Alex Martin: Under 30s 'being robbed of their future' | Herald NOW

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Budget 2026 is landing at a time when many under 30s probably already feel like they're running just to stand still from rent, groceries, power bills, the dream of owning a [snorts] first home affordability is still one of those big pressures facing younger New Zealanders if they're still sticking around that's of course the case. So what if anything in this budget will actually make life easier for the next generation the ones that will actually have to live with the consequences of what's being talked about here for far longer than some of us joining me now are the co-hosts of the both sides now podcast Eve McCallum and Alex Madden. Kilda welcome Kilda Kilda welcome to you both great to have you here Eve.

[00:00:35]>> Thank you for having us.

[00:00:36]>> And great to have you as well Alex.

[00:00:39]Big fan of the podcast so this was a captain's call but like Anna Bremen used to say getting you guys in here because I think it's awesome to see people engaging with politics and in a mature sensible kind of rational way being able to talk side by side and thrash through the ideas. A budget is a very political thing. Eve I'll start with you.

[00:00:58]Sensible, responsible, looks good. I mean are you are you liking what you see as someone who's got a future in this country?

[00:01:04]>> Yeah look I think it's a pretty good job it's really tough times and I think Nicola Willis has done a great job. I think as someone who's young and this will be a slightly weird thing to say but I was really pleased to see her getting stuck into New Zealand first and Labour about superannuation. When I look at what you know young people get out of a budget it's not just the here and now and our in our 20s and 30s it's what we're going to have to do down the line and you know superannuation is a massive bill that people of our generation are going to have to pay for. So I really really commend Nicola Willis on getting stuck into New Zealand first and Labour about that.

[00:01:31]>> Wow. Alex.

[00:01:33]>> I think this is the beauty of our podcast we tend to disagree a fair bit and I think this is one of the those times where I do disagree with Eve.

[00:01:41]Um I feel like we're sort of at these under 30 year olds are being a bit robbed of our future. We've seen the complete slashing of the fees free for example I think that's a really big one.

[00:01:52]Um I see a real transformation from nine years ago when I was lucky enough to be 18 before the 2017 election and that was when Labour brought in their policy of first year fees free and suddenly all of my peers were suddenly invested and intrigued by voting, by policy, by politics. There was something to actually look forward to. It addressed us.

[00:02:17]>> It worked, I suppose.

[00:02:18]>> Exactly.

[00:02:20]>> Election year, I mean as you know as an election year incentive possibly some people might say cynically but here if if it's addressing a need too. But I guess is is that is that model still working?

[00:02:30]You know, we're hearing so much about how tertiary education has to shift, how how um the kind of jobs that people are doing are changing. Do you think that that that there's that confidence that within this the kind of things that they're focusing on secondary education stuff, shifting it to trades and so on rather than uh backing fees free and all tertiary, that's going to build the kind of New Zealand that New Zealanders will want to live in?

[00:02:52]>> Yeah, look I I'm guess it's probably I'm not 100% sure on that one. I think you know, trades and students are two slightly different things. I think 100% you're right that fees free it wasn't working. It was paying for people who could probably already afford to go to university to go to university. I was actually hoping to see potentially some sort of accommodation supplement so people could afford to go in those first year halls university cuz I think that the reason people can't afford to go to university isn't because of those fees.

[00:03:14]They go on my interest free student loan.

[00:03:16]Uh but I think in terms of the trade it's great to see that. I do think that we have probably I don't want to say too many but you know, lots of people come out of university with degrees that don't lead to a to a direct job path and they've got you know, 30, 40,000 dollars worth of debt. So I am really pleased to see that we have sort of broadening the horizons and trying to help people do other things other than just go to university.

[00:03:36]>> from you there Alex. What was the bit that you [clears throat] liked?

[00:03:40]>> Um I do agree with Eve to an extent. Um obviously we do know that it is good to invest into our trades. I'm kind of wondering what about our engineers that want to go to university that, you know, make all of the blueprints for the infrastructure that we desperately need to invest in. Um I don't know. I think I again like I've got a 17-year-old brother who is currently tossing up between whether he goes into a hall of residence this year or not. Um and for me, we we both spent 5 years at university doing a double degree. I came out with $70,000 student debt. $30,000 of that was just on living costs. And I was working a part-time job throughout that, too. So, it's the living costs, I think, as well.

[00:04:25]We can agree that perhaps fees free didn't meet all of its objectives.

