Task force for job prospects needed—Labour

Press, 4 June 1981, Page 3

Task force for job prospects needed—Labour

PA Wellington The Labour Party through its Shadow Minister of Employment and Technology. Mr T. K. Burke (West Coast), in Parliament yesterday sought to have established a job task force responsible to the Prime Minister as a means of stimulating employment prospects. As set out in the private members’ bill Mr Burke introduced. the force would consist of eight people appointed for a five-year term. The Government gave the measure a cool reception. The Acting Minister of Labour (Mr Thomson) termed the proposed force a "super quango" — a special-purpose Government body — and said its establishment would contrast with Opposition calls for a reduction in the number of such authorities. But the Government allowed the bill to have a first reading and it was subsquently referred to the Labour and Education Select Committee for consideration. Under the measure, the chairman would be appointed by the Prime Minister. Other members would be appointed by the Federation of Labour, ’ the Employers’ Federation, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Local Government, and the Minister of Maori Affairs. The Secretary of Labour and the Director-General of Education would be members. The force would be required to supervise any employment service run by, for, or on behalf of the Labour Department. It would enlist the co-operation of people involved in job creation, advise the Minister of Labour about job-creation schemes, collect and dispose of information relating to unemployment, and commission research projects relating to job creation. In putting forward the bill, Mr Burke said unemployment statistics showed the need for the measure, emphasised the collapsing employment market, and the collapse of the Government's growth strategy. Unemployment was alarming and represented the most serious social and economic problem facing New Zealand, he said.

"We believe the force would be a positive step toward the creation of greater employment. The first priority of the Labour Party is the promotion of full employment," he said.

Mr Thomson said the fact that the task force would be responsible to the Prime Minister would concentrate powers in the hands of the Prime Minister and diminish those of the Minister of Labour.

It concentrated decisionmaking at the centre, in Wellington, whereas the Labour Party had called for a greater dispersal of decisionmaking to regions. The Government believed that regional vocational training councils and other regional groups involved in employ-

ment areas were working well.

"We do not want to concentrate power in Wellington. Why cannot the Labour Department do the job? It is doing it well and working with other departments now." Mr Thomson said. He called the force a "super quango" and said the functions intended for it overlapped with those of other bodies.

“It is not the answer to unemployment." he said. Mr D' J. Butcher (Lab., Hastings) said Mr Thomson's speech had been "tired, destructive, and negative — he cannot distinguish beween a quango and doing something." Long-term planning on unemployment problems had been totally lacking under Government policy and immediate action was needed to solve the problem. Mr R. L. Bell (Nat.. Gisborne) said New Zealand's unemployment percentage of 3.7 per cent compared reasonably with that of other countries. He cited latest statistics giving unemployment in Britain as 10.8 per cent; Germany, 3.6 per cent: Canada. 7.4 per cent: and the United States. 7.5 per cent. To April of this year. 17.956 people had found jobs under the Government's jobcreation schemes, Mr Bell said.

Mr D. F. Caygill (Lab.. St. Albans) said the Government was not encouraging young people to acquire the skills they needed to get jobs.

"This Government is acting as if there is no problem." he said. "It has made it as unattractive as it can to students to go to technical institutes."

It was not providing the necessary amenities, no funding the courses the institutes wanted to run, he said. "They fail to realise that we have to train people. We have to give them the skills to make them available for the jobs that are there.” The Minister of Immigration (Mr Malcolm) said the problem was not that the number of jobs had shrunk but that the job market had not grown sufficiently to cope with those coming into the market. He accused the Labour party of wanting to set up a committee to solve the unemployment problem. The Government's solution, he said, was a growth strategy which would result in more jobs.

Mr G. W. R. Palmer (Lab.. Christchurch Central), said the Labour Department had failed to do its job; it was under-staffed, demoralised, and it was denied the resources necessary for handling the unemployment problem.

The Government, he said, was thinking big on unemployment. There were 46.676 registered unemployed at the end of April. In April. 1976. there were 4516 registered unemployed. "That is ‘Think Big' all right," he said.