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Labour Created Record Youth Unemployment

Labour’s policy to spend $251 million subsidising young people into work is an expensive band-aid on the problem of youth unemployment that Labour created by abolishing the youth minimum wage, said ACT New Zealand Leader Dr Don Brash.

“Labour is absolutely right to focus on combatting New Zealand’s record level of youth unemployment – they created it,” Dr Brash said.

“Since Labour abolished the youth minimum wage young people have been priced out of the labour market and youth unemployment has increased from 15 percent to over 27 percent. Labour’s decision is estimated to have cast up to an additional 13,100 young people on the unemployment scrapheap.

“With a net cost of $171 million, Labour’s youth employment package can only be paid for by creating yet another tax. Reinstating the youth wage would impose almost no burden on taxpayers and would result in more young people being put into work.

“If Labour was really interested in fixing their mistake and reversing the growth in youth unemployment they would pledge to reinstate the youth wage if re-elected. Instead we have the usual Phil Goff prescription of spending more money that New Zealand does not have,” Dr Brash said.

ENDS

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