"Will not address the unemployment crisis": Greens condemn National's beneficiary drug testing policy

The Greens are condemning National's plans to drug-test people on welfare and reduce payments. 

National's promising to randomly drug test ten thousand beneficiaries next year. 

From April 2028, it would also cut Jobseeker payments for people on the scheme for two of the previous three years, claiming it'll push people into work. 

Greens' Social Development Spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March told Andrew Dickens drug testing beneficiaries does not create jobs, and the reason unemployment is high is not because they may or may not be using substances. 

He says the only thing this will create is jobs in the drug testing industry, and it won't address the unemployment crisis that currently exists. 

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