It was great to be with finance spokesperson David Parker and local Wigram MP Megan Woods in Christchurch today to see our leader David Shearer deliver his Jobs that work for you speech.
New Zealand has suffered through four years of economic vandalism under the National government. Manufacturing and exporting is in crisis, thousands and thousands and thousands have been chucked on the unemployment scrapheap, and new records have been set almost every month for the numbers of disappointed New Zealanders moving to Australia.
Through it all National ministers have alternated between denying the facts and pretending there’s nothing that can be done.
Well David Shearer knows what New Zealanders know – the government has a responsibility to turn the country’s decline around, and David and Labour are intent on doing it.
Some of David’s bold and responsible proposals include:
- Expanding the scope of the Reserve Bank so the Governor can look at important economic wellness measures other than inflation,
- Expanding KiwiSaver to build the pot of capital for businesses to access to grow,
- Getting Government agencies to focus on purchasing from New Zealand suppliers,
- Launching a ‘one in a million’ target for significant government contracts. This would mean companies who win big contracts would be required to take on one apprentice or one trainee for every $1 million contract received.
- Pro-growth tax reform, including a capital gains tax to get investment flowing to real jobs and exports (not property speculators).
- Putting more checks and balances in place for employers who’d hire workers from overseas instead of job-seeking Kiwis.
No sooner had David finished speaking then guess who launches a petty and spiteful attack – Minister for abusing all and sundry and Finland, Gerry Brownlee.
Brownlee might have helped himself if he’d bothered to read David’s speech. He might have gotten some of his facts straight but, more importantly, it might have made him pay attention to the jobs crisis. Brownlee should read the speech because it’s full of ideas and his National government have none.
The minister seems to believe David was laying out a peculiarly Christchurch policy. Christchurch’s recovery is crucial – that’s why the entire Labour Caucus visited there this month, and it’s where we heard more about how major employers are shutting up shop and trainee teachers have no jobs to go to next year.
But if Brownlee had read David’s speech he’d know it’s a strategy for all New Zealanders and all of New Zealand. If ever evidence was needed of the myopic and selfish thinking in the National Party, it’s found in Mr Brownlee’s seeming inability to care about anyone past the end of his own gate.
Brownlee went on to paint a picture of growth in jobs which is completely at odds with reality. He misled his readers by quoting from an old job ads report while deliberately ignoring the current figures published by MoBIE – a government department which he has some ministerial responsibility for!
For Gerry Brownlee’s education, the official government figures show there was a 5.4% drop in online skilled job ads in September – including a 1.4% decline in skilled job ads in Canterbury. Brownlee cited positive job ads figures for Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty, but the official figures say skilled job ads in those regions crashed a horrific 9.9% last month.
Having already humiliated New Zealand in front of the world with his abuse of Finnish people this year, Brownlee should have learned to do his homework before attacking people. He should have focussed on the things that matter to ordinary New Zealanders, like whether they’ll have a job next week.
Now his abuse is exposed for the world to see all over again.
Gerry Brownlee should apologise to David Shearer, and he should read David’s speech because it’s full of excellent ideas and the National government has failed.
There’s poor Gerry, albeit defying laws of physics, flying along under the radar, avoiding the fall out of scattergun brain fades plaguing his front bench colleagues.
And with Paula Bennett’s whole department experiencing missing time, and the pm’s looking like recent hard questions aren’t the only probing he’s familiar with, perhaps the spooks should be looking into reports of unexplained lights in the sky over Wellington.
The truth is out there
Gerry should put his brain cell into gear before he opens his mouth.
Good to be talking about jobs but the messages in Shearer’s speech all sound very old and done before – invoking mining jobs and the Hillside workshops (Hillside has been losing jobs since the ‘80’s…) and implying that manufacturing will make the biggest difference to the NZ economy – which doesn’t sound that convincing when the speech also says that manufactuing generates only around 12% of GDP.
