The Government can do lots of things. For example, when Ruth Richardson cut a thousand million dollars out of the incomes to the poorest New Zealanders in 1991 that flattened the economy stone dead like it had been hit by a sledge hammer. The reason for that was that most of that thousand million dollars was being spent by poor people in their own communities. It was spent on food, clothes, paint, shoes ... and the local community benefited. So that shows you the dramatic impact that Governments can have.

The question is: how does a Government get involved more positively in job creation? The first thing is that the Government has to be prepared to invest in jobs.

The first resource would be an economic development fund that would be accessible to local communities to develop sustainable jobs on the basis of the nature of their economy, and the opportunities that that economy presents.

So those jobs will be different in various parts of the country. For example, in Northland, one of the potential job opportunities will be training young Maori apprentice carpenters and builders to build the houses that they desperately need up there.

Investment in housing in the North will pay dividends both socially, in terms of the quality of the housing, and you will create jobs at the same time. These jobs would add value and improve the economic base of the community because people are working - they are being paid wages instead of being on the dole.

Closing down services actually closes down the communities. It makes them less and less viable. Every time you close a service in a small community you make it less viable and you force that community into the large centers, where you have to wait even longer to get into hospital and the crush to get jobs is even greater and the alienation from your roots is deeper.

New Zealand has been following a kind of New Right model that comes out of the monetarist schools of Chicago. That's a minimalist government model that elevates the market to the arbiter of everything. What it says is that whatever the market deals you ... that's the best thing. What it says to regions is that if some region of New Zealand is failing badly, let it fail. Because the market says that's the way it is ... that's life and just get real and get on with it.

We've got a mixed economy - the public sector won't do it on its own - but the private sector won't do it unless the public sector shows some interest. Why would a private sector corporation go and invest in a region that is dying? It's not going to do that. But if the Government says that we're not going to let this region die, and we're going to invest here ... the private sector will follow.

Source - Interview with Jim Anderton by The Jobs Letter July 1999

The Alliance View on Jobs

—Housing in Northland

—Venture capital for establishing new technology industries in the regions of New Zealand (Scottish Development Agency, Irish Development Agency, European development model)

—Pest eradication in our forests and agricultural-horticultural areas.