RE FACING A SKILLS SHORTAGE. JEFFERY WALLACE, THE HEAD OF 'LEADERS UP', IS VISITING NEW ZEALAND. HE WORKS WITH AMERICAN BUSINESSES TO GET YOUNG PEOPLE WORK-READY. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM HIS SUCCESS? CAPTIONS BY VIRGINIA PHILP AND ALEX WALKER. CAPTIONS WERE MADE WITH THE SUPPORT OF NZ ON AIR. COPYRIGHT ABLE 2017 AND WE'LL HAVE ANALYSIS FROM OUR PANEL ` POLITICAL SCIENTIST DR CLAIRE ROBINSON; JOHN TAMIHERE, FORMER LABOUR MP, NOW CEO OF THE WAIPAREIRA TRUST; AND KERRY PRENDERGAST, FORMER WELLINGTON MAYOR. SHE'S A DIRECTOR AND CHAIR OF A NUMBER OF BOARDS, INCLUDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AUTHORITY AND TOURISM NEW ZEALAND. WE'LL HEAR FROM YOU ALL SHORTLY, BUT FIRST, HERE'S JESS. THANKS, GREG. OUR YOUTH SUICIDE RATE IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST IN THE WORLD, AND REPORT AFTER REPORT SHOWS WE ARE FAILING TO SHIFT THOSE DISMAL STATISTICS. COMEDIAN MIKE KING HAS BECOME ONE OF OUR MOST HIGH-PROFILE MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGNERS. HE'S ON A SPEAKING TOUR OF SCHOOLS, TALKING TO STUDENTS ABOUT KEEPING GOOD MENTAL HEALTH. HE JOINS ME NOW. We are really cautious usually in New Zealand and the way that we talk about suicide. What is your approach with the students? Our approach is top of the cliff and so far back from the edge of the cliff, no one knows we are talking about suicide. I normalise the inner critic. It constantly puts us down. Everyone has it but no one ever talks about it. We have a generation of young New Zealanders who think they are the only ones who have this inner critic. No one talks about it. For our kids, they are living in the world of perfect adults where everyone is perfect and no one ever talks about their flaws and their faults and no one ever talks about the doubts, and that generation feels like they are the only ones that have that problem. They feel completely lost and disconnected from my generation. Does it normalise suicide? Some people say talking about suicide makes children more likely to think about it when they are feeling like that. That myth has been dispelled in so many papers across the world and a New Zealand, but there are a staunch group of academics and clinicians in New Zealand who are still holding on to that theory and refusing to let go. They are the ones who are causing the problems. Of course there are young people out there that can be triggered by something like 13 reasons why, but those same kids can be triggered by a look from a dog walking down the road or a look from someone in the playground. If we refuse to acknowledge and give the tools to help people for the sake of the 0.1%, I think we are missing the point. Do you think parents should be letting children watching 13 reasons why? It glamorise a suicide to some extent. When that program first came out, all of the experts in New Zealand and those who are paid to run our suicide prevention programs said it glamorise a suicide, glamorise as pack rape and all kids should be banned from watching it. If that is not the greatest advertisement for a child to watch a program, I don't know what is. My two girls, they read the book when they were 10 and 11 and they watch the program at 15 and 13 and to them and their peers, it is a show about the judge mental society that we live in and they came away from that show thinking I have to change the way I think, I have to change the things that I say, because one little thing for me could be the trigger that since someone over the edge. It is really interesting and again it shows the growing gap between the two generations. You have run into some trouble that has played out in the media this week with some South Island schools that were not very keen on your approach. Does this happen to you a bit? They invited me first but then they were approached by one of the old school campaigners who put doubts in their mind and they cancelled. It came from a completely uninformed view. It is something that is still there and is very damaging. Do I have any issues with the schools? Absolutely not. Schools are in the best placed to decide what is best for their students and what is not good for their students. In saying that, you know, our kids need a voice. I have been touring around the country for the last 3 � years and have spoken to thousands of kids, and the overwhelming concern for kids is that they do not feel validated and they don't feel like our generation is listening. We spoke to the DHP and they said they did not direct schools to not invite you. Our people resistant because it is such a sensitive topic? This is one woman. This isn't a campaign by DHB. Nigel Trainor did not know what was going on until I alerted him to what this one woman was doing. You resigned from the New Zealand suicide prevention panel. Do you not feel that you need to effect change from within rather than on the outside? I think I am more effective on the outside than on the inside. Is it the bureaucracy? I was part of an external advisory group but I was the only external member of the group. Everyone was from the DHP funded by the Ministry of health. Social media has changed the game and it has given people a voice and without social media, mental health would not be on the agenda, it is on the agenda now. People have finally got a voice. People feel like they are being heard. Elections, for me, I like custody battles for children where both parents are running round offering lollies, but we are saying you are giving this me now, when the custody battle is won, you are going to ignore us. We can finally lock politicians in the eye and say this is what we want. Thank you very much for your time. THANKS, JESS. AND IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT SOMEONE YOU KNOW OR YOU WANT TO TALK TO SOMEONE YOURSELF, LIFELINE IS A FREE 24-7 HELPLINE. 