Issue 20 | August 13,2012 | critic.co.nz

RICH DOMINO’S SIGN-WAvERS GET RICHER
By Margot Taylor
Students have earned $780,735 more
through the Student Job Search scheme
in the last 12 months than in the previous
12-month period.
Figures released earlier this week show that
students earned $3,785,938 through SJS for the
12 months to August, which is 26% higher than
the $3,005,203 earned in the same period last
year. However, while students who are employed
are earning more, the number of students placed
in jobs has declined by 14%. This decline has
been attributed to an increase in the number of
students looking for jobs in the tough economic
climate.
Students’ need for extra money has
already been indicated by the 36% increase
in enrolments at SJS. It is expected that the
number of students using SJS to find part-time
employment will continue to increase as recent
Government changes to student allowance criteria
are implemented.
SJS is an OUSA-provided service. OUSA
President Logan Edgar described the scheme’s
latest figures as “positive, because students
By Zane Pocock
New Zealand’s Community Law Centres are
engulfed in a shroud of mystery after the
Ministry of Justice indicated that it will move to
cut down to 10 and 15 Community Law contracts
across the country, instead of the current regime
of 25 individually funded centres.
Supervising Solicitor Caryl O’Connor told
Critic that “we’re not sure... how that is going to
be managed.” The Ministry has indicated that it
wants to set up an 0800 line that people can call
for advice, and O’Connor says that “they are also
making some kind of assessment (and we don’t
know how) on what services need to be supplied
face-to-face across the country.”
The Ministry is expected to release a funding
document between late September and early
October, and will ask Law Centres to apply to be
are getting paid more.” “Worker weeks” (Critic
doesn’t know what that means) have increased
by 22%, and earnings per placement have
increased by an average of 46%, from $1,195 to
$1,744 per placement.
However, Edgar acknowledged that there
was still work to be done. “Basically there’s
8,000 students actively trying to find jobs on SJS,
and pretty much one in four gets a job.” OUSA’s
press release was designed to gloat about the
statistics but also to encourage “employers in
town to list more jobs”, and to help employers
“realise that students are real keen to get
into work while they’re studying.” Edgar says
employers should jump at the chance to employ
“future doctors and lawyers for cheap as while
they’re still studying.”
OUSA has indicated that it intends to make
SJS bigger and better through the improvement
of the onsite SJS office. Edgar even suggested
that an old arcade machine might be turned into
a SJS kiosk, to make the job hunt “a bit more fun”.
Regardless of whether you consider it
“fun” or a chore, recent figures suggest that the
job-hunting game will continue to be played by
more and more financially struggling scarfies.
COMMUNITY LAW CENTRES FACE JUDGMENT
the provider of these services. “We won’t find
out until the end of January whether or not we
would be one of those providers,” O’Connor says.
Thus far, there is also no indication of how much
funding there will be for these providers.
Currently there are six Community Law
Centres in the South Island, including two in
Dunedin, and it is unknown how many contracts
will be supplied across the island under the new
scheme. “We don’t think any demographic data
that the ministry are currently relying on is the
proper base to make such decisions,” O’Connor
says, “because the South Island always
misses out on those kinds of income- and
population-based data gathering exercises. So
we’re worried we’ll have to cut services, we’re
worried we’ll lose some Law Centres, and we’re
worried that others will have to merge.” Further,
“the Ngai Tahu Maori Law Centre is under
critic.co.nz
NEWs
a completely different funding scheme, and
currently we haven’t even heard whether they
will stay on the map.”
The proposed changes have come to light
in the face of an NZIER report, which included a
cost-benefit analysis of Law Centres across the
country. The report indicated that for an investment
of $10.97 million per year, the New Zealand
taxpayer is receiving a return of between $36.23
million and $43.53 million by settling disputes
before any other resources need to be used.
“We’re doing a really good job,” O’Connor affirms.
O’Connor also points out the effect the new
scheme will have on students. “If the scope of
the organisation is going to be reduced, the
opportunity for student input is going to reduce.
Although I’d have to say that my ideal would be
that the student volunteer-ship would be the
last operation standing if everything else went.”
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