The Labour/Alliance government's decision to vote down the Social Security (Work Testing and Community Wage) Amendment Bill has been labelled an act of blatant hypocrisy by Clint Heine, President of student group Prebble's Rebels.

"Alliance MPs helped Labour vote out a Bill that essentially enacted Alliance policy" Mr Heine said.

"Alliance MPs came on campus last year, targetting the student vote by promising free education and universal benefits, supported by student unions and socialist activists. Now that the left has the votes in parliament, however, we see those pledges abandoned."

"We can only hope that Alliance and Labour are searching for more realistic answers, and that this is a sign the Alliance has begun to acknowledge education is never truly free."

Clint Heine said "the Rebels do not support the idea that students should be entitled to a government pay cheque just for being enrolled in a tertiary institution, but are apalled that the government is prepared to cut the legs out from under their own supporters and students who believed Labour and Alliance promises."

ENDS

For more information, contact:
Clint Heine (+64) (021) 122 8544
president@rebels.org.nz
http://www.rebels.org.nz

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