0800 543 354. Q+A DID APPROACH HEALTH MINISTER JONATHAN COLEMAN TO TALK ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN GENERAL; HE WASN'T AVAILABLE. BUT WE WILL TALK TO OUR PANEL AFTER THE BREAK. MIKE WILL JOIN US TOO. SEND US YOUR THOUGHTS. WE'RE ON TWITTER @NZQandA. YOU CAN EMAIL US AT Q+A@TVNZ.CO.NZ OR TEXT YOUR THOUGHTS AND FIRST NAME TO 2211. KEEP THEM BRIEF ` EACH TEXT COSTS 50C. LET'S BRING IN OUR PANEL ` POLITICAL SCIENTIST DR CLAIRE ROBINSON; JOHN TAMIHERE, FORMER LABOUR MP, NOW CEO OF THE WAIPAREIRA TRUST; KERRY PRENDERGAST, FORMER WELLINGTON MAYOR, AND VERY BUSY BOARD DIRECTOR AND MIKE KING JOINS US FOR THIS PANEL TOO. Are we pussyfooting around with a suicide? Suicide has taxed humanity from the get go. It is about a blame game that goes on. Everyone feels the pain and everyone suffers from this. What Mike has raised as there is a growing logjam in mental health. Suicide is the tip of it because it is having such an egregious impact on communities. There is this logjam growing and too much money goes to the criminal Justice I of managing it. Police cannot be better parents and be better educators. Unless we start to channel more resources into health and education and that is where the debaters, we are not going to go anywhere. It is like pethidine treatment. In the old days, the women were always going to have a baby but you can only take the head off the pain. Trying to shut Mike up as an unfortunate response two people who know better for the communities. We are talking about farmers and people in Canterbury. It is a massive thing. The number of farmers who commit suicide is massive. Mike is absolutely right ` you have to talk about it but if you are a young person in a family, you have to have a family that understands. Where is the information for parents to recognise? How do they recognise this as a cry for help and it is a genuine illness? More money needs to go to mental health and someone has to be helping families because the devastation for the family and friends and the community is huge in New Zealand has this appalling statistic which we should all be really embarrassed about. This is a $54 million question. We are not a terrible country or we are not war torn. Why are we so bad? It is the growing generational gap. My generation is the first generation of two parents working. We did not know what the implications of that was going to be. I paid my house off in half the time that it took my parents but in the cost of abandoning my children. We have two types of parents out there ` parents who are struggling to put food on their table and parents who are trying to climb the social ladder ` and both of those require time away from our kids. We are not doing the one thing that our kids want more than anything ` they want their opinions to be valued and they want what comes out of their mouth to mean something to the significant adults in their life and we do not have time to listen. All we have to have time to do is fix. We are solid system with consumerism. Our kids do not want play stations or all of the toys or the holidays; they want time. Is this going to be a political issue? Absolutely. Massey did a survey of 40,000 voters and it was about the number one concern of voters acrossAll age groups. If it is about being over 40, it is about your physical health. If you are under 29, it is about psychological health. We have done very well in terms of legislating and supporting health and safety in workplaces and homes and childcare centres, and we don't fall off ladders and break our legs as much, so we have two flip the balance and we are starting to say the big hazards of the modern era are psychological hazards. We know from the young voters that we talk to that it is one of the critical issues because for exactly the reason that Mike is saying, People are not talking about it. It needs to be something that is normalised. John, it feels to me that none of the political parties have weighed into it because it is a scary one. They have touched it but then they have taken their hands off it. It has no end. Mike has raised a lot of issues and you add the Internet revolution and the digital world and Artifical intelligence. That is true right across the Western world. It does not explain why we are like this. We are very stoic people. When you watch the All Blacks play and they saw a good try, the men in black just keep to their seats. When you go off to other communities, you see them screaming their hearts out. There is a lead on our emotions. We are stoic people. It does not take long before you know somebody who knows somebody who someone has happened and so we are much closer as a community and things become exacerbated a lot more than an say the United States when it is a much broader community. Our young people do not sleep because they are on their devices all the time. They are constantly competing with those next to them. If you had a magic wand and had unlimited funds... You should not have to talk to 150,000 kids in 3 � years. Society's attitude has to change. You can have the best suicide prevention system in the world and $1 billion a day to throw it the problem, but until New Zealanders change their attitude and start to value their young people and their lives that we