13 April 2004
Minster of Finance Michael Cullen urges businesses to switch to "value creation" rather than trying
to cut labour and other costs to improve their profitability. He warns that the economy will stagnate
if business focus remains on cost cutting.
A total of 23% of businesses surveyed by NZIER say the shortage of labour is the biggest block
to increasing their productivity. Businesses also say they are running flat tack: "capacity utilisation" is at
its highest level since 1973.
The Tararua District Council opens up its mayoral flood relief fund. Mayor Maureen Reynolds
urges people who have suffered big losses to use it.
As the frigate HMNZS Canterbury is decommissioned next year, the navy will lose a significant
training capability. To cope, the navy may decide to put staff with other navies in order to gain specialist
skills. The navy is also considering reducing the training it provides because it believes it over-trains staff
in some areas.
Workers fall sick with stress and anxiety not only when their company is downsizing but also when it
is expanding, according to a study in British medical journal
The Lancet.
US microchip maker Intel says it will continue to outsource jobs to Southeast Asia despite the
negative focus on the practice in the media. Chief Craig Barrett says companies have been outsourcing
for decades and it is just the election cycle that is making it news at the moment.
14 April 2004
About 60 jobs are lost at Port Nelson as the owner of a multi-million dollar luxury boat, which
caught fire while being refitted, decides not to continue with the work.
ACT MP Muriel Newman accuses Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia and his Maori
caucus colleagues of arguing over the seabed and foreshore and neglecting the bigger picture of Maori
Welfare dependency. Newman says that Maori make up 15% of the population but 33% of those on
unemployment benefits.
Parekura Horomia says there are more Maori in paid employment than at any time over the last
16 years and there are over 800 young Maori taking part in Modern Apprenticeships.
15 April 2004
Carter Holt Harvey puts its Rotorua timber mill on the market and says it could close the mill if a
buyer is not found. The mill employs 69 staff.
The Porirua Apprenticeships Trust is launched with the aims of easing the chronic shortage of builders
in the city, as well as provides young people career pathways. The trust aims to place 15 apprentices
this year.
16 April 2004
The Employment Court rules that Air NZ may drug-test some workers.
Random drug-testing has proved positive in 9% of those workers tested, according to
Environmental Science and Research, a firm that has done testing for 400 companies. Drug tests found 27% of
tests were positive when carried out on workers after industrial accidents.
18 April 2004
The "creative industries" are growing 8.7% per year worldwide, according to Creative Industries
NZ, and currently employ about 50,000 NZ'ers. Creative Industries NZ is holding a 10-day symposium
in Christchurch in May.
NZ dairy giant Fonterra will progressively outsource more and more staff to IT specialist EDS.
Fonterra transferred 96 staff to EDS in December and is set to continue this trend.
ACC, the agency responsible for preventing workplace injuries, is being investigated by
Occupation Health and Safety following complaints by staff of bullying, overwork and stress. ACC says the
complaints are unsubstantiated and that it has confidence it has systems in place to manage
workplace stress.
19 April 2004
Travel retailer the Flight Centre plans to employ 250 staff in 20 new stores around NZ.
Minister of Women's Affairs Ruth Dyson declares "Mana Wahine" week: a celebration of the
contribution made by Maori women in business.
20 April 2004
Michael Cullen hints that there will be a boost in funding for apprenticeships in the next Budget.
Both the IMF and the OECD warn that the US Bush Administration's record budget deficit is
putting the world economy at risk.
21 April 2004
NZ had a net outflow of 320 migrants in March, the first monthly net loss of long-term migrants
since 2001. Arrivals from China fell 66% and Chinese departures jumped nearly 90% when the latest
figures are compared to March 2003.
The Masterton Trust Lands Trust announces grants of $62,000 to assist trade-training courses in
the town. The money is committed in $600 lots for course fees for students taking UCOL Wairarapa
pre-trade courses, and to support courses provided through Wairarapa Workforce Development Trust.
