M.P. called on to apologise

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 11

M.P. called on to apologise

Parliamentary reporter ' The Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger) says the Labour member for Papanui, Mr M. K. Moore, should apologise for saying that the Labour Department in Christchurch had given up finding jobs for people. Mr Bolger said staff at the Christchurch office were placing hundreds of job-seek-ers in work each week. In the last nine weeks work had been found for 1800 jobless, an average of 200 a week. Mr Moore had said that the regional office “just counted the number of unemployed and sent the figures to Wellington,” Mr Bolger said.

“His statement is so patently untrue that he should withdraw it and apologise. It casts a quite unwarranted slur on hard-working staff in the Labour Department." Mr Bolger said more than 48.000 people had been placed in jobs by the department throughout New Zealand in the first seven months of this financial year. For the corresponding period last year the figure was fewer than 32,000. The Labour Party was being irresponsible in attacking departmental staff who could not “enter the political arena and put the record straight,” Mr Bolger said.