Pilot job schemes promised

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 1

Pilot job schemes promised

From GLENN HASZARD in Wellington The Minister of Employment, Mr Burke, gave an assurance yesterday that the Government would not abolish job creation schemes without putting something positive in their place. Mr Burke was asked to comment on the future of the schemes after his Cabinet colleague, the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas had said that he had reservations about the value of the schemes in creating jobs. Mr Douglas said that the programmes had helped some people but the $350 million spent on them ultimately meant that that much less was available in the economy for the creation of real jobs.

“It’s not clear that job creation programmes are living up to their name,” Mr Douglas told a forum of the Employment Promotion Conference. Mr Burke said at a press conference late yesterday that there had been criticism that the schemes were not producing people with skills. “What I’ve tried to make clear is that though we are not committed to the structure of the programmes as they are, we are not going to toss them out on a wholesale basis without first putting something positive in their place.” Asked if his Cabinet colleagues might apply pressure to have the schemes scrapped and save millions of dollars, Mr Burke said

that he did not think there would be any pressure if the schemes were well directed and if they were producing skills which were marketable. The Government had a policy of not subsidising industrial or agricultural products that could not be sold, and the same would apply with labour market programmes. What the Government would seek to do after the conference finished was to put forward some pilot schemes and see how they went. There would be a need for a range of programmes, organisations, and structures. What also had to be looked at was whether the State could condone what he called “entrenched” subsidies for individuals on a permanent basis.

Maori delegates at the conference have hammered home repeated and strong demands for more say in how Government money is spent on them in job creation. They have put forward the idea that they should have regional Maori employment bodies answerable to a national Maori body, which would in turn answer to the Government. Mr Burke said that if that idea emerged today at the final sessions as a consensus view of the Maori delegates, then he would have to give it consideration. “But there are a whole range of problems associated with that proposal that would have to be addressed,” he said. Mr Burke said at an earlier press conference that the heat which had been engendered at the

opening session of the conference had not surprised him. It was better to be let off in the Legislative Chamber than for those who felt angry to be outside “throwing bricks,” he said. An incredible number of conflicts of interest had emerged at the conference, and he was not sure if a “miracle” could be performed to bring about any sort of consensus today. The real work of the conference yesterday was done in five working parties which met separately behind closed doors and thrashed out five separate topics relating to employment. What is likely to come out of these are statements setting out points of agreement and disagreement. One theme which has em-

erged as a viable option is the idea that regions should have a greater say in how Government money is spent on job creation. The employers like the idea, and so do community and unemployment groups. The Government sees dangers, but Mr Burke said that if some of the labour market issues could be dealt with regionally it would be all for the better. “The difficulty you get is that if you’re accused of being inflexible it’s because you’re sticking to policy, but if you’re flexible then you have some who will complain that you’re not allowing them to do something which a group somewhere else is doing,” said Mr Burke.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Caygill, said that he was optimistic that the manufacturing sector would be able to find more jobs. Export-led growth was vital to the creation of jobs in manufacturing, he said. Being internationally competitive did not mean that New Zealand workers had to accept the same level of wages as workers in Asian countries with low wages.

“Our real competitiveness comes in the quality of the goods we produce, our skills at marketing, finding goods for the markets before others do. What they also want is dependability. We can do all these things,” he told the forum.

Ms Karen- Cronin, of Christchurch, said that it was a myth that growth in output meant a growth in jobs to the same extent.

“Labour no longer operates as a factor of production as it used to because jobs themselves are becoming expensive,” she said. She questioned the Government’s notion of development because development was only part of the solu-

tion. Unemployment was structural and it had to be tackled not only by growth, but also by the development of diverse paid and unpaid employment structures. Ms Cronin produced the job-sharing kit for the Canterbury United Council last month, but emphasised that she was speaking to the forum as an individual.

The employers’ group leader, Mr Earl Richardson, yesterday issued a press statement in which he replied to criticism which had been levelled at employers at the opening session and again at yesterday’s forums. Speaker after speaker had latched on to the word “profit” with little or no recognition that profits were essential to the creation of new jobs, he said.

“Without profits a business cannot meet its tax burden, reinvest in new plant and equipment, and create further jobs. “One of the speakers at yesterday’s conference accused employers of sitting on their butts in their flash offices. I would suggest that if many of the unemployed — and some of them could be termed the professional unemployed — got off their butts, then they might get somewhere,” said Mr Richardson.

He also replied to Ms Cronin’s statement by saying that while there was little doubt that there was a move towards capital-inten-sive industry because of the cost of labour, it was also true that the more capitalintensive industry became the more goods and services were needed, and that meant more jobs. He said he was angry and distressed at some of the intemperate remarks made about employers. They were not “rip-off artists or buttsitters,” he said. At the age of 10 he had had to have 10 teeth extracted because of malnutrition and he had spent six weeks at a health camp in Auckland. He had made his way up and could see no reason why he and other employers could not have compassion for the plight that some were in today, he said.

Mr Richardson said that one thing which the business alliance had done to help get more jobs was to appoint a co-ordinator to set up “job finders” in each region. These finders would be employers who would make approaches to the unemployed individually to try to help them find jobs. Trustee banks had offered office space for the networks to be set up.