Something new on Red Alert
Posted by Clare Curran on June 9th, 2010
We have just added a poll function. The first one is below. You have a week to respond. I hope you will.
You can send us suggestions for future polls. You know the rules.
Should Auckland's new trains be built in NZ?
- Yes (75%, 537 Votes)
- No (25%, 177 Votes)
Total Voters: 714
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on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Manufacturing, Rail, economy, infrastructure, jobs, polling.
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What a great idea to run the poll Clare. The poll will show clearly that there is a majority of support for NZ Work to be done by NZ Workers. On reply stated that a cost benefit analysis should be done on building the trains. Well it has been and it was commissioned by the Rail and maritime Transport Union and the Dunedin City council. The report analysis was conducted by BERL and is available for download at the RMTU website http://www.rmtunion.org.nz if you click on the campaign link for NZ Work for NZ Workers.
@ Nick C
Rail cars were chosen because the figures have been done for them and it’s obvious that building them here is far better for NZ than having them built overseas. It may be economic to build cars and planes here as well but the figures haven’t been run yet.
@ Jarbury
The report gave two options: 1 for being on time and one for being a late. Being on time was more expensive and there was some doubt about it being possible. The second option was cheaper and more likely to be achievable. Reality would probably be somewhere between the two.
@ Ianmac
Large contracts like this almost always come in late. I don’t think ordering the cars from overseas will change that.
@ Tamati
No. The people who created the report wouldn’t be giving their customers the best advice if all they did was produce a report that told the customer what they wanted to hear.
Yes, Auckland’s new trains should be built in New Zealand so as to provide some of the unemployed New Zealanders who have been hit hard by the recession to work and earn some cash.
The BERL report says there will be so and so amount of economic benefit but it does not state how this industry will be built up from nothing to be competitive on a world stage. Basically the rail union now seems to think having renationalised the railways that somehow the government is going to be persuaded to turn the clock back to the glory days when the railway workshops built everything and anything. That did not include anything for export.
Steam locomotives which NZ did in fact build up to the 50s are much different technology from rail units, nothing like them has been built in the NZ railway worshops for about 80 years.
Time for NZ to acquire new technology and new skills, Swampy. How else are we going to become a rich, advanced, industrialised economy?
Simply astonishing that NACT has so little faith in NZ engineers and workers, but not surprising of course. NACT orthodoxy naturally places little trust in the skills, motivation and talents of workers.
That question was outside of the scope of the BERL report; nevertheless the answer is obvious:
Through sustained political and economic leadership over a period of 10-20 years.
Really? How did you draw those conclusions? From where I see it, this is not about turning the clock back, it is about moving to a future where NZ becomes capable once again of generating high value added industrial exports.
Hence this is not about rail cars per se. Look bigger picture and longer term. This is about revitalising NZ’s industrial and skill base, a base which can then be put to generating hard foreign currency for this country.
Unless you think NZ is going to get rich relying on cows and milk powder in the 21st century.
The evidence on that is already in. Our ag and hort sectors are crucial and required earners for this country but in of themselves they are insufficient to stop NZ from continuously sliding backwards relative to our trading partners in the OECD.
As an economy we need to rapidly develop advanced engineering, technological and industrial skills.