NZ Politics

There's something particularly cruel about continuing to push this tough on beneficiaries line at a time when:

• we're already at or near record employment
• the reserve bank is hiking the ocr in a deliberate attempt to increase unemployment to bring down inflation

Employers could raise wages, train people or offer other things to attract workers. Instead we just make life on a benefit so hard people are forced to take whatever, and those in work know not to rock the boat too much. All this does is put downward pressure on wages at the benefit of employers.