22 MAY 2015

Budget Fails to Deliver for Regional North

The government has failed to deliver a much needed boost for New Zealand’s struggling regions like Whangarei and Northland which remain crippled by unemployment.

“Whangarei and the Northland region have 9.9 per cent of the population unemployed. Nationally, 51,000 people are out of work in regional New Zealand,” says New Zealand First MP Pita Paraone, who is based in Whangarei.

“New Zealand First has calculated that the Regional Research Institute funding announced yesterday by the government amounts to only $9 in development funding, for each regional New Zealander, each year.

“This is simply not enough.

“What is worse, the Northland region has already been researched. Opportunities for development in forestry, dairy and aquaculture were identified in February’s Tai Tokerau Growth Study.

“What the North needed was actual investment in identified opportunities. But this Government has once more failed to deliver,” says Mr Paraone.

ENDS

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