Minister for Senior Citizens

 30 September 2011

Celebrating International Day of Older Persons

International Day of Older Persons on 1 October is a day dedicated to the celebration of older people throughout New Zealand and the rest of the world.

“Nationally, the response to International Day of Older Persons will feature an exciting range of events planned to honour, celebrate and recognise the valuable contributions older New Zealanders make,” says Senior Citizens Minister Craig Foss.

“I will be taking part in a ‘young and old celebrating age’ walk and the ‘Age Celebration’ Outdoor Entertainment Event and Picnic in Hastings.  I encourage you to find out what is happening in your area and to go along and join in the celebrations” says Mr Foss.

“New Zealand’s population is ageing but we are living longer and healthier. This year’s theme for International Day of Older Persons is ‘The Growing Opportunities and Challenges of Global Ageing’. It reminds us to keep a balanced view of ageing and to realise the opportunities that a very productive ageing population brings,” says Mr Foss.

“We know that older Kiwis are playing their part in the workforce, paying taxes and contributing to the economy. They keep volunteer organisations afloat and contribute to our communities in many ways. These are things that help improve the lives of all New Zealanders.

 School children at six Flaxmere schools will continue to have their throats swabbed whenever they get a sore throat as part of an extra $12 million of government funding to combat rheumatic fever.

 The Hawke’s Bay ‘Say Ahh’ programme is the first of eight newly funded services around the country which detect and prevent rheumatic fever.

 For more information:

 http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/extra-funding-boosts-039say-ahh039-rheumatic-fever-prevention-programme

We were privileged to share in this Mum’s joy of the safe arrival of her twin boys.

 Still yet to be named, although we all had many suggestions!

 A great team doing a great job. Congratulations and thanks to all involved.

The children were having a music and movement session, we joined in as best we could. It certainly bought back memories from when our children were toddlers.

 Thanks Porse for letting us share your morning. The singing and dancing set us up for the day!

Recently our Prime Minister John Key was the guest speaker at a Plunket fundraising breakfast at the Napier Golf Club.

About 180 people joined us for breakfast to help raise funds for the new Plunket Hub in Napier.

It was a great event; well run and well supported.

 Chris and I are always impressed with the calibre of our Hawke’s Bay student leadership.

 Hastings Girls High School hasted the visit, and treated us to an amazing performance.

Thank you Hastings Girls High School for a wonderful visit.

I look forward to everyone involved in the new venture driving towards a
common goal of an even better Hawke’s Bay.

http://www.hawkesbaychamber.co.nz/

 Today 3 August I officially opened Pipfruit New Zealand’s Conference and AGM in ‘the Bay’.

 It seems a long time ago when Chris Tremain and I stood side by side, leading the march on Parliament, bowling underarm with apple growers calling on the then Government to take WTO action.

 My message today to the industry was unity. From the smallest independent grower to the largest exporter, we need to remember that it was a united team who won the access issue, and that as a united industry we can all win from growing markets.

The conference has a great line up of speakers and it was my privilege to open the event.

Susanna Clark

So often we see the headlines with significant job layoffs such as those a few weeks ago in Waipukurau at the Ovation Meat Plant. What we don’t hear about so readily is the gradual increase in jobs created by existing businesses as the economy starts to get back on its feet.

I think it is great to see nearly 800 fewer people on Unemployment Benefits since May particularly given that 94% of that reduction are young people.

It’s the first time that the Unemployment Benefit has decreased in the month of June for four years.

There are now 56,264 people on an Unemployment Benefit, that’s down from a high of 68,369 in January last year.

Predictions had Unemployment Benefits rising to about 100,000 post-recession (about 12%), but we never reached those levels and in fact it has decreased by more than 9,000 in the last nine months.

Nearly half of the decrease in Unemployment Benefits over the last year has been made up of young people aged 18-24.

Last month 7,800 people went off welfare, into work and it’s particularly positive that more than 2,700 young people cancelled benefits for jobs.

There were 327,817 people on all benefits in June.

There are currently 6,342 people on Unemployment Benefits in Canterbury which is 962 more than the week before the earthquake.  Still up but not nearly as bad as some pundits predicted.

Chris Tremain