7. KATRINA SHANKS (National) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
What is the Government doing to support working parents?
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
I am pleased to say that this Government is taking another step towards helping hard-working parents who are juggling jobs and looking after their children. We are funding some new programmes to give hundreds of families a break in the school holidays that start tomorrow. We are providing more than $100,000 just for extra places on a few Blue Light for kids programmes in rural parts of the North Island, many in the South Island, and in the central North Island. I know better than most what happens when idle children have too much time and not enough supervision in holiday periods.
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
Yes, we are. Altogether, just for the Easter school holidays, we are making about $450,000 available for 15 youth services projects around the country. As well as those school holidays programmes there is support for mentoring programmes, youth community facilities, outdoor recreation, and evening recreation activities. We know that prevention is better in the end. I bumped into an Opposition colleague at the airport and it was especially pleasing to get talking about one of those services in Māngere and about how we could support it during the Easter school holidays. The service will be providing 500 places in a holiday programme for 5 to 16-year-olds. That is a positive thing.