Local Govt | National News Video | Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Search
Sky Tower fireworks display 2017
© Scoop Media
The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp amongst young job seekers. The surge in migration has boosted the ranks of the jobless, and is depressing wage growth. As usual this government seems utterly clueless about what it has wrought.
In figures released yesterday from Statistics New Zealand, unemployment rates for Māori hit a four-year high of 8.2%, up by 1.4%. Similarly, rates for Pacific peoples have surged by 1.5% to reach 7.4%. “These figures are an absolute embarrassment for this government with increasing unemployment under their watch,” said Employment spokesperson, Takutai Tarsh Kemp.
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can rebuild the economy and get Kiwis into homes faster,” Mr Penk says.
New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of our Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today.
Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" agenda, which they say threatens decades of industrial progress in Aotearoa’s workplaces.
Today’s unemployment figures, the highest we have seen in three years, show that the Government’s dated and dismal politics are having a marked impact across our communities.
“Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act was brought in by the last National Government to protect Māori children. Repealing it is wrong, and this urgent Waitangi Tribunal interim report should help National wake up to the fact that ACT’s policy should not be government policy,” Willow-Jean Prime said.