Opposition parties have come out swinging against the announcement of benefit sanctions, with the Greens accusing the government of “pushing more people into poverty”.
【澳纽网编译】反对党已经站出来反对宣布福利制裁，绿党指责政府“将更多人推向贫困”。

Social Development Minister Louise Upston announced a ramping up of benefit sanctions would begin from June – particularly for young people.
社会发展部长路易丝·厄普斯顿（Louise Upston）宣布，将从6月开始加大福利制裁力度，特别是针对年轻人。

The ministry would begin “work check-ins” for jobseekers who have been on a benefit for at least six months, “particularly young people” to “make sure job seeker beneficiaries are taking appropriate steps to find employment and are receiving the right help”.
该部将开始对领取福利至少六个月的求职者进行“工作检查”，“特别是年轻人”，以“确保求职者受益人采取适当措施找到工作并获得正确的帮助”。

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She told Checkpoint the announcement signalled a “reset” of the welfare system.
她告诉Checkpoint，这一宣布标志着福利制度的“重置”。

But Labour’s social development spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni said the government was unfairly assuming jobseekers were not wanting to start employment education or training pathways.
但工党社会发展发言人卡梅尔·塞普洛尼（Carmel Sepuloni）表示，政府不公平地假设求职者不想开始就业、教育或培训途径。

“Rather than being stingy on the minimum wage and bashing beneficiaries, the coalition government should be focused on lifting incomes for the poorest New Zealanders.
“联合政府不应该吝啬最低工资和抨击领福利者，而应该专注于提高最贫穷的新西兰人的收入。

“People deserve to be supported in to meaningful, long term employment, and sanctions will not do this.”
“人们应该得到有意义的长期就业支持，而制裁不会这样做。

Sepuloni said the government pointed to evidence more than a decade old and that the most recent research from the Welfare Experts Advisory Group suggested that obligations and sanctions were problematic.
塞普洛尼说，政府指出了十多年前的证据，福利专家咨询小组的最新研究表明，义务和制裁是有问题的。

Meanwhile, Green Party social development and employment spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said the government was creating another measure to penalise the poorest people.
与此同时，绿党社会发展和就业发言人里卡多·梅嫩德斯·马奇（Ricardo Menéndez March）表示，政府正在制定另一项措施来惩罚最贫困的人。

“Sanctions do not work. They do not support people into meaningful employment, nor support them to participate fully in their communities. Taking away people’s incomes only makes it harder for people to get by,” he said.
“制裁是行不通的。他们不支持人们从事有意义的工作，也不支持他们充分参与社区。剥夺人们的收入只会让人们更难过日子，“他说。

“This government is quickly building a legacy of cruelty. Instead of supporting people to provide for themselves and their whānau, this government has actively sought to push people further and further into poverty.”
“这个政府正在迅速建立残酷的遗产。这个政府没有支持人们养活自己和他们的家庭，而是积极寻求将人们越来越远推向贫困。

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New Zealand’s largest education union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, has also strongly condemned the “punitive sanctions” against people on welfare benefits.
新西兰最大的教育工会NZEI Te Riu Roa也强烈谴责对领取福利的人的“惩罚性制裁”。

It said any sanctions a government took against beneficiaries directly affected their children and their learning.
它说，政府对领福利者采取的任何制裁都直接影响到他们的孩子和他们的学习。

“We all know that whānau are struggling with the rising cost of living; and the children of beneficiaries will be feeling it doubly so. Children need a full stomach and a roof over their head to learn,” said the union’s president Mark Potter.
“我们都知道，家庭正在与不断上涨的生活成本作斗争;领福利者的子女将加倍感受到这一点。孩子们需要一个饱腹的肚子和一个遮头的屋顶来学习，“工会主席马克波特说。

“Data from the PISA international survey from December last year shows us that there is a strong correlation between food security and learning, and we know that food security disproportionately affects tamariki Māori, who make up nearly a quarter of the students currently enrolled in schooling.”
“去年12月的PISA国际调查数据显示，粮食安全与学习之间存在很强的相关性，我们知道粮食安全对毛利人的影响尤为严重，毛利人占目前入学学生的近四分之一。”

Potter said welfare sanctions were not effective ways to get people into jobs and the sanctions would further punish the country’s “most vulnerable citizens”.
波特说，福利制裁不是让人们就业的有效途径，制裁将进一步惩罚该国“最脆弱的公民”。

“This step undercuts his government’s commitment to ensuring every child experiences success in learning, because it will only increase the numbers of children living in poverty who will then struggle with learning,” he said.
他说：“这一步骤削弱了他的政府确保每个孩子都能在学习中取得成功的承诺，因为这只会增加生活在贫困中的儿童的数量，他们将在学习上遇到困难。

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But the ACT party said the benefit sanctions were a “crucial lever” to deal with the “persistent minority” of people who opted to remain on a benefit long-term, even when they were in a position to work.
但行动党表示，福利制裁是处理“顽固的少数人”的“关键杠杆”，这些人选择长期保持福利，即使他们有能力工作。

ACT social development spokesperson Dr Parmjeet Parmar said the minister has sent “an important signal that if you can work, you should work”.
ACT社会发展发言人Parmjeet Parmar博士说，部长发出了“一个重要信号，如果你能工作，你就应该工作”。

“Over 351,000 working-age New Zealanders were receiving a main benefit as of June 2023 – that’s more than one-in-ten working age New Zealanders and, pre-COVID, 71 percent of main benefit recipients had been on welfare continuously for more than a year,” she said.
她说：“截至 2023 年 6 月，超过 351,000 名工作年龄的新西兰人正在领取主要福利——这占工作年龄新西兰人的十分之一以上，在 COVID 之前，71% 的主要福利领取者已经连续领取福利一年以上。

“Greater use of existing sanctions is a first step toward a wider package of more substantial consequences for healthy long-term beneficiaries who evade work.”
“更多地使用现有制裁措施是朝着对逃避工作的健康的长期领福利者产生更广泛、更实质性后果的一揽子计划迈出的第一步。”

来源：RNZ

分类： 澳纽资讯

(即时多来源) 新西兰英语新闻 New Zealand English News

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