Greens Support More Pressure On Labour / Alliance Over EUB

Green Party MP Sue Bradford said the Greens fully supported a national day of action by students to put more pressure on the Government to reintroduce the Emergency Unemployment Benefit over the summer.

"Both Labour and the Alliance have tried to paint themselves as the 'student friendly party' and have both campaigned on reintroducing this crucial benefit for students," said Ms Bradford.

"However both Labour and the Alliance voted down my bill late last year which has been the only serious attempt to have this benefit restored. The Greens see this action as a major betrayal of trust and breach of faith with students.

"It is quite obvious through watching the actions of both Labour and the Alliance on this issue that the pressure students are putting on these parties is very much needed," said Ms Bradford.

"The Green Party applaud the New Zealand University Students Association and the various individual associations for running a campaign on this issue but we urge students to remain aware that what some politicians say and what they then do are often two completely different things," she said.

"The prime example of this is the Alliance campaigning on reintroducing the EUB before the election, then breaking their promise through voting down my bill - for reasons never explained - and then running around campaigning on reintroducing it again," she said.

Ms Bradford said it was disgusting to see Alliance posters around universities urging the return of the EUB. "Given that the Alliance is part of this Government and they have already blown the prime opportunity, just who are they calling on to do what?" she asked.

Ms Bradford said the Alliance campaign was effectively an effort to re-write history.

"As things stand the Green Party are the only party that have been consistently pushing for the reintroduction of the EUB - both inside and outside of parliament - and we will continue to do so. In the meantime we are fully behind students in their day of protest action tomorrow," said Ms Bradford.

Sue Bradford MP: 04 470 6720, 025 243 4239 Jonathan Hill (press secretary): 04 470 6719, 021 440 090

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