Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan says he has walked in the shoes of most people. He has been unemployed, worked in a shearing gang, started a business and worked in real estate. But it is passion for getting young people into jobs that makes Mr Cadogan the Otago Daily Times business leader of the year. Business editor Dene Mackenzie reports.
When Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan looks around his constituency, he sees only opportunities, not barriers. His work with young Clutha people wanting to work has received national attention.
Mr Cadogan told the Otago Daily Times that at every stage in his life, he had a passion for everyone to get on in society.
''I have walked in most people's shoes. I understand the challenges everyone faces. But I see the flexibility and opportunities everywhere in my district.''
The Ready, Steady, Work programme, run by the mayor, has meant a large buy-in from the community. Mr Cadogan praised the local employers who were prepared to go along to meetings with young unemployed people and talk to them about the opportunities available in their respective businesses.
But also, the young people had been prepared to turn up to the five-week course, get themselves clean and start learning new skills, and were prepared to put an effort into not only finding work but also staying employed.
As the interview continued, Mr Cadogan drifted into one story after another about the young people who had found jobs after attending the Ready, Steady, Work programme. But he had one special story to tell.
The programme had been expanded to bring young people down from Dunedin. The Community Trust of Otago chipped in with a bus to take the young people down and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) had been supportive in every way, he said.
A shy young woman had wanted to be a ''checkout chick'' but she had been turned down by Dunedin supermarkets. Mr Cadogan could tell she needed some motivation and talked to her about her goals. She wanted to work in a supermarket on the checkouts but had lost confidence after being knocked back.
She did not want to move to Balclutha for a job, because of family reasons, so Mr Cadogan got the owners of the Balclutha New World to talk to her. The owners then talked to friends who owned a New World in Dunedin and the young woman was now in full-time work.
When she had to go and tell the MSD person she had found a job, she skipped across the room.
''We have brilliant employers - not just a couple - but lots. You put employers and young people in the same room together and the rest will come. It is not complicated.
''We have been doing this for four years. My passion is to not have any kid without a job. Some kids put up their social defences, one gave me the fingers, but scratch through and you will find a kid who wants to get on with life.''
Mr Cadogan was adamant kids were mostly doing their best and government departments were doing their best, but society was letting them down by slapping a label on them saying, ''It's not our problem''.
''I would love to create a world where everyone is doing the best they can. Everyone.''
The Clutha economy had the opportunities to create jobs and get young people contributing financially to society, he said. If young people found jobs and stayed in their communities, regional economies would go from strength to strength.
The wealth was in the jobs each region created. Nothing was being gained by just following others, he said.
Part of the solution was having shared ideas. Dunedin had people struggling to find work but Clutha had 500 jobs on offer. The two centres were only 80km apart.
There was no need to be overcomplicated. No-one contemplated everyone seeking a job would move to Balclutha, or other South Otago centres. However, there were ways to solve problems for people wanting a job.
Clutha was facing a new challenge around the dairy industry and the region needed a better understanding of the implications and potential problems facing the industry through a lower payout next year, Mr Cadogan said.
The industry was changing quickly and Clutha must take note of the implications for the wider economy and the jobs that might be at risk.
The second part of the challenge facing regional economies was the affordability of living in smaller centres.
''OK, let's look at the minimum wage but let's also look at affordability, which is not going to be solved by the minimum wage. Life's bills go up faster than our incomes.
''People I respect aren't making ends meet. Single pensioners are being forced to cut back on food a bit in tight times. They choose between cutting back on Sky or eating less.''
Councils had a moral obligation to align rates with the ability of people to pay. That was not a political statement, just a fact, Mr Cadogan said.
Small communities felt the pain the hardest. Clinton rates had increased by nearly 300% since 1998. A pensioner's income had increased 66% and wage and salary earners had a 20% increase.
''You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand the pain.''
As the chairman of the Mayors Task Force for Jobs, Mr Cadogan said he gained an insight into other communities and knew what he was seeing in Clinton was symptomatic across rural New Zealand.
From the Far North to Mangere and down to the deep South, New Zealand was awash with jobs and the forecast was that by 2020, there would be more jobs than people able to work. The problem was, who would pay for the services declining communities needed to survive?
The Ready, Steady, Work campaign was aimed at having full-time jobs filled by young people wanting to stay in their communities, which would grow through new generations being born and staying, he said.
It was a long game, but one worth pursuing.
Moving back to unemployed youths, Mr Cadogan said he wanted to see lives changed. Population growth came from filling jobs and councils had to focus on both issues.
Milton, for example, had flexibility in its employment. There were good companies in Milton able to take on young people and train them.
Meat processor Silver Fern Farms was a wonderful backstop for jobs in the region but there were other willing employers, he said.
The three areas Mr Cadogan concentrated on were: apprenticeships; skilled training, giving young people world-class skills; and earn as you learn.
''The group which stays long enough, that's where we get population growth. Too often young people try, get knocked back and leave. There is room here for everyone.
''Give a kid a chance for self-determination and they instantly connect. They consume, they spend in their communities.''
Bryan Cadogan
- Mayor of Clutha District.
- Aged 55, married for more than 30 years to Allyson.
- Family: a son and a daughter.
- Played competition rugby in 2014, although he was displaying an injury that required hospital attention the day before the interview.
- Loves sport. Used to enjoy surf fishing and whitebaiting but has done neither since being elected mayor in 2008.
- Works about 80 hours a week but loves every minute.
- Has lots to achieve, including rating affordability and having every willing young person in a job.
Ready, steady, work
- Five-week course for young unemployed people in Clutha.
- Being extended to other areas.
- In Whangarei, the mayor used the Clutha programme to set up a speed-dating-type meeting with employers and people out of work for a 60% success rate.
- Takes five weeks to build up trust.
- Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan calls on friends and colleagues to talk about their struggles with early life and how they have made a success of their own businesses.
- People can go from having $20 a week left after the dole to earning $800 a week.
- Breakfast is provided, along with physical training to be fit for new jobs. Life skills play an important part of the training.
- Praise for the Ministry of Social Development and the Community Trust of Otago, with both organisations going out of their way to be supportive and helpful.
- Numbers attending in Clutha have dropped as attendees have found employment.
