Key, Bennett fail to understand people want jobs

Labour’s Canterbury Earthquake Recovery spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove says Prime Minister John Key and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett are cruelly missing the point in terms of Canterbury people who lose their jobs in the wake of the earthquakes.

“There will be tens of thousands of Cantabrians on the employment scrapheap,” Clayton Cosgrove said. “The Government admitted today that it hasn’t even got any advice from its own agencies on the number of people likely to lose their jobs once the business support package is terminated. That is pure negligence

“They don’t want to hear from John Key and Paula Bennett that the dole will be there for them. They are not stupid. They already know about the dole.

“They want jobs, and they want to know what the Government is going to do about ensuring Christchurch businesses can get up and running again,” Clayton Cosgrove said.

“The prospects for that aren’t looking at all good, with the Government already having announced its business assistance package is to be watered down and then cease over the next few weeks.

“When the package comes to an end there will still be a great many Christchurch businesses not yet able to make informed decisions about their future, but they will have no choice but to close down and lay their staff off,” Clayton Cosgrove said.

“These businesses represent the future lifeblood of Christchurch and Canterbury, but the Government almost seems to regard them as a millstone around the country’s neck. The assistance package must be kept in place as long as it is needed.

“It’s absolutely heartless for John Key and Paula Bennett simply to say that the benefit system can get as big as it needs to be,” Clayton Cosgrove said. ”It’s going to get far too big as far as Canterbury is concerned.”