Letter No.105
13 August, 1999

13 July 1999

An OECD report finds there is no causal link between strong employment protection regulations and high unemployment. It also finds no evidence that laws protecting workers' job security discriminate against women or young people. The report challenges recent moves by some European banks and politicians who want to drop employment protection legislation, claiming it would be a means of lowering the high number of unemployed Europeans.

Ethnic job hiring quotas should be included in the employment contracts of chief executives of all government departments, according to Pacific Island Affairs Minister Tuariki Delamere. He accuses government ministries and departments of racism and says that the government workforce of should reflect the ethnic minorities amongst NZ'ers.

Delamere also paints a bleak picture of the state of how Pacific Islanders are lagging well behind the rest of the population in terms of employment, income, health, education and housing. Referring to a new report that uses 1996 statistics, Delamere says that 15% of Pacific Islanders are registered as unemployed and 15% of Pacific Island women over 15 yrs are solo mums. Median incomes of Pacific Islanders are $100 less per week than the general population and, Delamere says, 26% of Pacific Islanders leave school without a qualification.

The management of the closing Otaki Richmond beef plant has found work for 17 of its workers in Australia. The jobs are at Teys Brothers, a meat processing plant northwest of Adelaide. Teys Brothers is paying the airfares for the workers and their families and Richmond has given each shifting family $1,500 towards their relocation costs.

13 July 1999

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley says the government will not support racial job quotas in government departments as suggested by Tuariki Delamere. Shipley says she supports equal opportunity plans rather than quota systems.

The Australian unemployment rate is now 7.2%. This is an improvement over the 7.5% recorded the previous month and represents an increase of more than 62,000 jobs.

14 July 1999

The Labour Party releases its plans to rebuild the apprenticeship system. The scheme is called the Modern Apprenticeship Programme, MAP, and would retain the Industry Training Organisations and the national qualifications framework. The proposed MAP will provide funding to support more people in apprenticeships and will provide incentives for small and medium sized businesses as well as state agencies to take on apprentices.

16 July 1999

Microsoft Corporation becomes the first company ever to record a market value of $US 500 billion.

18 July 1999

More money should be spent on opportunities for young women on the domestic purposes benefit for education, jobskills and child care according to ACT NZ leader Richard Prebble. He says young mothers should be made to complete high school and to live in a house with adult supervision. Prebble also voices his concerns about third generation DPB beneficiaries and that society should not pay children to have children.

20 July 1999

A survey of employer confidence says over one-third of NZ firms are planning to take on more staff this year while less than 15% of firms are intending to lay workers off. The Morgan & Banks bi-annual job index survey says that small and medium size businesses are those most confident of growth, but also, many large NZ companies expect to take on staff. Highest job growth industries are in computers, information technology and sales.

The man who managed the Upper Hutt Employment Trust, Trevor O'Brien, is remanded on 51 fraud charges. The Trust gained a high profile last year when WINZ Minister Peter McCardle promoted the scheme as a model for the community wage scheme.

22 July 1999

Chinese president Jiang Zemin tells his party that eliminating poverty is a matter of national security. It is estimated China now has at least 42m people living below the poverty line.

23 July 1999

The Race Relations Conciliator Rajen Prasad says that there are more than 500 foreign doctors living NZ but are unable to practice. He says that nearly all are unemployed while a few are working in low-skilled jobs. Most of these doctors came to NZ with an assurance they could qualify to practice here. Prasad says the problem stems from a lack of co-ordination between the Immigration Service, the Medical Council and the Qualifications Authority.

Former NZ prime minister Mike Moore is appointed head of the World Trade Organisation.

26 July 1999

The Labour Party is promising tax incentives to companies for research and development. As part of its economic growth policy, leader Helen Clark says Labour will allow full tax write-offs of R&D costs as well as accelerated depreciation on technology. The proposed policy also includes new economic assistance for local and regional governments to develop economic growth strategies. Labour also proposes to make finance available for small and medium sized companies.

27 July 1999

Outgoing president of the Public Health Association Dr Bob McKegg says the move to market rents for state housing has increased the rate of infectious diseases. A survey by the association says that people living in overcrowded houses have a greater rate of diseases such as tuberculosis and meningococcal disease.

Sophisticated sounding bank investment `opportunities' are apparently robbing naive NZ'ers of millions of dollars. Securities Commission chairman Euan Abernathy says that tribal, iwi and church groups have been targeted by overseas offerings of high return investment that turn out to be fraudulent.

29 July 1999

The student debt is hindering people getting mortgages, saving for retirement, doing further study and even getting into relationships, according to Karen Skinner, co-president of the NZ University Students Association. The NZUSA and the Aotearoa Polytechnic Students Union have published `Student Debt Case', a study of the effects of the student loan scheme on its members. The authors say government has not researched the long-term impact of student debt. APSU president John Barkness calls on the government to heed the research and consider the real effects of the scheme on people.

Each month for the past five months, the National Bank Outlook Survey has found business confidence weakening. Only 29% of businesses expect conditions to improve over the next twelve months although 38% expect their own business activity to increase over the next year.

