A message from Kathy
I received a really moving Facebook message this week from a 12 year old girl who lives in Invercargill.
She was writing to me about the Tiwai smelter. She’s afraid it’ll be shut down and says ‘the most horrible part of it is that people will lose their jobs and have no money for their families’.
Her email is pretty heartrending because her own family will be affected. But it also captures the human impact on the thousands of families around the country who are suffering because of job losses.
In the past four years, there have been 40,000 jobs lost in the manufacturing sector alone.
National is doing nothing about that. They’re too busy arguing about the figures and whether there is a ‘crisis’ or not.
While they’re debating that, Kiwis are hurting. Their jobs aren’t secure. They’re struggling on low wages while the cost of groceries and petrol are going up. They’re leaving the country in their thousands headed for Australia.
Labour has a very different plan. I’ll be talking about this plan in a speech next Thursday in Christchurch and about how we’ll take an active approach to creating decent jobs that pay decent wages.
I want more for our country and I’m prepared to fight for it. As Prime Minister, my focus will be on jobs, creating opportunities and making New Zealand a fairer place.
Warm regards,
David Shearer
Leader of the Labour Party
NEWS IN BRIEF
I spoke to Cantabrians this week about the need for the recovery and rebuild effort to be driven from the community rather than by decisions imposed upon them by central government. You can read my full speech here.
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