AUTSA categorically opposes ACT’s proposal to freeze
the minimum wage and reduce the youth training
rate.
Students are drowning under the cost of living.
They are struggling to pay rent, put food on the table, get
to campus and meet the basic costs of getting an
education.
foodbank a day after it was stocked, 10th of September
(Photo/James Portegys)
At a time
when students desperately need a lifeline, freezing the
minimum wage risks pushing their heads further
underwater.
The scale of student hardship is already
significant. Earlier this year, RNZ reported that the number
of students using a foodbank at AUT had risen from around
100 in 2020 to more than 1,800 in 2025, with around three
quarters of those students being international
students.
AUTSA President James Portegys said those
figures should serve as a wake up call to anyone proposing
policies that hold down the incomes of low paid
workers.
“Students are drowning. They are struggling
to stay afloat, and ACT’s answer is to freeze the wages of
some of the people who can least afford it. Students need a
lifeline, not another weight around their
ankles.”
“We have seen the number of students
using a foodbank at AUT go from around 100 in 2020 to more
than 1,800 in 2025. That should tell us everything we need
to know about the financial position students are already
in.”
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“You cannot solve student poverty by holding
down students’ incomes. When rent, groceries, transport
and virtually every other basic cost continues to rise,
freezing someone’s wage means asking them to go
backwards.”
“If a student can work, study and do
everything we ask of them and still have to walk through the
doors of a foodbank to eat, the problem is not that their
wage is too high.”
“For years, students have been
trying to keep their heads above water as the cost of living
has risen around them. Freezing the minimum wage does
nothing to lower that water. It simply makes it harder for
students to stay afloat.”
“We are particularly
concerned about students who already face barriers in the
labour market. International students make up around three
quarters of those using a foodbank at AUT. Disabled
students, international students and young workers should
not be expected to carry the burden of policies designed to
reduce labour costs.”
“A low wage economy is not
something New Zealand should aspire to. Students deserve the
opportunity to work, study and actually afford to
live.”
“Students are already making impossible
decisions between food, rent, transport and their education.
There is only so much you can cut from someone’s weekly
budget before there is simply nothing
left.”
“AUTSA will categorically oppose this
policy. Students are already underwater. Freezing the
minimum wage while their living costs continue to rise risks
dragging them even further down.”
“Students do not
need their wages frozen. They need some breathing room. When
the cost of everything else keeps rising, standing still
means sinking.”
AUTSA believes addressing student
hardship requires improving students’ ability to meet
their basic living costs and access meaningful employment,
rather than suppressing the incomes of low paid
workers.
Students are already struggling to stay
afloat. Government policy should be focused on helping them
get their heads above water, not adding another weight
around their
ankles.
