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Posts Tagged ‘jobs’

Economic development ideas

Posted by David Cunliffe on April 29th, 2012

During the recess I have been working to fill out some ideas around economic development.

These personal views build on caucus discussions and our 2011 manifesto, and take on board feedback from party and business circles as I have been listening and engaging over the last few months.

This oped, published in the Herald on Friday, argues for lifting sustainable economic growth through a more ‘can do’, positive partnership with between government and business. It argues for a clear and credible strategy that integrates economy-wide, sector-driven and regional initiaitives. It warns of the dangers of the kind of one-off ‘deals’ with indvidual corporates now so typical of National.

This speech, delivered today to a meeting hosted by the New Lynn Women’s Branch of the NZLP, goes back to first principles. It argues that, post GFC, the “invisible hand” of neoliberal economics has failed, that New Zealand cannot cut or sell our way out of a hole, and that Labour must therefore present a clear alternative economic approach to the current government based on our own enduring values.

Hope you enjoy them.

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Filed under: Economic Development, Global financial crisis, Investment, asset sales, business, economic, economy, inequality, policy, privatisation
29 Comments

National Putting Kiwis out of Work

Posted by Grant Robertson on August 27th, 2011

When MAF made the announcement of the loss of 241 positions, that will end up putting 144 people out of work, it was a continuation of this government’s policy of putting more than 1500 people out of work in the public service. In my media release I made the point that those put out of work are real people with families and themselves to look out for.

That hit home to me yesterday when the daughter of one of the women who found out she was losing her job visited me in my electorate office yesterday. She was upset. Her mother is in her early 60s, and faces the prospect of trying to find work in an environment where jobs are few and far between especially for someone of her age. She has written a letter to John Key. She asked me if I thought he would actually get to read it. I said I didn’t know, but I want to make sure people get to know the real impact of losing jobs. Here are some extracts from the letter.

My mother who raised her children on her own and started work part time when my younger brother started school has worked her guts out for her family and paid tax to a government that has basically shitted on her.

She also lives on her own in a small privately rented one bedroom flat. Now faced with unemployment and the prospect of having to move out of the flat that she will no longer be able to afford and go on the unemployment benefit and move into a state flat.

The reality is employers are not looking for workers of her age the the prospect of her getting a decent paying job is very slim. This has terrified her and she is in turmoil and worry about her future something that a woman of her age does not need in her life. My mother is a loving and vibrant woman who now seems depressed and anxious.

I know from talking with other people facing the same issues that she is not alone. People in this country continue to struggle to buy food and clothe their children or themselves.

Cutting the public service is not the answer. People’s livelihoods depend on their jobs and the retail sector depends on people spending their money. This government should be creating jobs which I do not see them doing. When cutting budgets and jobs is the only method a government has to reduce debt that government will not survive in an election.

She goes on in the letter to talk about some of her personal circumstances which I won’t put in the public arena. But the reason she wrote was not for herself, but for her mother. Its a real story about the real impact of unemployment, and I think it deserves to be heard.

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Filed under: jobs, public services
40 Comments

Benefit Card- Priceless

Posted by Grant Robertson on August 27th, 2011

Short, to the point, worth a watch. “Some governments actually set out to reduce unemployment, for everything else, there’s Benefit Card”.

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Filed under: humour, jobs, youth
55 Comments

Forget jobs just change the numbers

Posted by Trevor Mallard on August 20th, 2011

The Politician

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Filed under: Uncategorized
8 Comments

Budget FAQ #6: Why the Deficit Hole?

Posted by David Cunliffe on May 19th, 2011

Our Labour team wanted to understand why every year under National the budget deficit has far exceeded the forecast when they took office. In the graph below, the black line is the projection of the deficit made in December 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis. But you can see the actual deficits have been much larger.

