‘N.Z. will soon be a poor country’

Press, 5 October 1977, Page 2

‘N.Z. will soon be a poor country’

Parliamentary reporter I New Zealand was throwing away the advantages 1 favouring a low-cost international meat export industry, the executive I director of the Freezing (Companies’ Association (Mr P. D. Blomfield) said in Wellington yesterday. Speaking at a seminar on industrial relations in the freezing industry at Parliament, designed to ease some of the problems facing the industry, Mr Blomfield said that in the early 1960 s New Zealand was fourth in the world in productivity. Today it was below twentieth. “For years we have proudly referred to our climate, our grasslands, and our high production per acre with little reliance on nitrogenous fertilisers and no need to house stock over the winter,” he said. “Qur farmers have international reputations for output per man and per acre, but for New Zealand as a whole, things have changed.” Mr Blomfield said that New Zealand would “soon be a very poor country, well behind other countries.” “The spectre ora low wage country where only a few will be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living is looming.” Mr Blomfield maintained that the nation’s leaning on

exports of meat, wool, and dairy products for about 80 per cent of its overseas income was unlikely to change in the near future. However, he said, the freezing industry was “full of union-imposed restrictions and management arrangements finalised through expediency.” “As a result, we have overstaffed departments, restrictions on throughput and manning, and there is not even a policy of retiring workers in this industry.” He referred to the recommendations made by the 1973 Commission of Inquiry into the meat industry, chaired by Sir ” Arnold Nordmeyer. Little or no progress had been made on the points emerging from the commission. “This is because we are not looking at productivity in a true sense," he said. “The Freezing Companies’ Association would be prepared to consider paying consulting fees to enable a job evaluation study of the industry and a complete restructuring of the award to be undertaken. “We have a problem — the problem of maintaining a viable export meat industry and consequently by its contribution in export funds, a New Zealand economy and standard of living that we can be proud of.

“If the union attitude is such that all the benefits of automation go to the workers instead of being divided among workers, farmers, and shareholders and if productivity agreements are negotiated by companies and unions that are deals to provide more for workers for a standard or an output that they are really paid to do anyway, then we are in very real trouble as an industry and as a country.” Mr Blomfield said a change of attitude was imperative. “Our employees must be motivated to achieve increases in productivity and they must be fully involved in the decisions leading to productivity improvement," he said.

"Management must be prepared to discuss plans for the company with the union, to disclose general financial information, and to explain the contribution that the company can make to the economy. “It is over to union and management to resolve differences and to develop a common philosophy for the benefit of New Zealand.”

More than 200 delegates from all sections of the industry are attending the two-day seminar, chaired by Sir Arnold Nordmeyer. It was opened by the Minister of Labour, Mr Gordon.