Wednesday, 28 March 2007

New Zealand's neglected underclass - our future

United Future deputy leader Judy Turner is calling for a significant change in focus, towards policies that will help young Kiwis who are bearing the brunt of problems absent to previous generations.

"Today we are reminded that home ownership is simply a pipe-dream for young New Zealanders who have or will soon be starting families. We also recognise today the $9 billion of student debt that successive governments have charged school leavers before most of them even get their first job," says Mrs Turner.

"The politicians of today enjoyed free education, relatively affordable first homes and a secure future.

"Yet we ask our young people to borrow tens of thousands of dollars to become educated, ask them to start saving for their retirement as soon as they get their first job and then expect them to somehow afford to buy a home."

"We know many young families will never afford their own home, and we also know that it is the younger generation that will take the major impact of future costs to reduce carbon emissions and live in a sustainable way that we never bothered," says Mrs Turner.

"And do we expect this generation to support us and provide us with the means of living and health care when we retire? If so, our policies better start changing to support our young people now.

"United Future insisted that the student allowance scheme would be made accessible to more students as a condition for our support of the government. We are also constantly pushing the government to offer varied options to assist with first home ownership, cast the deciding vote granting a select committee enquiry into home ownership.

"But this Government needs to accept the problems of an unfairly burdened generation has serious consequences in both the near and distant future for New Zealand," says Mrs Turner.

ENDS

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