Debt Composition 2008-2011

Part of this is due to National’s tax cuts, even accepting the rosy predictions English made about the cost of his tax packages, they still cost a significant amount (green blocks). This year the deficit has been worsened by one-off events in the form of the Christchurch earthquake and the South Canterbury Finance bailout (brown and purple blocks). But there’s still a huge difference between the 2008 projections and what happened that isn’t accounted for by the one-offs or the borrowing for tax cuts. What’s behind that?

When we look at the GDP growth forecasts vs reality for the same period, the answer becomes clear. Every year, National has projected that a return to strong growth is just around the corner which will mean more tax take, lower benefit costs  – and a smaller deficit. But it hasn’t eventuated. Instead, the economy has stagnated under National and every year National has evened up having to slap billions more on the taxpayers’ bill to cover for this economic underperformance (blue block).

 No doubt today’s budget will also contain rosy growth projections. Will the reality end up being more deficit blowouts?

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Filed under: Budget, Global financial crisis, Tax, Uncategorized, Unemployment, debt, economy, finance
33 Comments

Any job’s a good job

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 16th, 2011

That’s what Paula Bennett said in reply to my question last week about why Work and Income are advertising illegal jobs on their Find a Job website.

She went on to give the parliament a lecture saying :  

“We do not always get to do our dream job. Sometimes we have to work hard, sometimes we have to get a bit stuck in, sometimes we have to prove ourselves to get promoted, and sometimes we have to wash dishes in a rest home for a while, or dig drains. But there are opportunities out there, and that is a great thing.”

Oh yeah?

Yes, the Minister had  ”opportunities”  and she’s been quite happy to pull the ladder up after herself, but I wonder what she would consider a “good job”.

  • Is it a job where the minimum wage isn’t paid, even although it’s unlawful not to do so?
  • Is it a job where health and safety is at risk, and raising it might get you the sack under the 90 days no rights Act?
  • Is it a job where you get paid by the square metre, and lucky, lucky you get to pay  Tax and ACC and have no paid holidays or sick leave?
  • Is it a job where because you are called a contractor, your boss gets to avoid employment law rights, even although clearly your job is dependent?
  • Is it a job where you should just be grateful that someone’s given you a chance and never mind all that namby pamby workers’ rights stuff?
  • Is it a job where the obsession of the ACT party would have a young person under 20 working for $4.20 an hour, like they used to?

Perhaps we should just give up on insisting on decent work, and have everyone working for nothing. Wouldn’t that be a boost to the economy?

You tell me.

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Filed under: jobs, minimum wage, workers rights
33 Comments

Cactus Kate on FDI

Posted by David Cunliffe on October 20th, 2010

Two good posts yesterday from Cactus Kate here, and  here, explaining why John Key’s response to NZ’s new foreign investment policy on land sales is nonsenisical.   (Acks to Les for the heads up).

” So what Key is saying is that his policy is to avoid anything that does not keep land prices as high as they are even at the moment (forgetting the peaks of two years ago) to avoid negative equity situations. Same with residential housing as well we can assume because we wouldn’t want the market to move up and down would we?

Little wonder New Zealanders keep buying more land. There is absolutely no risk attached to it when the leading politician comes out with intentions such as that. Where is Key’s worry about negative equity when it comes to SME’s? Silence.”

We need an export led economy and an ownership society.

Just ask any sharemilker wanting to work their way into owning their own farm.

Little wonder a poll running on interest.co.nz is showing a healthy majority of support for the policy.

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Filed under: Investment, business, economic, economy
21 Comments

Unlocking Our Potential

Posted by David Cunliffe on October 4th, 2010

The Canterbury Earthquake, terrible though it was, reminds us of the courage and resilience of New Zealanders in a crisis. 

 If only the same courage and strength could be tapped as part of our normal ‘economic development’, NZ would be able to unlock enormous untapped potential.

 That same courage was evident in many of our forebears: those who voyaged to NZ by waka or ship, and those hacked down the bush to form arable pasture (often on slopes so steep it should not have been touched, but their courage was undeniable).  