The gender education gap is widening according to an Education Review Office report. The report says that underachievement by boys may have serious employment consequences for the individuals and society as well. Fewer boys than girls are successful in obtaining School Certificates and more boys leave school without qualifications.

Alliance leader Jim Anderton releases his proposed tax policies. Anderton says the Alliance is investigating imposing tariffs and wealth taxes such as capital gains tax, stamp duty and estate duty to raise revenue. The Alliance is also looking at the further taxing of casinos.

3 August 1999

Northland's unemployment register is expected to continue to rise at least to the end of the year, according the WINZ Northland business plan. The plan acknowledges that the west coast of the Far North and Kaipara are areas of high poverty. In Kaipara, 20% of families live in poverty or deprivation which is defined as living on a means-tested benefit, having no access to a telephone or car and living in overcrowded conditions. WINZ regional commissioner Sharon Browne says the plan is an attempt to be transparent with its customers and community.

The rationalisation of Richmond's meat processing operations will see 90 jobs disappear and a total of 584 staff affected. Spokesperson Paul Hemsley says that many are expected to be re-employed at jobs in the new Takapau lamb processing facility or in an expanded beef processing unit in Hawera.

Welfare roles in the US are now at 2.7% of the population. This is the lowest since 1967.

4 August 1999

Training for the casual jobs at the new regional stadium in Wellington will begin at the end of August. WINZ has been contracted to find all of the 750 people to fill the vacancies. The agency is targeting the long-term unemployed and Maori for these jobs and some people are going for interviews from as far away as Taranaki. There are 84 large events scheduled for the first year.

5 August 1999

The Human Rights Commission tells a parliamentary select committee that it opposes certain exemption clauses that have been included in the present draft of the Human Rights Amendment (No 2) Bill. While supporting other measures in the bill, Chief commissioner Pamela Jefferies says the commission does not support the exemptions to human rights based on sex and marital status. Jefferies: "We do not support the `fudging' of what NZ'ers are entitled to and assert that sex and marital status are irrelevant to provision of safety nets for NZ. If it relates to the need to care for our young and our old, surely we should care for men and women, boys and girls alike."

The Cannons Creek Fanau Centre is given the keys to 545 state houses in the Cannons Creek/Porirua area. The community group will manage the rental houses on behalf of Housing NZ. Housing Minister Tony Ryall says this type of partnership provides local solutions to local problems.

Student debt protestors march from Auckland University to the Queens St WINZ office. Auckland University Students Association president Efeso Collins says they are protesting WINZ's poor handling of the student allowance scheme earlier this year as well as the student debt. Police prevented the protestors from entering the WINZ offices.

Student loans are not for sale, according to Minister for Tertiary Education Max Bradford. He says financial institutions have made approaches to the government wanting to buy the debts but that this is not an option he is looking at.

6 August 1999

Prime Minister Jenny Shipley tells students that if they borrow money and then leave NZ, they will be found and their debt collected. Shipley says it is only a matter of time before NZ made arrangements with other countries for student debt recovery. Later, a spokesperson says Shipley was only floating the idea and there were no plans in place to raise the issue with other governments, or in parliament.

8 August 1999

The Australian government will not be providing work-for-the-dole jobs to fill the expected labour shortage for the Olympic games next year. Employment Services Minister Tony Abbott says that with 100,000 unemployed in Sydney, plus the thousands more in the surrounding areas, there should be plenty of people to fill real jobs. Abbott is also keen to see Australians take the jobs rather than issue the 8,000 short-term work visas that recruitment agencies and the Tourism Council of Australia are calling for.

Sue Bradford, veteran campaigner for the rights of the poor and unemployed, is appointed Green Party spokesperson for Enterprise and Employment. Bradford is running for parliament in the Rodney District, north of Auckland.

9 August 1999

The Bay of Plenty WINZ regional business plan is released. BOP has 11.3% unemployment, substantially higher than the 7.2% national average. The region has the highest number of long term unemployed in NZ and commissioner Carl Crafar says his office is targeting these and the 2,607 young job seekers. Cragar says WINZ offices in his region placed 400 people in work in July.

The vast majority of convicted criminals were on a benefit before they went to jail. ACT NZ's Muriel Newman says the fact that 93% of jailed men and women were previously beneficiaries indicates that people need real jobs not benefits.

NZ continues to import at high levels while exports fall. The announced June quarter current account deficit of $178m is the first June quarter in the red for 14 years. ANZ Bank economists say this underscores the worrying state of NZ's balance of payments. The bank says that the deficit, now approaching 7% of GDP, may make investors wary of staying in NZ and could fuel a further lowering of the value of the dollar. It says the drop in exports is due to weak international commodity prices and low domestic production levels, exacerbated by two years of drought. Treasurer Bill English says there is no short-term fix for the problem, and that lowering taxation to increase personal savings and business investment is the answer.

WINZ is trialing a sports-related careers programme in Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Gisborne. Taranaki Sports Assist co-ordinator Dan Tatham says they have found 150 sports related community wage positions in clubs, schools and sports organisations and have filled about a third of these. The pilot ends on October 1.

10 August 1999

The monthly ANZ survey finds 1.1% more job vacancy ads in July than there were in June.