are living with every day until we start to look at them and value the stuff that is coming out of their mouth regardless of their background, nothing is going to change. I think we need a huge campaign about changing that attitude. Everyone talks about the growing gap between rich and poor and that that does not need to close. The gap that needs closing as the generational gap. My generation is the problem. Our attitude and our judge mental attitude towards our young people needs to change and until that changes, nothing is going to change. Thank you very much for that. JESS IS BACK WITH METIRIA TUREI AFTER THE BREAK. HER ADMISSION THAT SHE LIED TO WINZ MANY YEARS AGO HAS DIVIDED PUBLIC OPINION THIS WEEK. WELCOME BACK AND MORENA TO METIRIA TUREI, GREEN PARTY CO-LEADER. Over the next two months, you are going to be auditioning to be part of an alternative government. After this admission, do you think you could still take on the role as social development Minister? Absolutely, and I think we need people in government who understand what real life is like. I told my story this week, and there is been lots of criticism but there has been overwhelming support for having spoken out about what is really like to be on the benefit. Beneficiaries are telling their own stories and supporting each other in same we can have a more compassionate system that takes care of us and our kids, and that's what I want to create. As Minister, would you prosecute people who would commit fraud? I would change the system so that it would be never necessary for anyone to tell lies to WINZ or commit fraud. We do that first and change the culture, we make people have livable incomes so that they don't have to work under the table. If there are major issues, we can deal with that. We have to fix system that has been badly damaged. People will criticise me and some people won't think I'm suitable. I understand that, but the most important thing is that nobody is in a situation where they have to make this because of choices. I've heard people telling stories this week about it. We have just had a composition about suicide. A solo mother committed suicide after getting a letter from WINZ saying that she was guilty of fraud, and that was proven to be wrong but her kids are still suffering from that. This is not an intellectual exercise about the budget or about the rules. It is about people's lives, and we have to do something about it. Given that, you are still trying to be a minister in the next government. Does that affect your credibility and your suitability for that job? I think it means that we have a minister who knows what it's like, a minister who is prepared to be upfront about what it's like and is prepared to fix it. I am asking the country to please help me and the poverty that leads people to this despair. Some people are committing crimes with because they don't have enough money. They are in despair and we can fix it, but we have to change the government first. What about the timing of this announcement we are nine weeks out from an election. Why wait till now? It had nothing to do with clearing the debt. It was about the women who had been jailed and the women who had committed suicide, and I thought that somebody has to crack this open. We have not had a proper conversation about how damaged the welfare system is and how it drives people to despair and what that means for their families and we have to, because unless we do, we will not fix it. 15 years to have this conversation. And nobody ever wants to confess that. So why now? Because it creates this conversation about the broken system we have, the damaged system we have in the drive to fix it. People have got to understand the children's lives are impacted every day from a system that keeps their families in poverty. The parents are under terrible stress that drives them to do terrible things and we have to stop that. We can stop it if we can change the government and have people there who understand what it's like and are driven to fix the system. Do you feel that sharing your personal story has overshadowed the policy that you announced on Sunday, perhaps not giving you as much airtime on? The first thing was to do was to talk about the reality of living on the benefit. There is been a huge social media response but I'm getting a huge number of emails in talking to people on the street as I've been travelling around, men and women on my way south, a woman on the benefit who is studying and she has a baby and she did exactly what I was doing. I am never going to condemn her for making the choices. Doesn't that make it hard for you? It means that the new Minister of social development will fix the system so that she doesn't have to do that. What happens if there is a fraud case and they called the social development minister as a witness? There will be an investigation and I will pay the money as I said I will do. From and Tolley as I understand it, there is an investigation underway. Have a contact you? I'm expecting them to do so. I want to get these details first. In terms of the amount, what are we talking about? I genuinely don't have any idea. You must've done a calculation. Between 20 and $50 a week... for three years? I don't even know the period of time because it was three flats. We are talking about under 10,000? I really don't know. I won't know until WINZ does the investigation and they have talked to me. Because they have said 57,000. Whatever the amount is, of course I will pay it. We will talk with them and work with them on the