 Tapping into that same strength of character to unlock future potential is part of the task that lies before us. 

 Our world is changing.  The old solutions will not work for tomorrows problems.  The old certainties have gone.   The era of guaranteed markets in the UK for our sheep and beef has gone.   The era of free and easy credit has now gone.  

 We are told we face a ‘decade of deleveraging’.  All around us we see growing signs of despair.  

 Just as in the 70’s we were called upon to diversify our markets, in the 80’s to deregulate our economy, and in the 00’s to rebuild our torn social fabric, Labour is now called upon to rise to a new challenge in a new era. Just as Mickey Savage did in the 1930s, we are being called upon to find a better way.

 NZ is currently meandering through the aftermath of the global financial crisis.  We are beset by malaise.  We lack confidence.  We appear unable to define our own future, and even lack awareness of our own potential and character.

 So NZ falls back passively on its proximity to larger Asian growth centres, its traditional bulk agricultural base, and its relationship with its nearest neighbour Australia.

 These are undeniable strategic advantages, but if any are a substitute for owning our own future, they will ultimately undermine our national wellbeing and identity.  

 Our relationship with foreign investment has to change.  As it stands we are becoming more and more deeply indebted to foreigners.  We have been through a phase of selling state assets to cover the interest.  We are now selling our land at the rate of dozens of rugby fields a day.  But still our national debt keeps rising. 

 It was not primarily ‘the government’s’ fault.   Most of this debt is private debt.  Most of it fuelled the private binge on property consumption (it was never really ‘investment’ despite the temporary up-cycle in which much of it happened).

 That we need more foreign investment is undeniable, but it must be channelled into genuinely value-creating and productive activity and not simply transfer the ownership of existing assets to foreigners making our future income deficit worse.   

 A new conversation must begin – one that starts from the proposition that we wish to own and govern our own affairs.

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Filed under: Investment, business, commerce, community, debt, economic, economy, environment, monetary policy, politics, social development
51 Comments

Unemployment up, still no plan…

Posted by Chris Hipkins on August 5th, 2010

The latest unemployment stats make for grim reading. Over 19,000 Kiwis have joined the ranks of the unemployed in the past 3 months. Since National has been in office unemployment has increased by 53,000. So what’s the National government focused on? Well they’ve spent most of this week trying to doctor figures to hide the fact that the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia has grown during their time in office, despite John Key’s pledge to make closing it his “fundamental priority”.

We should never regard unemployment as merely a matter of statistics. These are real people with real lives, real families, real homes, real mortgages, real bills to pay. The increase in unemployment from 6% to 6.8% in three short months marks thousands of individual tragedies. It’s a much bigger increase than anyone was predicting and highlights how adrift this government have already become.

Back in May John Key was happy to pronounce that his government is on the right track due to falling unemployment, so by his own standard they must have jumped the track in the past 3 months. Where is their plan? The Jobs Summit was a joke. The cycleway has failed to produce the thousands of jobs Key promised. Gerry’s bold plan to mine in National Parks has been stomped on. So what’s next? The thousands of Kiwis struggling to find work are keen to know…

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Filed under: Unemployment, economy
19 Comments

BUDGET 2010: Jigsaw Pieces Click

Posted by David Cunliffe on June 1st, 2010

The jigsaw pireces of the Budget are starting to click in the public mind if recent polls are any indication.  In the last week :

  • The IMF described NZ’s savings gap and net international indebtedness as “among the largest of any advanced nation”
  • Analysis shows a $9.2bn additional fiscal hole in the Budget by 2023 arising from the tax changes
  • Budget documents show expenditure as a % of GDP falling from 33% to 28%
  • Bill English floats Kiwibank sale as one example of a number of SOEs ripe for partial privatisation.

In other words: give away taxes up front (very largely to their mates); run an out year deficit (deliberately); compress spending (as ‘prudence ” then demands); and flog off what is left of the family silver to fill the remaining gap (dressed up as mum and dad savings products, of course).

