1 Feb. 2005
Hon Jim Anderton MP, Progressive Leader
National punishes honesty on welfare
National has dumped its social welfare spokeswoman, Katherine Rich, because she is too honest and looks to the future
not the past, Progressive leader Jim Anderton said today.
"A National-led government would tear babies away from their mothers because National's policy is that it prefers to
force mothers to adopt their children out rather than keep families together with the helping hand of the Domestic
Purposes Benefit.
"National's welfare spokesperson, Katherine Rich, was too honest to publicly pretend that her party's official policy is
either fair on parents and their children, is remotely likely to assist more New Zealanders into work and out of welfare
or move New Zealand forwards towards a modern, socially just society.
"Because she was too honest for National, she's been dumped. No room for intelligent dissent in the Brash-led National
Party.
"And because National has extreme and draconian policies which would rip New Zealand families apart, New Zealanders will
again reject the prospect of a National-led coalition government in September," Jim Anderton said.
The progressive coalition government has since 1999 overseen the creation of over quarter of a million jobs and the
unemployment rate has collapsed to just 3.8 per cent, down from as high as 11 per cent when Brash-style policies were
pursued by the National-led governments in the 1990s and welfare use skyrocketed.
ENDS