investigation. My point here, the reason why went public with this, at enormous risk and I understand that, is because there is no reason why we should have a system that forces that on anybody. The fact is that it still is. I can fix that if we can change the government. This is obviously had a big impact on you, looking at you. Is this something that has been weighing on your mind of the last 15 years? You have delivered other speeches so did you think about it during the time? I've talked quite a lot about my life on the benefit, and when I have, I think about what it was like then. What was it like then? Tell us about the decisions you having to make. I had a tiny baby. My job was to take care of her. 100%, she had no one else. She had me to rely on and that was my job. And I had to be the best mum I could for this baby. I also knew that the only way out of welfare was to get an education. I have no school degrees... I had to get a degree, and I had to get a good one so that I know I would be independent and OK for the rest of our lives. I had to do this as quickly as I could, so I went to law school. It was incredibly hard work, but my two priorities were taking care of her and getting my degree as quickly as possible. I was poor as anybody is in that situation. What kind of choices we are having to make? Nappies on the table or food? Childcare, the cost of study, therent the power the phone. It's just life, life costs, and people are making very difficult decisions when they have an income that keeps them below the poverty line. This was just after the 1991 cuts. Benefits were cut and taken to the point where they were the lowest possible to survive on and they were then cut 25%. There were a whole generation of women like me who had babies and were reliant on the benefit that were living in the most terrible poverty and making hard decisions. I am meeting their kids as I travel around I am 25 and my mum was on the benefit, thank you for speaking out on behalf of my mum, because she was in the same situation. Critics are saying you shared this information because it gives you currency when you are campaigning. What do you say to that if that is not the case? My job is to serve the people who need a representative that understands their life. That's what I do for a living. The people who need me most to serve the interests most are those who are the most poor. The 20,000 Aucklanders who are homeless, the people who are using synthetic drugs and I'm on the street, the solo mums who are having to do under the table jobs to keep their heads above water. I have a duty to them to do everything I can to change the system. This is my best chance in 15 years to fix it. I have to put everything into it. It is your best chance if you say, and you also talked about it being a huge political risk. How much that you weigh this up? And a week on, when you think you stand with it? I knew the risk I was taking and I knew that there would be severe criticism. I Had no idea there would be the level of support and it's been completely overwhelming. What I do it again? I would do it again and take this again because for the first time in two decades, we are having a deep conversation about poverty. Paula Bennett as well, what did you make of her comments? She is taking her political position. Were you surprised at how she took a softer approach than on another topic? She knows what it's like living on the benefit and she has her own story. I won't judge you for that. But she made it worse as Minister. Do you regret doing what you did? Do you feel embarrassed about it? I know that the right political responses to say yes, but it would be wrong. I'm not going to condemn anyone who is making the same decisions now that I had to make them. I don't. You would do it again? I took care of my baby and I got my degree and I got out of welfare. I think I made the right decision at the time. Has your political gamble paid off? I don't know. There are many consequences to come I'm sure. There is still a long conversation to be had with the country about what this means. Most importantly, how we fix a broken welfare system that has been so badly damaged that we have severe poverty and suicide as a result of it. There is a suicide case that led to this. We have homelessness at record high levels. This is the result of a safety net that has been torn to shreds. At this admission takes a ministerial portfolio of the table for you, Will it still have been worth it? It is a sacrifice, a sacrifice. Have to leave it there this morning. Your reaction to what she had to say there ` it is honestly had her pretty hard. I am intrigued at the faux outrage at how outrageous it is that she might be making a statement like this in a campaign as if no other MP has ever made a statement this close to an election campaign forward election purposes. That is kind of ridiculous. Secondly, this is a gender issue. Metiria Turei is reflecting an issue that would have only happen to women in the 1990s, because women were the predominant sole parents who are having to deal with the radical benefit cuts from national. If you think about what the equivalent male misdemeanour would be, it would be something to do with tax evasion. If you look at them in government, I bet there would be more than one of those who have probably stretch the rules about to get a bit more personal use out of it than their work. But they haven't fessed up to the government either. If we are in a situation where we should say should Metiria Turei pay back this, I will like to see every man in parliament and business owner to pick on the telly are Terry and say that you have done this, it is a gender issue. I would like to know your take on how the tone has changed. It has changed in seven days. I have a completely different view. I think this was a calculus of gamble. It is backfired in my view. She has agreed that she had lied and she has cheated. 