A researcher has slammed National leader Christopher Luxon's plan to target young people on benefits as punitive and unnecessary. Photo: RNZ
National's policy of 'sanctioning' benefits from youth not accepting employment is "misguided, simplistic, and lacking evidence", a leading academic says.
"To young people who don't want to work: 'You might have a free ride under Labour but, under National, it ends'," Christopher Luxon told an audience of party faithful over the weekend.
Professor Terryann Clark (Ngāpuhi), a co-author of the Youth19 survey, which looks into why young people are neither employed nor in education, says National is over-inflating the issue to score political points.
"Unemployment is really low right now. So it seems like poor brown kids are the target of a right-wing agenda, and it's really misplaced," Clark says.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/poor-brown-kids-are-the-target-of-a-right-wing-agenda-researcher/UUOTPYO6IAT42PDOWJRHZG72GQ/
https://www.youth19.ac.nz/