PM's Presser Audio: Broken and Unsustainable
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At his post-cabinet press conference today John Key plans for the government's development of a response to the Welfare Working Group report. He said he was "ambitious" for improvements in the social welfare system which he described as "broken" and "unsustainable". He was confident that changes to welfare can get people into jobs.
A ministerial group will consider responses to each of the group's recommendations, although Key made it clear that women who have additional children while on the DPB will not be required to seek work after only 14 weeks. Any changes would for part of National's election campaign platform.
Other matters discussed included NZ's inequality (which the PM suggested wasn't as 7th-biggest-in-the-OECD as the statistics say), policy around the record-high New Zealand dollar, interpretations of post-Budget poll results and Christchurch, with the end of the post-earthquake business support package and difficulties with EQNZ payments for repairs.
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