No plan for employment as Christchurch bleeds jobs

The latest indicated job losses in Christchurch at Telstra Clear’s call centre are part of a jobs haemorrhage that the Government has no plan to address, says Christchurch Central MP Brendon Burns.

Brendon Burns says the signs are ominous for between 60 and 80 Telstra Clear staff, who will find out next month if their jobs are to move to Manila. The call centre is sited in his electorate.

"On average for the past year we have been losing 1000 jobs a month in Christchurch. Where is the Government’s plan to address this rise in unemployment?

"Instead of a strategy to deal with the tragedy that losing a job imposes on so many hundreds of Cantabrians every month, we often have the opposite.

"For example, last year an attempt was made in Christchurch to establish an initiative to deal with already rising youth unemployment. The Government, its agencies, council, training organisations, iwi and business organisations were all approached. Some were very supportive but without the Government’s backing, the initiative fell over," Brendon Burns said.

"More than that, several existing supports for young people who are out of work have been either severely reduced or cut --- for example, Action Works, Youth Health 198, the YMCA's programme to teach at-risk youth.

"Meanwhile youth and general unemployment continues to increase. For many people, this is creating real hardship, as benefits are not always available, such as when a low-income partner is still in work."

Brendon Burns says electorate offices like his are dealing with an increasing number of desperate people who cannot make ends meet, often because they’ve lost their jobs. "More and more people are being shed from government jobs and from the private sector. This does not look like an economic recovery to me and it certainly continues to hit those who can least afford to cope.

"It beggars belief that the Government still chooses to sit on the sidelines rather than supporting initiatives to deal with unemployment that offer more than a tokenistic cycleway."