ACT Social Welfare Spokesman and Northland based - MP Dr Muriel Newman is seeking an urgent meeting with WINZ Northland Commissioner Sharon Brownie over the Department's bleak projections for Northlanders who are out of work.

Work and Income New Zealand's Northland regional business plan is predicting more Northlanders will join the unemployment register and the region's economy will remain flat for the rest of the year at least.

"I am seeking an urgent meeting with Sharon Brownie to discuss this report and WINZ initiatives to get Northlanders the jobs they need.

"Our region cannot afford to have 11.4% of our people out of work. We certainly cannot just sit back and brace ourselves for a rise in unemployment. Our challenge is to turn the predictions around.

"WINZ is confident economic prospects for this region will improve with spin offs from events such as the America's Cup. We cannot put our faith in those events to turn the Northland economy around.

"We must back our own local businesses and industries to provide much needed jobs and put the economy on a sustained growth path.

"Ask any of our small businesses why they are not employing more people and they will tell you it's because of Government red tape and bureaucracy. They are being hit every which way by high taxes and compliance costs.

"We need to get Wellington out of Northland and keep more of what we earn here to create jobs and support our own businesses, families and communities," said Muriel Newman.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>