What does all this mean for the average Kiwi?

  • despite the govt spin, they are worse off for the next four years at least due to the toxic cocktail of GST, inflation, other govt charges and taxes, and slow wage growth;
  • public services like Heatlh and Early Childhood Education will be slashed as new spending lags inflation ($300m short in Health) or deliberate policy changes bite;
  • the outlook for public services gets dramatically worse as the National Party tries to resize the state to 28% of GDP – although they won’t want to talk much about that before the election;
  • the underlying economic problems reamin unresolved and get more intractable over time.   There is no credible plan for growth and jobs.

Moral of story: do NOT let National get a second term   Stop the malign juggernaut before it does irrepairable damage.

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Filed under: Budget, GST, Household income, Tax, business, economic, economy, education, finance, poverty, privatisation, productivity, public services
52 Comments

BUDGET 2010: Strategic Deficits and Fiscal Risks

Posted by David Cunliffe on May 27th, 2010

Budget 2010 was not fiscally neutral.  To fund its large tax cuts package of  $14.5 billion the government has borrowed an extra $1.1 billion over four years.

The Crown borrowing requirement rises and interest costs roughly double before declining around 2021.

The current account widens from 3% to 7% over the forecast period.  The trend in net internation investment remains negative.

Longer term the fiscal aggregates look even worse.  We will have more to say about this in due course.

Meantime the world around us is poised on the cusp of a potential double-dip recession.  Germany’s voters are tiring of socialising the Eurozone’s mounting deficits.  The US and UK are already running huge deficits and accumulating debt due in part to the last round of fiscal stimulus.

World markets are highly fragile.  Korea and the Gulf of Mexico mean we don’t need too much else to go wrong.

Why has National strained the fiscal envelope so far while achieving so little economic return?

Treasury forecasts less than 1% additional GDP growth from Budget 2010 measures accumulatng over 7 years.

(more…)

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Filed under: Tax, economic, economy, finance, inequality, poverty, superannuation
47 Comments

BUDGET 2010: Pass the Berocca

Posted by David Cunliffe on May 21st, 2010

After the beehive-spin induced euphoia wears off and the hangover sets in, middle New Zealand will reach for the Berocca and try to work out what the Budget really means for them.

Not to add to the inevitable headache, but here are a few of the facts of life for the morning after.

  1. For at least 3/4, and maybe 90% of the country, by the time they eat a whopping 5.9% inflation next year (Treasury Budget forecasts, not NZLP numbers!) they will be worse off until at lesst 2012/13.   For a family with 2 kids on $72k for example, $55 a week worse off.
  2. That inflation will feed into mortgage costs and rent rises.  It will result, quite rightly, in pent up wage demands from workers who have gone without wage rises for the last two years. 
  3. While its ok that the middle income brackets got some income tax relief, and would have likely got more relief from us, the tax cuts are way too skewed to the top.  You just can’t get around the fact that someone earning a $million a year gets $1000 a week back.  That is going to make the haves/have nots gap wider.  And that gap will inevitably worsen over time, undermining the Kiwi dream and taking us further from the “fair go for all” kind of place we want to be.
  4. That is made worse by the underlying agenda of shrinking the state and the services it can provide.  We have already seen home help for the elderly branded “low quality” spend and cut.  Health’s new money in the Budget is, we reckon, about $270 m short of standing still given next year’s inflation forecast.  That means more cuts to the services and more pain for the vulnerable.
  5. My personal gripe is early childhood education.  What has the Govt got against quality preschool education?  Why is it swiping $100m pa from that?  Labour will lead in this area and every family with young kids will hear us. 
  6. Rebalancing the econmy is way undercooked.  Take away the smoke and mirrors of the tax switch, and we are still left with residual taxt incentives for property and LAQC avoidance mechanisms.   Proof:  LAQCs sheltered $2.3 billion of taxes in 2008.  The tinkering in the Budget trimmed only $70m p.a. of that.  
  7. There is STILL no credible plan for growth in this Budget.  The National Govt seems intent in relying on “passive” instruments. I have no problem with dropping the company rate – provided the fiscal balance can support decent public services (personal view – see “About” on the blog site) – but that cannot be enough to get the export sector going on its own.  What about the R and D tax credits?

