The latest update from Statistics New Zealand's Household Labour Force Survey gives little room for joy regarding the employment situation for Maori, and for young people says the Maori Party.

"In the year to December 2011, the unemployment rate for Maori flat-lined at 13.4%" said Tariana Turia, Co-leader of the Maori Party. "That's a massive seven percentage points difference between the general unemployment rate of 6.3%".

"And it's really discouraging to see the employment situation for rangatahi continues to be below par. What sort of a future will we have if we don't invest in our young people? The jobless rate of the 15 to 19 year old group (24.2%) is simply disgraceful and it reflects on us all".

"These persistent inequalities were the motivation behind our focus on employment, education and training when we negotiated our Relationship Accord" said Dr Sharples, Maori Party Co-leader.

"Two particularly important gains in that accord, were the appointment of Tariana as an Associate Minister in the tertiary education, skills and employment portfolio; and the opportunity to refocus Te Puni Kokiri to "give urgent priority to improving M?ori employment and training, housing and education outcomes".

"It was pleasing to see CTU economist, Bill Rosenberg, coming out in support of the Maori Party initiative, Community Max, as the type of initiative we need to reverse the trend. The Maori Party is keen to see a lot more of our ideas taken up to create real work - and real opportunities.

"One thing's for sure - Governments cannot continue to fail our young people and to fail Maori if we want to see an upturn in all of our fortunes - and the Maori Party is determined to do what we can to make the vital difference this country needs".