280,000 people, mainly women but also men, on a domestic purposes and Benefit. I know that when I pay my taxes, some of it is going to help people like Metiria Turei giving them a hand up. What she has done quite calculatedly is taking from others. I have a completely different view. I have never seen Metiria Turei as Mother Teresa. I don't deal with black and whites in society. A lot of people react significantly to a lot of pressures that they are under. I take a more compassionate approach to what is happened here. I'm not a regulator and I'm not a punitive type of a system. What we can't deny is that wrong was done and it can be corrected. What I find terrible in this whole discussion is the demonisation. It is OK to get up on someone, but we take it to another level here and it is become a game sport in the last four or five days against Metiria Turei. I always take a defensive approach that, because there go I but for the grace of God, a lot of businesses in this country are small to medium. Every one of them was undercapitalised. Let's put that to one side, because that is the way business people see it, and it is OK in that way. But you have a double standard. You could argue not everyone of them was hoping to be the social development Minister. You could ask you that no weasel word came into that discussion, she could have danced around a few things and been frugal with the truth. But the more truthful you are as a politician in NZ, the greater the calamity. And that is bizarre. Do you think there would be a different reaction had she said that she did it but paid back? The reaction would have been different? She needs to shut down the story being about her and put the focus on the issues that she was trying to raise. Winston Peters has said some pretty outrageous things to and he has made countless bottom lines. The public discussion about that Winston Peters is that he could be prime minister a whole other people are saying Winston is outrageous but let's look at them as prime minister. Metiria Turei is being outrageous but imagine what would happen if she was minister. There is a double standard is how we treat women and men in politics. We have this whole thing about politicians being honest and truthful, It was the biggest thing I faced as mayor. She has just been honest. This is 15 years later, after several years of wroughting the system. She should have done it when she first got elected, she could have stood there in her main speech and said this is what I was forced to do and I'm getting elected to make a change. She has waited till now. Do you think this has shot her credibility' of one day being social development Minister? It will be very interesting to see how labour can see having her part of a team. You will know this better than anyone ` she is not the first sort of politician to have this thing happen. Is this the first time you can remember someone doing a mea culpa? It's a Self confession. Unless she was aware that there was a whistleblower. She absolutely denies that was going to happen. You don't cry on national television unless you are telling the truth. Her reaction was quite measured. I think she was reading the mood of the nation. There are a lot of people out there and they do struggle and it is tough. She went through exactly the same but she has been clear that she stuck to the system. She took what she was entitled to and did not cheat the system like Metiria Turei. You are only as good as what you have disclosed, what have you got to? You are only as good as what you disclose. Metiria Turei had a massive social policy announcement. The hook and the tail was that I don't want any other woman to be driven to breaking the law. Let's make it honest. So that did not work out as well as I think she anticipated. There were a lot of ex-flatmates out there that could have put their hand up and said actually this is what she was doing. There is a calculation that there was a risk and so she decided to put a hand up at this stage before the big announcement. She said she sacrificed social development Minister for this. What's your reaction to that? I think she would have to say that now because she can't make any assumptions that she will be appointed. Another important point is that in terms of media attention Pater party leaders in election campaigns. If you are Maori woman leader, you are the least likely to be paid attention to in the media. Whether she intended to or not, this is got the Green party and Metiria Turei more attention than she got on the entire campaign in 2014, and that is good. Is that true, no such thing as bad publicity, an exception? Voters love this and they are so behind her and the Green party. The Green party is on a roll. Did we hear from labour last week? No. The Green party is on the ascendancy. They have got to keep making sure that their policies are getting into the public sphere. Any publicity is good publicity unless it's about dishonesty, and I think New Zealanders draw the line. So that would be especially for voters who are not inclined to the Green party, but Green party supporters will be right behind her. The support and condemnation seems to be left support