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Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP |
When I see the logging trains heading to the port, I think about all of the jobs we are exporting with them. It's the same with the fishing and farming sectors.
Our ‘Primary Industries' could be providing raw materials to local companies to process, but instead we send our raw logs overseas, and buy back the timber, the furniture, and the paper. We send our fresh fish overseas, and buy it back in a can. This is completely ridiculous.
This blue government is doing nothing to encourage and facilitate local added-value businesses. A number of New Zealand-owned timber companies are struggling to get logs, with them all earmarked for overseas.
In the year ending November 2015 we sent 22,466 cubic metres of wood – 'in the rough” according to Statistics New Zealand – to China. In 2016 it more than doubled, to 46,000. We have to buy our own wood back from the rest of the world at a steep increase after it has been processed. Each of these primary resources represents jobs that are not being done by Kiwis.
We also need to confront the ‘elephant in the room' that is workshy New Zealanders – the systemic problem of generational unemployment. We are currently sitting 2nd to bottom in the OECD for productivity. This needs to be addressed urgently.
Kiwis need to be able to expect a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. In the past we've been famous for our grafting, can-do Kiwi attitude.
When New Zealand First begins to make progress on keeping these value-adding jobs in country, we are going to have to find that balance between ‘carrot' and ‘stick' policies to make sure that Kiwis show up and do the work.
Where a soft touch isn't working, we will have to consider tough love options, to remind a small minority of New Zealanders that a safety net is not a hammock. The Jobseeker's Allowance is there to help you while you are job-seeking. It's not a career.
We will create jobs that maximise the resources available to us, be they trees, fish, or folk.