Pacific communities let down

The Government needs to be straight up and accept they have failed to deliver for Pacific communities, Labour’s Pacific Island Affairs spokesperson Su’a William Sio says.

“It is disingenuous for the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga to list off a raft of wonderful undertakings that will supposedly lift the skills of Pacific peoples when he has little understanding of the real issues they are facing.

“Asked in Parliament today whether he was taking the credit for raising the number of Pacific youth, aged 15-24, not in education, employment or training from 16.7 per cent in 2008 to 20.1 per cent in 2013, he didn’t even know the figures existed.

“They are supplied by Statistics New Zealand, a government agency, and they are frightening.

“National is good at trumpeting things they are supposedly doing, but on the ground where it counts most Pacific people are not seeing any improvement at all.”

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