That’s certainly what workers in Invercargill were telling me at the A&P show over the weekend.
The latest headlines show hundreds of people are applying for the same jobs while mills and meatworks close, school lunch jobs are lost in small communities, charities on the frontline are facing funding cuts and record numbers of Kiwis are leaving for Australia.
The official numbers show 33,000 more people are unemployed under the National government.
While many struggle to find work as a result of this government’s choices, there are also further challenges to come for those who are lucky enough to still have a job.
These challenges are being driven by the government, headed by an Act minister and include some concerning changes many Kiwis might not have heard about.
Already, the minimum wage has gone backwards in real terms for two years running — despite the ongoing cost of living challenges and official advice that it should be higher.
The reality of those high costs, unemployment and ongoing cuts to services is thousands more families living day-to-day, under stress and somehow trying to put food on the table.
But that’s not all. National is taking away the ability for some workers to make personal grievances.
It has said it will make sick leave proportional to worked hours, effectively reducing sick leave for part-time workers.
National has made the workplace more uncertain for new employees by reinstating 90-day trials.
It is making it harder for workers to unionise and ask for better pay, by allowing pay to be docked for strike action — even for things as minor as wearing a union T-shirt.
Despite all the evidence women get paid less than men, it has scrapped the pay equity taskforce set up to help level the playing field and stopped work on pay transparency.
And on top of cutting back flexible funding for the disabled community — the handling of which saw a minister lose her job last year — it is also removing the minimum wage top-up for disabled workers.
This means if a disabled worker doesn’t work, they have less available support, and if they do choose to work, they can be paid less than minimum wage.
It seems if you aren’t a landlord or a tobacco company, who received $2.9 billion and $216 million respectively in tax breaks, you’re not on the government’s radar.
As always, some communities are hit much harder by National’s reckless cuts.
Māori unemployment has reached a staggering 9.7% and Pasifika unemployment is at 10.5%.
In Mosgiel, some of the schools used local businesses to cook and distribute lunches. Those doing these roles were known to all of the children and parents and were so well-loved. But because the meals are now being mass-produced by Compass, they’ve lost those contracts and their businesses are suffering.
As a mother and as a local MP, I am hurting for the many people around the country right now with stories like these. But I am also resolved to know New Zealand can be better.
The first step is opposing the government’s reckless changes to workers’ rights and making sure it is held to account for every job cut on its watch.
