Letter No.39
20 May, 1996

18 April 1996

The Fishing Industry Association has agreed to pay minimum NZ wages to foreigners fishing in NZ waters. They propose to pay all crew members the minimum weekly wage by Oct 1997.

19 April 1996

Farming economists estimate that meat and wool farmers probably lost more than $200 million last year as a result of the rising exchange rate.

Don Brash, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, will keep his job although he has breached his 0-2% inflation charter twice in the last year.

20 April 1996

FinSec, the finance sector union, says that the merger of Trust Bank and Westpac could lead to the axing of up to 2000 jobs. The banks have 7000 staff between them, but there are 120 localities where the Trust Bank and Westpac banks faced each other, and there would also be considerable restructuring at the head office level.

Proposals to link the computer records of the Social Welfare and Labour Departments are dropped from the proposed Tax Reduction and Social Policy Bill because it would breach the Privacy Act.

22 April 1996

Employers Federation chief executive Steve Marshall flies to Geneva to chair an International Organisation of Employers `working group' on child labour. The `working group' is the first time international employers have sought to develop a strategy to eliminate child labour, and it aims to focus on helping countries develop economies that do not depend on the continued use of children for economic survival.

The government's coalition partner United NZ Party wants dole payments to be cut for those people, particularly gang members, who are abusing the welfare system and conducting lives of crime.

Dunedin Sukhi Turner Mayor gives a controversial "State of the City" address criticising traditional business and industrial development in Dunedin and laying out an alternative vision of economic development based on environmental safety and social equity.

23 April 1996

Labour announces it would re-introduce government subsidised home loans for low and middle-income earners to help them to own their own homes.

24 April 1996

The government will put almost $1 million into community housing to help community agencies cope with market-rent increases by Housing NZ.

The Cook Islands government introduces sweeping spending cuts which include laying off public servants, slashing MPs pay, and selling government assets.

25 April 1996

The growth in building activity appears to be close to its peak, according to a survey from the Institute of Economic Research.

A National conference of Green Dollar Trading Systems starts in Upper Hutt.

27 April 1996

The BNZ increases its fixed mortgage rates for the second time in two weeks, blaming the rise on tight monetary policies by the Reserve Bank.

28 April 1996

International Workers Memorial Day. A day for remembering workers who have died on the job.

29 April 1996

Business confidence has dropped sharply in the first three months of this year, according to the Institute of Economic Research.

30 April 1996

Lampen Workchoice Day. More than 15,000 secondary students in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are given a quick run-down on what to expect when they join the workforce.

The National Bank's latest business survey shows business confidence has fallen to the lowest level since 1991.

Police are demanding more resources and powers against gangs, including specialised `gang-busting' units of police.

The Alliance says that worker's annual paid leave entitlement should rise to four weeks, instead of the present minimum of three weeks. An Alliance led government would phase-in the new leave provisions over three years.

The Court of Appeal rules that city-based Maori with no tribal links are entitled to a share of the multi-million-dollar Maori fishing assets.

1 May 1996

Mike Moore calls for tough new laws to break up gangs.

2 May 1996

The Police Association accuses the Minister of Police of being naive or poorly informed in claiming that the police have the resources to combat gang violence.

ANZ-Postbank, Countrywide Bank and Westpac lift their home mortgage rates.

3 May 1996

The Institute of Economic Research's latest concensus of economic forecasts predicts that the annual employment growth will slow to 1.6% by next March, from 3.3% this year.

4 May 1996

The latest government accounts show its financial surplus is running nearly $1.2 billion ahead of forecasts, indicating that the government has a wide scope for spending in the upcoming Budget.

8 May 1996

NZ First says it would relax the Reserve Bank's strict 0-2% inflation target and instead ensure that inflation is kept below the average of NZ's major trading partners. NZ First is also thinking of a tax exemption for the low-paid to compensate them for the regressive effect of GST.

9 May 1996

Parliament passes the legislation implementing the government's tax cuts programme, and a raft of social policy changes. (see last special issue of The Jobs Letter)The Tax Reduction and Social Policy Bill was passed 51 votes to 47.

About 100 Auckland City Council jobs may go within the planned re-structuring of the Council's business units.

In Australia, thousands of public servants protest at mass meetings at the threat of wholesale government job losses. More than 7,000 jobs in the Commonwealth public service have been targeted for the axe in an effort to slice federal spending by $8 billion over the next two years.

Australian economists predict that their unemployment rate be 8.6% this year, rising to 9.2% next year.

A drop of 8% in first-year university enrolments throughout NZ could mean a `lost generation' of young people not going to university, according to the chancellor of Waikato University, Gerald Bailey.

10 May 1996

Management consultants Price Waterhouse report that three NZ company chief executives are paid over $1 million a year, ten earn between 500,000 and $1 million and 25 take home something between $250,000 and $500,000.

13 May 1996

Dunedin Mayor Sukhi Turner publicly apologises for any `distress' caused by her allegedly `anti-business' comments.

The Maori-owned shoe manufacturing business KT Footwear may branch out in the United States, after news that homeless people in Los Angeles are working to open the business there.

Tom Flannery, an international expert on renumeration, says that NZ's top executives are underpaid, and in danger of being poached by overseas competitors.

15 May 1996

5th anniversary of the Employment Contracts Act

Telecom announces a profit of $716 million, its highest ever, and plans to provide free line rentals for schools in order to help them gain access to information technology such as the Internet.

The Housing Corporation sells mortgages worth $562 million to Westpac, who will use a company it jointly owns with Maori International to administer them

16 May 1996

Official NZ unemployment figures rise by 2000 to 110,000 people, the first rise in three years.

PPTA President Martin Cooney predicts that schools could be short of up to 18,000 teachers by the year 2000.

Up to 200 Hamilton City Council staff, including 14 managers, will lose their jobs in the biggest staff shake-up in the Council's history.

A crisis meeting is held of rural leaders in Taumaranui to discuss the effects of the rural recession, brought on by farmers struggling with low wool and beef prices.

17 May 1996

Trade Aid staff work for 16 hours today for no wages as part of a campaign and petition drive calling for an end to child slave labour in South Asia, especially in the carpet industry.

The OECD warns that NZ's tax cuts could re-ignite inflation and increase the external deficit.