The strucutral problem remains: we don’t export enough, we don’t save enough, and we don’t innovate enough.  As an economy we are short on capital, technology, skills and IP.  Budget 2010 does not fix that.  Time is short and the job is urgent.  When NZ wants positive action, Labour will be ready to lead.

As the bubbly wears off in the Beehive and the Berocca gets passed around the country; the poor, the forgotten middle class and the structural problems of the economy have not been moved forward by this Budget.

It remains a suger-coated tax swindle.

It remains a step back, not a step up, and certainly not a step change.

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Filed under: Budget, GST, Household income, Labour Party, Tax, Uncategorized, business, community, economic, finance, health, inequality, poverty, productivity
88 Comments

Where’s the plan for jobs?

Posted by Chris Hipkins on April 9th, 2010

John Key promised that under a National government we’d catch up to Australia. He has succeeded on one measure. When he took office we had a lower unemployment rate than the Aussies. Under Key we’ve not only caught up, we’ve overtaken them.

In the past month 20,000 new jobs were created in Australia, the 7th straight month the number of jobs increased over the ditch. 215,000 jobs have been created in Oz in the past 6 months. Here in New Zealand 60,000 Kiwis have lost their jobs since National took office.

National has had a year and a half to implement their plan (or come up with a new one) yet they’ve spent it sitting on the sidelines. By contrast the Labor govt in Aussie has invested in a bold stimulus package, with a particular focus on R&D and education (unlike National who have cut both). Now National wants to raise GST too.

I hope this year’s Budget will demonstrate that National does actually have a plan. If they don’t, I suspect even more Kiwis will be crossing the Tasman.

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Filed under: Unemployment, economy, jobs
53 Comments

Brownlee’s shambles cuts jobs

Posted by Chris Hipkins on February 24th, 2010

One of the first things the new National government did when coming into office was scrap the $1b home insulation fund that the previous Labour government had planned. Later in the year they finally woke up to the huge value better home insulation can bring and announced their own scheme, albeit smaller. Personally I was pleased they’d seen the value in warming up kiwi homes, but as the weeks and months have rolled on, more and more of the rushed schemes weaknesses have been revealled.

One of the most concerning is the impact it has had on small specialist businesses. It would be natural to assume that a small specialist home insulation business delivering a quality product would stand to benefit from a significant expansion of the market and increase in the number of government subsidies available. Not so, in fact the opposite has happened. The government has arbitarily capped the number of providers, favouring big players like The Warehouse or Hire a Hubby, rather than small specialists. Of the 249 businesses that sought approval, only 60 got it.

I think this is totally unfair. Many of these businesses were previously able to access government subsidies and some had, in good faith, scaled up their operations, taking on new staff (many off the dole) in anticipation of the increased demand. I’ve had many firms tell me about how they’ve had to lay off staff because they can’t compete with the big providers who are getting government subsidies.

I’m very keen to see more homes insulated, and I’m pleased the government is putting some money into it. It’s a real shame that they aren’t doing it fairly and properly. It’s kind of ironic that the ‘pro-competition’ National Party seems to be going out of their way to distort the market and choke off any competition when it comes to home heating and insulation.

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Filed under: Energy, jobs
18 Comments

Redundancy and the Aussies

Posted by Darien Fenton on November 17th, 2009

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the Redundancy Protection Bill, so I thought with Christmas coming up, we should hear how the Aussies treat redundant workers.

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Filed under: jobs, redundancy
6 Comments

If it’s good enough for the Aussies, why not us?

