Govt admits failure with employment

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 3

Govt admits failure with employment

Wellington reporter While the Associate Minister of Finance, Mr Caygill, was admitting last evening the Government’s failure with employment policies, the Opposition was criticising the Government’s aboutface on reintroducing work schemes.

Addressing the Institute of Management in Auckland, Mr Caygill said the "obvious area of failure thus far is unemployment.” However, Government policies had seen every other aspect of New Zealand’s economy "come right.” In spite of the Government’s having failed with employment initiatives, Mr Caygill said he saw plenty of opportunities for future employment growth. But realising them needed a response from the private sector. He called on the private sector to “lift its industrial relations, marketing, quality and productivity” and to do so without handouts or subsidies. i Mr Caygill targeted forestry, horticulture, tourism, fishing, telecommunications and manufacturing as sectors with jobcreation potential. The Opposition spokesman on employment, Mr

Winston Peters, said the Government was “lower than a snake’s belly” for backing down over makework schemes. He said the Minister of Employment, Mr Goff, had “decried” jobcreation schemes and declared them “meaningless.” Mr Peters said Mr Goff had now admitted they

had a place. Mr Goff announced on Wednesday new initiatives to help reduce unemployment. He admitted that schemes such as Access and the Job Opportunity Scheme (J. 0.5. were inadequate ■ The Social Welfare Department gave figures this week showing that the total of unemployment beneficiaries had topped 100,600. Mr Peters said community work schemes were essential and that he would expose any attempt by the Government to underfund them. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, condemned the Government yesterday for making "yet another U-turn,” although he welcomed the decision to reintroduce work schemes. But it was a humiliating backdown by the Minister who had been vehement in his criticism of work schemes, Mr Bolger said.