Grant
ROBERTSON
Acting State Services Spokesperson

24 August 2011 MEDIA STATEMENT

National puts more Kiwis out of work

Today’s announcement that 240 MAF staff are to lose their jobs is further evidence that the National-led Government doesn’t have a job creation plan, but a join-the-dole-queue policy, says Labour’s Acting State Services spokesperson, Grant Robertson.

“These cuts come on the back of thousands of jobs being axed across the public sector in organisations as diverse as CYFS, Defence, the IRD, and KiwiRail. They are a direct result of this Government’s carve-up of the public sector, and simply add to the increasing number of unemployed Kiwis.” Grant Robertson said.

“At the PSA Congress in 2008 John Key said he would cap but not cut public services. Over the last three years he has systematically broken that promise. In the last year alone more than 1500 state sector jobs have been axed.

“We have to remember that these are real people, with families to support. National is putting them out of work,” Grant Robertson said.

“MAF has a vital role to play in promoting and protecting our economic base. While the government claims that the job cuts will not affect the delivery of services, everyone knows that the support and policy functions are what allow frontline services to be successful. The loss of expertise in any area, and especially in biodiversity where resources are already stretched to the limit, will have an immediate impact.

“MAF has said they are looking at out-sourcing some of their IT work. They should tread carefully in this area as recent examples from Australia have shown that the promised savings from such schemes do not always eventuate.

“We need an efficient and effective public sector, but simply making more and more indiscriminate cuts will not achieve this. The Government needs to tread carefully in an area as important as our agricultural sector so that they do not reduce vital services in their search for funding cuts.” Grant Robertson said.

ENDS

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