[00:04:29]Ultimately, it still shaved off a bit for the debt that I've come into post them. Um but also there aren't jobs there for young people to come out and to come into into the workforce.

[00:04:40]>> And I mean, judging on the sort of the unemployment figures we're seeing, I think they're at 5.5 hit 4.5.4 is what the Reserve Bank was talking about yesterday. Things are going to look pretty pretty bleak, uh particularly in in for youth unemployment for the next little while, right?

[00:04:55]>> Youth unemployment is bigger. It's We're it's about three times that of the other wider working population. And so, yeah, grad roles specifically with the public sector cuts, too, right? 66% of those have been gone.

[00:05:10]Um so, there aren't roles there. And yeah, we're looking at about nearly nearly 15% uh youth unemployment, as well.

[00:05:18]>> I guess and that that's future employment paths sort of cut off, but on the other hand, it's also some handy savings that we've made in this budget that we can reap- reapportion elsewhere, right?

[00:05:26]>> Yeah, no, you can't, you know, get behind the fact I'm sorry, not get behind the fact that we needed to make some savings. You know, New Zealand hasn't got a lot of money, and again, sounds very lame for people in their 20s to be worried about debt, but you know, as New Zealand, we're a small country.

[00:05:38]Uh we can't afford to carry a lot of debt, or else we have massive interest just as to the savings. But I do want, you know, build on the fact that um my slight concern with the public sector cuts is, you know, there are a lot of grad roles in the public sector, and I think if people get their grad role um outside of New Zealand, then there's much less incentive to ever come back to New Zealand. Whereas, I think if you can spend the first 2 or 3 years in New Zealand, be that in Wellington working in a policy role, they're more likely to come back here, and I think that'll help with the brain drain issue. So, I am a bit concerned about where young people are going to go post university.

[00:06:07]>> Budget 2026, landing at a time when the under 30s have really, really been doing it tough. Still here in the studio with me uh the hosts of uh Both Sides Now, Eve McCallum and Alex Martin. Uh KiwiSaver, big deal for all of us, apparently. The the the the ticket to a future prosperity. Didn't hear much about it in this budget so far, Eve.

[00:06:27]>> No, I haven't heard much at all. I think I would say it was a big time last time around that and the increase has gone to 3.5%, which has been really good. And actually, surprisingly, I've barely noticed it. But, I would love to see KiwiSaver become compulsory. I think that's kind of, you know, our big ticket to helping this country out a lot if we can get people retired saving from a young age for their retirement. It'll also give them government some money to help them invest in other things as well. You know, that's one of the big reasons Australia are so much more don't so much better than New Zealand is because they have that, you know, really strong retirement saving scheme going on. So, yeah, I would have definitely like to have seen more on KiwiSaver.

[00:06:57]>> Surprising number of people seem quite interested in NZ First's plan to try and sort of push it out to, I guess, sort of basically babies, kind of thing. Is that the kind of move that you'd like to see, too?

[00:07:07]>> Yeah, well, I'm really lucky my parents set up KiwiSaver for me when I think it became available.

[00:07:13]Um so, I'm really lucky I've been sort of earning and accumulating that. And now I'm in a position where I can contribute a lot more now that I'm in the working world. So, that's great. Um yeah, I think we need to really encourage that sort of investment um into ourselves, into our people, um into yourself sort of culture in New Zealand, as well.

[00:07:32]>> So, we had a pretty responsible, uh sensible budget, but is this one where, Alex, you feel that youth have been heard?

[00:07:39]>> No, I don't think so. I think there's probably a little bit more for the boomers than there are for the Gen Z folk or the millennial folk.

[00:07:48]Um and shout out to the boomers. My dad's one of them. So.

[00:07:51]>> [laughter] >> But no, I I I don't really think there's anything that's going to grab um under 30-year-old sort of attention or anything and that might we might see the repercussions of that with youth voter turnout later on.

[00:08:04]>> Yeah, I mean look, it's been pretty hard to go give youth a big boost because the country hasn't got any money. But as I said at the start, you know, I think don't just look to what the here and now is but you need to look sort of to our future and this government, you know, and this budget is trying to help secure the future. Uh so, you know, look long-term as well and it's which is I acknowledge really hard at the moment when the times are really tough but it's not just about the here and now, you know, what's right in front of us. It's long-term as well.

[00:08:25]>> Great way to leave it there. Thanks very much. That's Eve McCallum and Alex Martin, co-hosts of the podcast Both Sides.