The messaging around the need for more business (as opposed to jobs) and the need for higher wages is also unclear. Does Labour actually want people to be paid more? If yes, say it directly. And make it clear that higher wages don’t mean fewer jobs or less business. There is lots of good economics to back this up – just ask Bill Rosenberg.
And why so much emphasis on apprenticeships –just about exclusively men (if you take the haridressers out of it) and under 25. 80% of the current workforce will still be in the workforce in 2025 – so it’s not just about those joining the workforce for the first time.
You can’t build the workforce we need for the economy we need without investing in this 80% – so that will require Labour to come up with ideas for growing workforce capability that aren’t just about training a small occupational range of those entering the workforce. Why would we be putting the majority of govt funding for training into apprenticeships in the absence of a decent plan around what skills we actually want to grow in the workforce? If it’s high-tech and service sector skills we need then why do we continue with policy that requires that these workers largely fund their own training (in the almost total absence of employer contribution to training costs). How about putting forward a skills strategy that can be used to determine where funding for industry training goes and putting in place measures to ensures there’s enough leadership in the industry training system to make sure that the money actually makes a difference? The current industry training system just tutus at the edges of what needs doing. There is little to no co-ordination of ITOs – in terms of how many there are, who they cover and what they fund. How can we be getting this so wrong here when there are such good overseas examples of what works better?
And hard to shake the impression, in the context to all of the references to construction, mining, railway engineering and manufacturing jobs (which as you’ll know employ a very small proportion of the workforce in any case) that when the speech says “workers” it means men. If you take the childbearing window and workers older than 60 out of the mix then women make up half of the workforce. These working women should be able to hear the Labour leadership speak for them too. Or is Labour happy to entrench child poverty by entrenching low pay for women in the services sectors – and the services sectors are now where the majority of NZ workers work.
So, still waiting to hear something from Shearer about the workforce and the economy that takes us beyond invoking the working bloke and sunset industries.
Some good points Kirsten. I suspect you will find the influence of our Trade Unions behind the stranger aspects of our Labor leaders thoughts. Revival of sunset industries and young male apprenticeships to swell the ranks of the CTU affiliates could be the last hope for Labour Party.
@Kirsten fair points. Thank you.
David. Sadly for you, but great for NZ is the fact that the Nats have been excellent captains in charge of the NZ economy. And the alternate with the greens wanting to print money is truly frightening. So much so that it is impossible to find a reputable commentator who thinks it is a great idea. But we take comfort that the economic direction under National has actually been world leading. In case you missed this from scoop here is something very interesting. (but I wonder if you have the guts to publish this post
‘This week, in a major international BBC debate on rescuing the world economy, Peter Orszag, Obama’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget until 2010, opposed the austerity only position taken by the IMF’s Chairman Christine Lagarde, and Wolfgang Schauble, German Minister of Finance,’ Mr Ryall said..
‘Mrs Lagarde and Mr Schauble said cutting spending was difficult but necessary. But Mr Orszag said it was better to take a mixed approach – with stimulus for the economy combined with deficit reduction that is put in place now but which takes effect over time.
‘President Obama’s former senior aide singled out New Zealand alone as the model for its balanced approach to the deepening international debt crisis,’ Mr Ryall said.
‘Mr Orszag said: … “for most countries it’s better to combine deficit reduction that you put in place now but that takes effect over time, with if anything, additional support, and that means stimulus, for the economy, effective immediately. And what’s interesting about the fiscal monitor the IMF published also as part of these meetings, is if you look across all the developed countries, there is only one country… which has actually done that, which is New Zealand- who have coupled additional stimulus with medium-term fiscal consolidation. That’s the right policy combination.”(BBC ‘World Debate – Rescuing the Global Economy – What Next?’)
Kirsten, I am astonished that you don’t realise great chances in branches of engineering and building trades for girls. These have been possible with increasing ease for some decades, their escalation hindered only I suggest by out-dated prejudice from conservatives in our society.