No Future in London

Press Release

Hone Harawira
Tai Tokerau MP and Leader of MANA
16 August 2011

“National’s proposal to reduce youth unemployment by cutting back on benefits is a nasty way of deflecting the blame for the massive unemployment this country is facing,” said Hone Harawira, MP for Tai Tokerau and leader of the MANA Movement.

“The simple truth is that you don’t solve youth unemployment by cutting youth benefits” said Harawira, “You solve it by creating jobs.”

“What the country needs is substantial job creation, particularly for those most affected, such as young people, rural, Maori, and Pacifica. Putting people into real jobs on real pay is the best way to cut the numbers of people on welfare – not cutting benefits.

“Young New Zealanders are at their wits end. They shouldn’t have to cop the blame for government’s economic policy failures, and yet that’s exactly what National is doing to them.

“If we want to show our young people that we value them, then we should find the resources to offer them quality tertiary training and educational opportunities at little or no cost, we should make a commitment to not go back to youth rates, and we should signal our willingness to lift all low wage workers to a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

“There are two overseas experiences which highlight what happens if we don’t take steps to invest in our youth, and neither of them are good,” said Harawira. “One of them is Australia – that’s where they run away to because they’re sick of being treated like dirt here. The other is London …”

“MANA’s choice is to invest in our rangatahi because a secure future for them equals a secure future for us all”

ENDS

© Scoop Media