Whakatu works shutdown blame debated in House

Press, 15 October 1986, Page 8

Whakatu works shutdown blame debated in House

Wellington reporter Blame for the Whakatu meat works shutdown was bounced backwards and forwards across Parliament yesterday in a snap debate on the closing. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, described the closing as a tragedy for the Hawke’s Bay community and blamed the Government’s economic policies which, he said, had destroyed the rural infrastructure and reduced the lamb kill by 10 million lambs last year. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Moyle, said, however, that the root cause of the problems besetting the meat industry today lay in National’s decision to shield producers from

reality through S.M.P.S and the land-development and stock-incentive schemes.

He quoted Whakatu, together with the recent closing of the Hellaby Shortland works in Auckland and the threatened closing of Longburn, as part of a “necessary revolution” that had been delayed too long. He said that delay had intensified the pain and suffering the rationalisation was causing working people. “If the changes had taken place in a more gradual way, if the real impact of the difficulties of selling our meat on world markets had been realised five, six and seven years ago instead of

the nonsensical policies of the National Government, we would not have the holocaust that is hitting the meat workers of this country,” he said.

He also contrasted the Government’s quick response ‘ in dispatching the Ministers of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Burke and Mrs Hercus, to the area with National’s tardy reaction to the Patea works closing.

Mr Bolger had earlier ridiculed the Government’s reaction, saying the “B team” in Cabinet had been put on the job. He was referring to the committee chaired by the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, and made up of the Minister of Labour,

Mr Roger, and the Minister of Housing, Mr Goff, together with Mrs Hercus and Mr Burke.

Dubbing them "the rescue team,” he said their solution was “to fast track the workers on to the dole queue” and dismissed it contemptuously as “their great initiative.” Hawke’s Bay already had 10.1 per cent unemployment, he said. He’ predicted that the closing would push the rate to 15 per cent in Hastings and to 13 per cent in Napier — the highest and secondhighest unemployment in New Zealand. Provincial New Zealand was being “crucified” by the callous indifference of the Government, he said. However, Mr . Moyle

said two new big plants and one smaller one had been started in Hawke’s Bay and so for the older one to have to close was inevitable.

Whakatu, established in 1915, had been grossly overcrowded and had had the lowest productivity record in the area because of the age and design of the equipment

On the reduced lamb kill, Mr Moyle said first that the number of lambs bom had begun to drop under National when the kill fell 5 per cent in 19841985, and second, that New Zealand would get a better price for the 33 million lambs sold this year than for the 39 million sold a year ago. Longburn report, page 2