If Labour has a spare billion dollars up its sleeve – and that’s a big if – then that money should be spent on creating jobs rather than growing benefits, National’s Social Development spokesperson Louise Upston says.

“Our focus right now should be growing the economy and supporting businesses to create jobs so we can connect those who are temporarily out of work with new employment.

“We know people are far better off in paid employment than in a state of dependency. That is why getting New Zealanders back to work will be a National Government’s main focus.

The need to invest in job creation could not be more critical right now with more than 220,000 New Zealanders already on unemployment benefits and another 185,000 expecting to lose their jobs as the economic crisis unfolds.

“Labour appears focused on keeping people on welfare despite there already being opportunities to get people into work,” Ms Upston says.

“The horticultural industry, for example, is desperate to fill the worker shortage created by border restrictions that is putting $9.5 billion of the country’s economy at risk.

“National is the party of getting New Zealanders back to work. We believe that having a job is better than having no job.

“Our sensible polices will give businesses the confidence to grow and create more jobs.”

National will:

• Get New Zealanders into work with JobStart, our policy that offers a $10,000 cash payment to businesses that hire more staff
  
  
• Provide further cash support for Kiwis who want to start new businesses through our BusinessStart policy, including access to up to $20,000 from their KiwiSaver account
  
  
• Invest an extra $31 billion on intergenerational transport infrastructure and $4.8 billion on world-class education infrastructure to create thousands of jobs
  
  
• Invest an extra $226 million per year to provide more support for the first 1000 days of a child’s life
  
  
• Set clear targets and invest in getting people off welfare and into work