There were 11.2% more advertised job vacancies during March this year than they were in
March 2003. ANZ chief economist David Drage says this is good news for job seekers but continues to
cause difficulties for many businesses that are experiencing skilled labour shortages.
22 April 2004
The Association of South East Asian Nation's economic ministers recommend inviting the NZ
and Australian prime ministers to their next meeting, thus putting "free-trade" negotiations on the agenda.
Up to 50 jobs will go as Palmerston North plastics company Click Clack relocates production work
to its other plants in Levin and Christchurch.
25 April 2004
The Amaltal Fishing Company says that the four Filipino staff in the country are training to qualify
to work on the company's international fleet and are not just new staff. The NZ Fishing Industry Guild
had raised its concerns that foreign fishermen may begin to edge out local crew working in NZ waters.
26 April 2004
The Maritime Union of NZ launches a campaign focused on shifting the industry towards a
regulated, highly skilled and permanent workforce. The union says "flag of convenience" shipping and
casualisation of waterfront labour is undermining good NZ jobs.
Just 560 of Child Youth and Family's 990 social workers have social work qualifications. The
agency says 50 of the 270 staff who are currently studying will have completed their qualification by the end
of 2004. Government figures show it costs about $14,000 per person for most staff to gain the
desired qualification.
27 April 2004
ACT Party leader Richard Prebble is stepping down from the post and will not run as a
parliamentary candidate at the next election.
28 April 2004
Student loan scheme debt reaches $7 billion. In an editorial,
The Dominion Post: "It is not difficult
to imagine that a change of demographics — home buying and child bearing — will occur as young
people struggle to clear the debts before settling down."
Also regarding the student loan news, a New Zealand
Herald editorial says there is no need for concern at the size of student loans. It says that students have a repayment regime that would be the envy
of any other investor.
A UN report on world youth finds that although today's youth are better off than earlier
generations, many are still hindered by lack of education, poverty, health problems and unemployment. World
Youth Report 2003, published April 2004 by the United Nations can be downloaded from
here
29 April 2004
The Tertiary Education Commission has turned over nearly one-third of its staff since it was launched
15 months ago.
30 April 2004
Norway's new gender equality rules will require company boards to include at least 40% of
each gender by mid-2005 or face significant fines. Currently, women make up just 8.9% of boards
members of Norwegian shareholding companies.
1 May 2004
The Marsden Point oil refinery begins a three-week maintenance shut down that will involve as many
as 450 additional staff.
2 May 2004
Sealord Group, the large Nelson-based fishing company, is in talks with the Immigration Service
about employing Chinese workers to cope with the July to September busy processing season.
However, spokeswoman Merrill Coke says there are no current plans to hire Chinese workers. Coke:
"Our priority is to recruit local labour for the processing plants this hoki season, and we are working hard
on that."
More than 2,300 invalid and sickness benefits were cancelled over the past three years because
the recipients had been convicted of offences and were sent to prison. ACT MP Muriel Newman says
that if beneficiaries are well enough to commit crime, they should not be collecting a sickness or
invalid benefit.
The MSD has purchased a knee operation for a sickness beneficiary from the
Counties-Manukau District Health Board. This is the first of what will be about 400 operations on sickness and
invalid beneficiaries that will allow them to return to their job sooner.
The Melbourne-based Tenix Defence, the "preferred bidder" to build seven Australian navy
patrol boats, says that $200 million of the work will be spread around more than 100 NZ companies over
the next three years. The Melbourne-based Tenix Defence, the "preferred bidder" to build seven
Australian navy patrol boats, says that $200 million of the work will be spread around more than 100 NZ
companies over the next three years.
3 May 2004
Fonterra, NZ's largest company, will cut 700 jobs over the next two years, most of them in
NZ. Fonterra employs 20,000 staff worldwide, about half of which work in NZ.
