Mr Rowling: Govt must act on jobs

Press, 22 January 1979, Page 2

Mr Rowling: Govt must act on jobs

The Leader of the Oppo-[ sition (Mr Rowling) sees the: latest unemployment figures —showing more than 54,000 jobless or on relief work —I. as a sign of a “sick”': economy in need of “sig-l 1 nificantly overdue” Govern-! ment action, the Press Association reports. Mr Rowling, speaking' from his home at Richmond, has predicted an inevitable continuing rise in unemployment. He described the need for Government moves ash “absolutely imperative.” The level of unemploy-j ment was now 125.000 p people “and I don’t think'

■that’s an exaggeration,” he 'said. The figures showed that! the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon), who had said no (further major moves on the I economy were needed, had (“shot his bolt politically,” Mr Rowling said. “He is denying the eviidence of the 0.E.C.D., saying it is trying to tel] him what to do. It is not. It is trying to offer him advice.” Seasonal harvesting and (other work was now “mask- | ing” unemployment, which j would rise again towards the (end of April, said Mr Rowing.

: The Government should call a conference of em-( ployers and unions and come 1 up with a policy to train un- • employed people for jobs > which would exist when ! their training was finished. 1 He alleged that some tech- ■ nical-institute job training courses were not tailored to - meet the market. The Tech- ; nical Institute in Auckland t had made this complaint to ; him. Rising unemployment 1 would accelerate the “exo- • dus” from New Zealand, and i schools’ problems in coping • with large numbers of job- - less returners would also be compounded.