National's welfare policy?

National Deputy Leader, Bill English, makes this statement in the DomPost today;

Our prospects of climbing up the ladder (OECD) in the next few years aren't good. Recent economic growth has been fuelled by more employment, more debt, and working longer hours. There aren't more people to bring into work, so there's no more growth from that source.

That must be National's welfare policy. Ignore the 266,000 working-age people on benefits. How would you feel if you were a beneficiary who wants to work? Written off?

Perhaps if you were one that didn't want to work you might feel relieved. Over a third of the people on the DPB have children aged 5 and over yet have no connection to the workforce.

One in ten working age people has no job and no source of income other than a benefit and we are told there are "no more people to bring into work."

Treasury will be scratching their heads. They have explicitly recommended increasing the labour force participation of young women to increase GDP because there is potential in that group that better performing countries have realised.

Clark supported that idea. Labour is still pursuing a policy of work first. That is to discourage applicants from entering the benefit system in the first place. OK. They haven't done a very good job with some benefits but they at least claim to believe that work is the best way out of poverty.

Labour could not agree with his statement and neither can I.

I accept there are some people who aren't ever going to be self-supporting. As long as we are only carrying those genuine cases I can live with a state safety net. But that group is a small minority.

This is either a damning admission or careless error from English. Let's hope it's the second.