and right condemn it. I wonder how this would have played out if it was someone from the right side of the house who had said this is what I did. How different do you think that would have been? I still think that New Zealanders want their politicians to be honest. Metiria Tureior anyone from any political sphere who is honest from the beginning is more likely to be trusted then someone who has waited this amount of time. More broadly than just Metiria Turei, has this damaged the Greens credibility? I don't think so. If you look at this, you will get commentators that are always supportive of national who will vilify her. And you have others who will have more compassionate grounds and understand what happened here. The question is how she makes a good. She is indicated there is a way through that. We will know in the next 8/2 weeks. NEXT UP ` THERE ARE AROUND 90,000 YOUNG KIWIS WHO AREN'T IN WORK, TRAINING OR EDUCATION. OUR NEXT GUEST, JEFFREY WALLACE, HEADS AN AMERICAN ORGANISATION THAT GETS YOUNG PEOPLE WITH SEEMINGLY FEW PROSPECTS INTO WORK. HOW DOES HE DO IT? THAT'S NEXT. NEARLY 90,000 YOUNG KIWIS ARE OUT OF WORK AND NOT IN EDUCATION OR TRAINING. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, WE HAVE EMPLOYERS FACING A SHORTAGE OF SKILLED WORKERS. AMERICAN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR JEFFERY WALLACE CALLS IT THE 'OPPORTUNITY DIVIDE'. HIS ORGANISATION 'LEADERS UP' WORKS WITH AMERICAN BUSINESSES TO GET YOUNG PEOPLE WORK-READY AND INTO JOBS THAT WILL LEAD TO A MORE SUCCESSFUL FUTURE. AND HE'S HERE IN NEW ZEALAND TO TALK ABOUT HOW TO DO IT, AT THE 'FUTURE READY SUMMIT' IN AUCKLAND THIS WEEK. Welcome to the program. I want to start with your words ` he was a liar cheater and hustler. You were talking about your dad. You did pretty well. how did you do it? It is about surrounding yourself with the resources that you need to be successful. A good description of my dad and the beginning of our lives, but he also instilled in me the importance of hustle, the ability to convene all the assets you have as an individual and add value to your business all your community or the broader society. I think that is parallel to the young people we are talking about globally, and also in the United States, there is a misconception and we have been able to discover at leaders up is that young people are seeking opportunity and they need the social capital to get that opportunity in the skills to add value to businesses. My dad taught me that your work ethic can allow you to be the leader of the pack. By your own admission, you are from the tough bit of LA. Do you see any parallels with what is happening there and those NZ? When you think about geospatial analysis associated with open communities across the world, there are haves and the have-nots. If you think that in the context of the essentials, some of the systems that are keeping people of colour especially are critical for us to address. People all around the world investing and then's infrastructure and access and exposure to career pathways necessary for us to bridge this opportunity divide. Visibility of young people and seeing people who are successful in doing something in their lives. This is something that is really hard for people from the bad bit of NZ or LA ` they are seeing people who aren't doing well. How do you break that? Young people and all of us, we become what we see. If we continue to surround our young people with actual successful images of professionals in a variety of different careers, not just in traditional roles, but some of the most innovative aspects of our labour market, our young people know that they will be able to become that. In support from the equity perspective that young people of colour able to see porches of success that looks like them, entrepreneurs, successful executives, that knowing that they can do it as well. You have got fairly successful businesses taking a huge gamble on kids who they normally would not look at. Let's take it in a broader picture. People are taking gambles every day. The fact of the matter is that a lot of businesses have misperceptions around what the generation of talent actually looks like. We always start with the employer's interests in mind. Employers need talent and skill and we have to boil that down to some really concrete data points around competencies that are necessary. What employers need and some of the onboarding criteria associated with getting someone employed, we take that information and inundate the community with it. Young people are seeking these opportunities and they need to understand the curriculum behind actually securing a job in advancing a career. We have to ensure once a young person is connected to employment that they are supported around career advancement. Strategies that ensure young people have the generational support in the corporate settings is critical to ensure that they advanced 350% a global living wage. What you said earlier about taking a gamble, I imagine highflying companies would see taking a gamble on a kid from south-central LA as more of a gamble than someone from their environment. Is there a bit of a push from you to get that happening? We have been able to prove that there is a business case For employers to invest in homegrown talent. Globally and in the United States, there is a large consumer base. There is a value proposition an opportunity for employers to expand our market and ensure that young people have accessed opportunity. These young people are focused and have good work ethic being able