Posted by Darien Fenton on October 2nd, 2009

Before I left New Zealand on Monday, I talked with Shelley and her workmates, who  were made redundant last week by Aussie owned company, Transfield. Apart from the shabby way they were treated during the process, the unkindest cut of all was being laid off with nothing to tide them over while they look for other jobs.  

So I’ve been checking Transfield out while I’m here in Sydney and guess what?  If Shelley and her friends had been employed by Transfield in Australia, they would have received at  the very least the minimum statutory redundancy entitlement of 4 weeks pay after the first year and 2 weeks pay for each year of service after that.  

Redundancy compensation is considered a basic entitlement in Australia and the Rudd government have implemented it as one of the ten minimum conditions every worker in Australia must have.  I asked people in the know what the reaction had been when Rudd brought in the new federal minimum redundancy requirements. It seems there was no wailing and gnashing of teeth and no doom and gloom predictions about the end of business and cost to jobs. 

It seems such a normal thing here and Aussies are pretty incredulous that New Zealand doesn’t have what they see as fundamental fairness for workers if they are laid off through no fault of their own.

Perhaps it’s because redundancy compensation’s not new in Australia.  For years there’s been a mix of State and Federal minima, along with entitlements bargained in awards and enterprise agreements.  But neither is it new in New Zealand.  73% of union agreements have redundancy compensation provisions, but as the Transfield situation shows, few employers will voluntarily pay redundancy pay if they don’t have to.  And relying on redundancy provisions in collective agreements means they are often up for grabs in bargaining, as we’ve seen this week with Parliamentary Service staff taking action to prevent that happening.

So, if it’s good enough for Australian workers, why isn’t it good enough for New Zealanders who are losing their jobs?

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Filed under: redundancy, workforce
16 Comments

Key backpedalling on cycleway jobs

Posted by Chris Hipkins on July 27th, 2009

John Key has announced more details of his proposed cycleway. As I have blogged previously, the current plan is a radical departure from his initial plan to create a paved cycle track all the way from Cape Reinga to Bluff. As I’ve said before, I think the concept of a network of ‘Great Rides’ actually makes more sense, but the fact remains that it’s a drop in the bucket when it comes to job creation.

Key initially said the cycleway would provide up to 3,700 jobs, yet today’s announcement talked about as few as 160 jobs or 280 in the best case scenario. With 1,200 people signing up for the dole every week, it’s hardly the answer to the nation’s rising tide of unemployment is it?

The Prime Minister’s Jobs Summit was just a talkfest designed to create the illusion that the government was doing something. Key’s cycleway, from a jobs point of view, is a gimmick, and the 9 day fortnight has been ineffective with just over 370 jobs saved in the last six months at last count. Almost that many people are losing their job everyday. The government is still missing in action when it comes to jobs.

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Filed under: jobs, national
18 Comments

English Confirms Jobs Didn’t Matter in Budget

Posted by Trevor Mallard on July 24th, 2009

Bill English answering for John Key yesterday exposed the gap between the rhetoric and the facts when he confirmed that they knew that 3,000 jobs would be lost when they cut the Enterprising communities scheme in the budget.

The savings average about $8m over 4 years.  Seems silly thing to do especially when compared to the $50m no jobs so far cycleway to nowhere.

 

1. Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader-Labour) to the Prime Minister: Does he have confidence in the Minister for Social Development and Employment?

Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes the Prime Minister does, and he has a lot more confidence in the Minister than a certain Charles Chauvel had in a former Minister when, as president-

Mr SPEAKER: The question did not ask “if so, why”, it simply asked whether the Prime Minister had confidence in the Minister.

Hon BILL ENGLISH: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. That question was open-ended. I am allowed to give reasons, comparisons, analogies, and anecdotes that back up my answer. Surely you are not going to rule that out.

Mr SPEAKER: The Speaker is the sole judge of those matters, and where the Speaker perceives that it will lead to disorder the Speaker may ask the member to desist.

