19 July 1996

Business confidence has crashed to a five-year low in the July quarter, according to the latest Institute of Economic Research business opinion survey.

Registered Unemployment figures rose nationally by 3.2% to 150,186 people during June. Wyatt Creech says the increase was expected because of seasonal factors such as the winter closure of freezing works and the end of the pipfruit and kiwifruit harvests. The figure is 6,000 lower than the figure for June 1995.

National Business Review publishes its annual Rich List, with brewery baron Doug Myers still NZ's richest man with a personal fortune of $310m, followed by Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite each with $200m of net wealth.

20 July 1996

Labour's Steve Maharey says the real unemployment figure is closer to 300,000 people -- when you take into account those on the 55-plus benefit, those working part-time but wanting to do more and those on ACC who were able to work.

21 July 1996

Investment spending in manufacturing is drying up, and a fall in employment is expected, according to the latest business report from the Manufacturers Federation.

Two Employment Tribunal cases in Auckland have ordered employees to pay penalties of $500 each for quitting their jobs without giving notice.

22 July 1996

School truancy cases notified to the Children and Young Persons Service have increased 40% during the last year, and were adding pressure on the Service.

The UN agency FAO says that the world needs to increase food production by 75% by the year 2050 in order to meet the expected growth in global population to 9.8 billion people.

ASEAN nations -- comprised of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- are campaigning to oppose issues that "are not trade-related", from being discussed at the World Trade Organisation inaugural meeting in December. The nations do not want developed nations in the WTO to link child labour, sweatshop conditions, human rights, corruption, environmental degradation and other "social clauses" to global trade.

23 July 1996

The Information Technology Association predicts that payments of social security benefits will probably be made by smart-card technology within five years.

Many Kiwis are technically broke. Almost half of all NZ'ers would be penniless or owe money if they had to sell up everything to pay all their debts, according to a Westpac-FPG survey.

Only 22% of the first and second-year teachers expect to be in the profession after 10 years, according to a Teacher Registration Board survey. The teachers say they enjoy teaching but feel underpaid and undervalued and overwhelmed by paperwork and administrative demands.

Unions and employers are both spending up large on pre-election advertising blitzes to put the Employment Contracts Act into the election spotlight.

24 July 1996

Tertiary students are planning protest marches, rallies and sit-ins in protest at the predicted fee increases of $400 or more next year.

Average state-house rents have risen from $87.41 to $154.91 a week since market rents were introduced three years ago, Housing Minister Murray McCully reports to Parliament.

25 July 1996

Labour leader Helen Clark pledges to end housing shortages in Auckland, saying that the poor are worse off there than in any other city. She blames National government policies -- market rentals for state houses and the abolition of state loans for first-time buyers -- for putting people in such a position. Labour promises to move back to income-related rents in state houses.

Shortage of social workers in West Auckland has forced the Waitakere Children and Young Persons Service (CYPS) to ask schools to stop sending them children, except in likely abuse cases.

26 July 1996

The University Vice-Chancellors Committee says that continuing reductions in government funding of tertiary education was forcing many students to quit their studies. A survey of university students who did not complete tertiary qualifications this year showed 46% citing financial problems as the reason for not continuing studies.

The principal of Henderson Primary School criticises the CYPS cutbacks in West Auckland and says that the Service seems to be no better off after years of restructuring. He points to recent reports of the nine highest paid staff at Social Welfare sharing a bonus payment of almost $120,000, and asks whether the money would be better used "...improving the salary structure of the people who actually do the work, or even employing some more of them."

27 July 1996

The government is putting $100,000 into a campaign to help businesses affected by ash fallout from the Mt Ruapehu eruptions.

The Internal Affairs Dept proposes that gambling be thrown open to competitive forces -- with bookmaking, lotteries, scratch cards, casinos, poker machines and other forms of gambling being open to all-comers meeting prescribed standards. The proposals are described as 'revolutionary' and unknown anywhere else in the world.

28 July 1996

Some families are paying more than 8% of their nett income in ACC levies, and for some of them this amounts to more than $3000 a year in costs which are hidden in taxes, employers levies, vehicle registrations and levies on petrol, according to a campaign lobby group Choice in ACC, a group backed by the Business Roundtable and the Employers Federation.

31 July 1996

Ord Minnett's latest economic growth indicator figures fell sharply last month, reaching its lowest point since 1992. Ord Minnett says that economic growth could grind to a halt by September.

Social Welfare reports that about 143,000 beneficiaries owe the Income Support Service $237m for advance benefit payments, grants, fraud and overpayments. This is 13,000 more beneficiaries and $45m more debt than in the 1995 fiscal year.

1 August 1996

The Social Welfare Department uncovered more than 53,000 cases of benefit fraud in the last 12 months, but prosecuted less than 1% of the cases, according to government figures obtained by Labour's Phil Goff.

Waikato University is opening its financial books to student representatives in an effort to identify savings in next year's budget and reduce an expected increase in student fees.

2 August 1996

One in three NZ'ers eligible for the accommodation supplement are not receiving it, according to a government figures obtained by Labour's Annette King. She estimates that as many as 150,000 people could be missing out on the subsidy.

The Children and Young Persons Service has spent $8.9m on a training programme which only 100 of its staff completed.

4 August 1996

NZ First makes an about-turn in its housing policy, dropping its promise to return state house rentals to 25% of a tenant's income. It now says it will simply increase the accommodation supplement.

5 August 1996

The country's jails are overflowing and prisoners are being forced to stay in police cells.

6 August 1996

Meat processing giant Affco announces 90 lay-offs at its Wairoa works.

The Christian Coalition party breaks the 5% threshold of support in a recent political opinion poll.

8 August 1996

Gisborne vegetable processor Cedenco announces it will move its tomato-processing operations to Victoria, Australia, at the cost of hundreds of local jobs. Cedenco has formed a $26m joint venture with two of Australia's largest vegetable processors, Cerebos Australia and Simplot Australia.

The government's ill-fated illegal sale of its stake in NZ Steel in 1987 is now set to cost it more than $328m, after the Judge awarded $133m in interest payments on top of the original settlement. This compensation payment is the highest in NZ history and amounts to $91 for every person living in NZ.

The number of people in industry training has risen by more than 5000 since June 1995, according to Education Minister Wyatt Creech.

9 August 1996

Labour's justice spokesman Phil Goff attacks the ACT president Roger Douglas for linking the rise in crime with the welfare state: "Those countries with the worst crime, such as in Latin America, are also those without a welfare state..."