to commit and contribute value to these businesses. What we have been able to do in the states is demonstrate what we call the triple bottom line. When you source talent through leaders up, you win as an employer because you have talent that impacts your businesses on day one. The local economy wins as well. This is the model that we are implementing to make sure employers have the right information in the right access to talent and support to ensure that they succeed. For schools to get their act together at the beginning of things, do they need looking at as well? This issue of youth unemployment is really across employers have their stake and actually communicating what competencies they need. Once they understand what talent and competency... To operate as a talent development system, focused on ensuring that we are equipping than next generation of talent with the skills necessary for them to succeed. When you say the education system needs to get its act together, there really needs to be a coordination of the different assets across the private sector, the public sector in the education sector to really forge what we need an opportunity market to optimise the next generation of talent. We discussed youth suicide specifically early on the program. I imagine for some of these kids with the background you are dealing with, that is something that is definitely in the mix as well. I presume you have brushed with that once or twice yourself. At the end of the day, this is about a more prevailing narrative that needs to be championed globally that everyone needs to have the opportunity to maximise their potential. And when you actually support someone and identify what their purpose is, support someone in developing the skills actually contribute to society, around what my actual standing is, whether that is a New Zealander globally, starts to shift. We are in the business of creating windows mirrors and doors. Mirrors for them to see people that look like them and doors to access opportunity. You've mentioned race and colour. We all know the challenges that African-American people, particular men, are facing in the United States. The Pacific and Maori kids here, how much of an extra hurdle is that? At the end of the day we have to focus on a competitive economy, an inclusive economy. This is our future economy. At the end of the day, if we are putting barriers for this market to actually participate in the economy, it is going to implode. Internationally or here in NZ. There is a segment of society that has been marginalised historically, and now corporate America is struggling around how do we bring these folks from the margins back to the centre of the economy. This is an economic imperative more than a social imperative. Thank you so much for your time. YOUR FEEDBACK AFTER THE BREAK. AND THE HITS AND MISSES OF THE POLITICAL WEEK. WE'LL LET THE PANEL HAVE THEIR FINAL SAY NEXT. YOUR FEEDBACK NOW. MANY OF YOU HAVE WRITTEN IN ABOUT METIRIA TUREI'S SELF-CONFESSED BENEFIT FRAUD. 'PERHAPS THIS QUESTION SHOULD BE ASKED OF ALL MPS. 'SORRY, GREEN PARTY, YOU ARE NOT FOR ME.' ALEX CLARKSON EMAILED, 'IS TO SHINE A LIGHT ON A PUNITIVE, 'SHAME-BASED AND INADEQUATE WELFARE SYSTEM 'AND HAS SUBMITTED A POLICY TO FIX IT. 'SHE HAS DONE A BRAVE AND GREAT THING.' Time to talk to the panel. Political hits and misses of the week. Claire Robinson, you have a hat that you have been sharing. My hit of the week would be Sean Spicer leaving the White House. I do feel sorry for him and I think he has been putting up with more than most public officials have to in working for Donald Trump. He is finally got to the end of his tether and left. My mess would be the Yale University research that is placed NZ at the top of the tables in homelessness. It is not a league table that we want to be the top off. Even though the methodology might be challenged, it is shameful. John Tamihere, your hit of the week. He has been around since 1978, running an outrageously good campaign in the regions. Winston? Of course. He is like Lazarus and he keeps coming back. I am deeply respectful of his staying power. His ability to just get out there on election time. Like or whatever, I think he is a remarkable politician, regardless of whether you like as policies. That is the big tick for him. The mess for me has to be he has taken an egregious approach to mental health in patients, Rather than seeing it as mental health and education approach. Your political hat of the week? I chair the NZ film commission. We are about to start the amazing to 3 weeks of seeing films. There are some amazing NZ films. Kim.Com, support the NZ for ministry by going to 2 weeks of films. My mess, I got stuck down south over 48 hours between Queenstown and Dunedin in Christchurch. I want everyone to think about those poor families, the farmers, the businesses that have been flooded. It has been a heavy two days of rain and there are a lot of people that will be hurting. Very quickly, going back to Winston, are you convinced he is going to play a part in this government? I think he will, it is looking likely that he will hold the balance of power, unless the opportunities party manages to increase its support between now and the election. There is a scenario in which you could have national and coalition with the opportunities party. Thank you very much to our panel. THANKS FOR WATCHING AND THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS. THOSE WERE THE QUESTIONS, AND THOSE WERE THE ANSWERS. THAT'S Q+A. SEE YOU NEXT SUNDAY MORNING AT 9. COPYRIGHT ABLE 2017