Christopher Luxon has defended his party's beneficiary policy after it came under fire from other political parties and welfare groups.
National announced on Tuesday it would introduce a traffic light system to make it "crystal clear" to beneficiaries what their obligations are.
People in the Green (compliant) category would be meeting their obligations to prepare for or find work. There would be no change to their benefit.
People in the Orange (some risk) category would have one or two breaches of their obligations and would face additional requirements and targeted support.
People in the Red (high-risk) category have breached their obligations three times and will face sanctions such as benefit reductions, benefit suspension, money management and mandatory community work experience.
But the criticism was quick to come in following the announcement with the Green Party calling it "cruel" and saying National is "deliberately and heartlessly" choosing to make life harder for thousands of people.
Luxon – the National Party leader – appeared on AM on Wednesday and defended the policy, saying employment is the best way to get out of hardship.
He told AM co-host Laura Tupou the policy is just for people on the Jobseeker unemployment benefit not those on the supported living payment or a disability payment benefit - because they cannot work.
"All we're saying to people is, look, we're going to be clear on the consequences because you might have some genuine reasons for why you can't show up at a job interview," he said.
"If you are consistently not showing up for job interviews, not taking jobs that have been presented, not doing everything you can to meet your obligations, then I'm sorry, we are going to have some sanctions."
Luxon said the data National has shows 85 percent of people on the Jobseeker unemployment benefit are compliant and this policy won't affect them.
"There are rights and responsibilities. Rights to get support and help in between jobs but you've got a responsibility that you're doing everything you possibly can to get yourself a job or to get yourself prepared and ready for a job," he said.
"The goal is actually to get people off welfare and into work... there will always be people in transition. We get that. But here's the real problem - in this Government, when you've had 3.2 percent unemployment, lots of record job shortages up and down the country, every region, every business, every sector has been talking about it and the Government has put 60,000 more people on unemployment benefits at a time when we have lots of job shortages.
"We always want to be working hard to get people off welfare, out of job seeker benefits into work, particular when there are lots of jobs available that's always a good thing."
But it comes as New Zealand has experienced recorded low unemployment, with the rate currently sitting at 3.6 percent.
On top of that, the latest data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for the June quarter shows an 8.8 percent decline in online job advertisements compared to the previous quarter and down 22.3 percent compared to June 2022.
Luxon said New Zealand's history shows we've often had low levels of unemployment and lots of job shortages leading to higher immigration.
"The opportunity the Government has missed is to move people off welfare into work. If you can't do it at a time when there are lots of jobs available, that's a big problem," he said.
"The reality is I can tell you if you're on a lifetime on the unemployment benefit, that is a bad outlook for you. A, that's not a good quality of living."
Following Luxon's interview people were quick to email in to AM and hit out at National's policy.
One person said she was on the Jobseeker benefit but has a sickness so it's unreliable to get a job and hold it down. She said National's policy "stresses me out". She wishes she didn't have to live on the benefit but that's how her life has panned out.
Another person said, "does Luxon know over 100 people are applying for one job, some people on the Jobseeker benefit have paid their taxes for over 40 years and a lot of employers don't want to employ 60-year-old people".
But despite the criticism, Luxon said this is National is showing "care" to them.
"This is the unemployment benefit we are talking about, it's the only benefit we're talking about here. You are deemed capable of working. You can be working tomorrow or within a two-year period and all we ask is two simple obligations for that deal to work," he said.
"One is you show up and make an effort to get a job and actually do everything you can in your power and your responsibility to do that and your second responsibility if you're not ready for work today is to get ready for work tomorrow.
"That's a simple deal and we think that's rights and responsibility... but if you're not even trying to do those two basic obligations and you're deemed able to work and you should be working... but you can't actually take a job interview and not show up, that's not cool."
Watch the full interview with Christopher Luxon in the video above.