Hon Annette King: Did the Minister for Social Development and Employment advise the Prime Minister that her decision to cut the Enterprising Communities scheme would lead to 3,000 job losses; if so, how can he have confidence in a Minister who is creating more job losses than job opportunities?

(further points of order)

Hon BILL ENGLISH: Yes

(further points of order and other supplementary questions and answers)

Hon Trevor Mallard: Why did Cabinet decide to cut the Enterprising Communities scheme, given the fact, as the Prime Minister has told us today, that there will be 3,000 job losses?

Hon BILL ENGLISH: In the course of the Budget, Cabinet looked at a whole range of schemes, including many misguided and ineffective schemes put in place by the previous Government. Given the fiscal constraints, we have made decisions about priorities, and we stand by those decisions.

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Filed under: Budget, jobs
2 Comments

Flags replace beads and blankets

Posted by Chris Hipkins on July 20th, 2009

Our colleague Shane Jones has a very thought provoking column in this morning’s Dominion Post regarding the choice of flag to fly over the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day next year. It’s titled “Flags taking the place of blankets and beads”. I can’t find it online, but here are some excerpts:

“Maori have enjoyed flags since before the Treaty of Waitangi. In the midst of the Maori land wars, tribal leaders believed in the power of flags … The Crown regularly presented flags to tribes for their loyalty. Colonists did so as well. In 1864 a flag was presented to the tribes of Wanganui for protecting the Wanganui township from their upper river kin Moutoa.

“Prime Minister John Key is maintaining that historic tradition as he rewards the Maori Party for loyalty, and sanctions the Maori Affairs minister to fund gatherings to select a flag…Mr Key has done an impressive job in capturing the Maori Party. He is canny enough to know it is less threatening and more amusing to have hui about independence ensigns than confront Maori state dependency. Beads and blankets are no longer de rigueur – rather it is flags that are the new currency.”

“Mr Key knows that hoisting a flag above the harbour bridge will not alter one jot Maori economic status. The 500 Maori losing their jobs every week know that getting their whänau up the ladder is the true test of rangatiratanga…”

“Maori fortunes are inextricably bound up with those of society overall. Far more prosaic, less mesmerising topics such as productivity, numeracy, literacy, civic participation jobs and employment are responsibilities that the Maori Party is shirking.

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Filed under: M?ori, democracy
31 Comments

Still no plan for jobs

Posted by Chris Hipkins on July 16th, 2009

John Key did a big speech yesterday on the state of the economy and the government’s plan to beat the recession. It was full of platitudes and vague on specifics. As Selwyn Pellett from the Productive Economy Council noted on Morning Report this morning:

“His speech was ‘New Zealand we’re not going to change anything just try harder’ and that’s not going to cut it.”

Last year John Key was ambitious for New Zealand. Under his leadership we were going to close the wage gap with Australia, we’d all get a big tax cut without any cuts to public services, crime was going to go down, healthcare was going to improve, our kids were going to do better at school, and kiwis currently living overseas were going to flock home. Now his ambition amounts to little more than “blunting the sharp edges of the recession”. Tell that to the 1,200 people signing up for the dole every week!

The rhetoric in John Key’s speech also doesn’t match up with the reality. While he talks about focusing on R&D and skills development, his government slashed the Fast Forward fund, which would have promoted R&D, and gutted adult education and community skills training programmes. Not to mention the fact that they took an axe to NZ Trade and Enterprise programmes designed to support businesses. As for encouraging savings – they cut Kiwisaver in half!

What New Zealand desperately needs now is a plan from the government to save and create jobs. They are missing in action. John Key is no longer being ambitious for New Zealand; he’s simply content with being ambiguous for New Zealand.

Update: Annette King has just released information showing over 50,000 kiwis have signed on for some form of benefit in the last 12 months. Yet still no sign of a plan from National…

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Filed under: jobs, national
8 Comments

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