Bennett’s token assistance won’t help Pacific jobless

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett’s announcement of a $1 million employment assistance package for Pacific job seekers is ‘too little, almost too late’, and shows how embarrassed National is about its Pacific employment track record, Labour's Pacific Island Affairs spokesperson Luamanuvao Winnie Laban said today.

Winnie Laban said the Pacific unemployment rate of 14.1 percent continues to run at more than double the national rate which has now climbed to 6.8 percent.

“After months of Paula Bennett and Pacific Island Affairs Minister Georgina te Heuheu doing nothing to help ease the dreadful plight of Pacific people, suddenly Ms Bennett has come up with a million dollars the day after the Government revealed unemployment skyrocketed by 12 percent in the past quarter,” Winnie Laban said.

“A million dollars, three months after the funding was first announced as part of a small employment fund in the Budget, is better than nothing, but it works out at less than $100 a person for the 11,500 unemployed Pacific people.

“Less than $100 a head, while marginally better than what National has provided so far, is not going to buy many of what Paula Bennett calls ‘targeted work programmes.

“Paula Bennett says the money is ‘an important investment in the potential of Pacific people, to contribute to their communities and the wider nation’.

“That’s a laughable claim, but look to the Government making more such paltry announcements over coming days to help ‘ease’ Maori and ethnic unemployment as well.

"It seems that nothing will make this Government take action on unemployment, and the most vulnerable people are those suffering the most. The Government has no credible plan to build a stronger economy and create jobs. A million dollars won’t cure that.”

ENDS

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