03/06/08
Tamaki Community Board.

Tamaki Community Board Offers To Pay Important Mayoral Membership

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE USE.

The Tamaki Community Board has offered to pay the $5,000 fee for the Auckland City Council's 2008–2009 membership of the Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs.

At the Auckland City Council Annual Plan hearings today Tamaki Community Board Chair Kate Sutton said that the Tamaki Community Board would pay the membership if the Auckland City Council were too short-sighted to pay.

In March, Mayor John Banks announced that the Auckland City Council would be withdrawing from the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs.

Ms Sutton said, "Membership of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs is $5,000 per year and membership means that we can access hundreds of thousands of dollars of Ministry of Social Development Funding for the people of Auckland.

"Although $5,000 is a lot of money for a Community Board to pay, the members of the Tamaki Community Board believe that it is important that Auckland acts like a world-class city and joins with the other Mayors of New Zealand to help all our young people be employed. I also think it's foolish to not access government funding when we can.

The Tamaki Ward community was due to receive funding for a Youth Transitions service to help young school leavers back into school, into work or to gain further study. Without Taskforce membership, Tamaki is unlikely to get government funding".

ENDS

Additional information

The Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs is a nationwide network working on the issues of job creation and skill development in local communities. Begun in 2000 with 7 Mayors, the Taskforce now has a membership of 71, which is 97% of all New Zealand Mayors.

The Taskforce's vision is that all young people under 25 years of age have the opportunity and are encouraged to be in paid work, in training or education, or in productive activities in our communities.

The Mayors' Task Force for Jobs makes a significant contribution to job creation and employment growth in the Auckland region through a number of local cadet, apprenticeship and job assistance schemes, particularly directed at unemployed young people and to some extent at migrants. Membership also helps develop a climate of co-operation between member local authorities to solve wider problems such as skills shortages.

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