‘Simply not true’

Press, 15 April 1981, Page 14

‘Simply not true’

PA Dunedin Repeated assertions.by Mr Hugh Fletcher that a smelter will create 25,000 jobs run, contrary to well established facts, according to Associate Professor John Parker, an economist at Otago ity"Mr Fletcher (managing director of Fletcher Challenge Corpftration) has doggedly persisted with his claims, even after the publication of Professor Paul van Moeseke's second aluminium smelter report,” Professor' Parker said.

, . "He made the claim again in Dunedin receritly, but it simply is not true. Even on Trade and Industry figures, ' Professor • van Moeseke shows that, at most, 6000 jobs will be created throughout New Zealand.” Professor Parker said that the only way Mr Fletcher could ’amplify the jobs created more than 400 per cent was by abandoning the standard job multiplier method for such projects, and adopting an "unorthodox” technique to create the number of jobs he would like to see.

He said that an economic planning paper by the New Zealand economists, Philpott and Stroombergcn, and cited by Professor van Moeseke, suggested'the 1980-85 energy projects could actually be "deleterious to employment”, in New .Zealand. < Because of the high import intensity needed to create each job-the paper said, the substantial investment involved “reduces resources available for other and more employment-creating types 1 of investment." “That Mr Fletcher chooses to ignore, the true position merely shows that if you say something loud enough and often enough it will be believed,” Professor . Parker said. "If this informatidn forms the basis for the case that the smelter is in the national interest, under the National Development Act. it. is to be hoped that the legal vetting procedure will expose the exaggerated claims, and reject them .out of hand.".'