Ninety-five Origin Pacific staff are expected to lose their jobs as the Nelson-based airline reveals
it cannot meet it debt obligations. The company expects its creditors to allow it to keep trading rather
than to send it into liquidation.
4 May 2004
NZ's 18 registered banks added 840 staff to their operations last year, a significant increase and
change of direction from the cutbacks made during the 1990s.
The strength of the housing market depends more on the job sector than on interest rates, according
to real estate agency Harcourt. Chief executive Bruce Thomson says that the market can stand
interest rate rises if employment is strong and people are confident about their income.
Chilean president Richardo Lagos is in NZ on a state visit signing three trade agreements relating
to agriculture and science.
None of the Group of Eight (G8) richest nations have kept their promise to spend 0.7% of their
GDP on development, according to the World Bank. President James Wolfensohn: "It is the rich
countries which every year go through a sort of shadow play at the G8 meetings when senior bureaucrats
come around to try and see what it is that can be highlighted that won't cost a lot of money but which will
get a headline."
5 May 2004
Police and immigration officials arrest 10 illegal foreign kiwifruit pickers at western Bay of Plenty
road checks. 12 others were arrested last month and dozens of others are reportedly departed the
region. Packhouse owners and orchardists are angry at the Immigration swoop, fearing the loss of the
foreign workers' labour will result in their fruit going unpicked and rotting on the vine. They call for
short-term work visas to be issues for their region.
The Green Party has serious reservations that the Charities Bill will undermine the independence
and political advocacy activities of the community sector. Submissions on the Charities Bill are being
accepted until 3 June. The Greens say emailed submissions will be forwarded-on if they are sent to
russel.norman@parliament.govt.nz
Taskforce chairman Garry Moore told the forum that the mayors' values of tolerating
"zero waste" of young people must to be woven into everything we do. Moore called on the mayors
and attending government officials to involve all people in positions of influence to deliver on youth
employment goals. Moore: "We need to build bridges between schools and where the jobs are. We need
to create a climate where young people know where the jobs are and know how to get the skills they
need to do them. We need to knock over the silos, work across industry sectors. We want the goals of
the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs to be written into the business plans of all the sector groups."
The government is dedicating $20 million over the next three years on an initiative designed
to enhance support for sickness and invalid beneficiaries to fully participate in their communities,
including into the paid workforce. The Sickness and Invalids Benefits Strategy will provide an expanded range
of programmes and support services including access to health and rehabilitation services, new services
to support employers, early intervention to keep people in employment wherever possible or keep
the position open until someone who is sick is able to return to work, increased access to existing
employment programmes and resources, and assistance to connect people to support where employment is
not possible.
A survey of 50 small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) has found that sourcing staff
and dealing with the subsequent labour regulations are recurring problems that deter hiring and
impede company growth. Claire Massey, director of the Centre for SME Research at Massey University,
says that in small companies, taking on new staff is the second biggest single compliance event (next to
tax returns) and is enough to make managers think of alternatives to hiring and even intentionally
limiting their growth.
ACT Party social welfare spokeswoman Muriel Newman is campaigning for the party's
leadership on a platform of reforming the New Zealand welfare system. Newman says that a culture of
welfare dependency has burgeoned since the 1970s and is debilitating and dividing our society. If she
is leading ACT as part of the next government, she would have all beneficiaries — with the
exception those receiving pensions or who are physically incapable of working — forced to reapply for
their benefits. She says this would help eliminate beneficiaries' barriers to work, and it would expose
those receiving benefits they are not entitled to. ACT estimates that benefit fraud costs $1 billion per year.
The government is to begin free-trade talks with China, a move that has excited New
Zealand primary producers. Prime Minister Helen Clark says a trade deal with China would create
opportunities for more New Zealand companies, especially those in the dairy, fruit and vegetable and processed
food sectors, and some niche market manufacturers. Exporters say that if China lowers its tariff
barriers, New Zealand companies will have a competitive edge on supplying the world's fastest growing
large economy.