In response to the Government position stated in Parliament yesterday that only unemployed people who ‘want’ to work will work, Dr Muriel Newman, ACT’s Welfare Spokesman, said her party has a completely different approach to unemployment.

“Every person is capable of doing something,” said Dr Newman, “and that activity should lead to a full-time job.

“Getting a job is not easy these days; it needs a full time commitment. If everyone who is unemployed was required to spend 40 hours a week engaged in education, training, job search, community work or other activities designed to help them become job ready, their chances of successfully finding paid work would increase significantly.

“This Government seems to accept that there will be some people who will never work. In taking that approach the Government is condemning those people to life on the scrap-heap. That’s not good enough.

“Unlike this Government, we believe everyone is capable of working and making a valuable contribution. It is crucial that all New Zealanders who have suffered from unemployment can become independent of the state and get back their lives,” Dr Newman said.

ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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