Te Pāti Māori is enraged at the National government’s ruthless punishment of beneficiaries, all while jobs are disappearing.

MSD data shows a 133% increase in sanctions over the past year, with over 14,000 sanctions in just three months. The kicker? The jobs this government insists people should find are nowhere to be seen.

“The traffic light system is a dead end, a road to nowhere, a tool designed to punish whānau for not finding jobs the government itself has destroyed,” says Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

“Instead of supporting people, they’re kicking them while they’re down. It’s cruelty masquerading as policy.”

Since taking office, National has slashed more than 7,000 public sector jobs, then turned around to punish people for being out of work.

“They’ve gutted the job market and then punished whānau for failing to find phantom jobs,” said co-leader Rawiri Waititi.

“This isn’t incompetence—it’s a deliberate attack on our people. They’ve built a system designed to fail, and they’re celebrating the suffering they’ve caused.

Te Pāti Māori has the solutions. Our policies will restore dignity and opportunity. We will scrap benefit sanctions and ensure everybody is paid enough to live with dignity, whether they are in employment or not. We will invest in job creation and retraining programmes.

“While National is pushing whānau deeper into poverty, we offer a path out. Our solutions will allow whānau to thrive, not just survive,” says Ngarewa-Packer.

“Beneficiaries are being sanctioned for missing appointments they can’t afford to attend because they don’t have bus fare,” adds Waititi.

“They tout rising sanctions as success, but what they’re really celebrating is hungry children, struggling families, and people forced into desperation. Calling that a ‘win’ is beyond disgraceful.”

Te Pāti Māori will be demanding an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister to put an end to this failing system.

“We will not stand by and watch as this government destroys our whānau,” says Ngarewa-Packer.

“If they refuse to meet, they are turning their backs on the people. We will hold them to account—in the House and in the streets.”

“This isn’t just about sanctions—it’s about the destruction of our people’s ability to put food on the table without Big Brother looking over their shoulder,” said Waititi.

“If this government can’t see how this disproportionately impacts Māori, then they have gone blind in their ivory tower.”

Te Pāti Māori will fight to end this cruelty and rebuild a system that empowers, supports, and uplifts our people.

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