with friends like these...

...who needs work advocates?
The Maori Party to veto Wayne Mapp's '90-day trial' Employee probation law. Despite their best intentions, this will affect Maori adversely. Pita Sharples knows:

"Maori are too heavily loaded in the lower echelons of employment... we're totally over-represented there."

He should also know we're more likely to:

• be lowly qualified
• be lowly skilled
• lack literacy/communication skills
  
• have poorer work/unemployment history
  
• have a criminal record

Surely he must conclude that businesses are more reluctant to hire the cuzzies. Employing & training new workers is costly & time-consuming & an extreme financial risk; the cost of potential dismissal procedures prohibitively protracted and expensive. Which worker is an employer more likely to choose? Who, on overall balance (given the above handicaps), seems the more attractive candidate? Answer: not the Maori guy.

"So it's really important that, one, Maori get employed, and two, that Maori are protected," Dr Sharples said.

To 'get employed', it'd help if Maori could first prove their worth to employers, show themselves to be hard working & trustworthy in the first place. But they need a foot in the door. Mr Mapp's Bill would have given them a 90 day chance. The Maori Party's decision means that for many, beyond the application/interview stages, that door will remain closed. They'll always come second best to other 'more appealing' job hunters, who (let's face it), collectively have a 'better work record'.