Letter No.152
24 September, 2000

20 August 2001

Conservation Minister Sandra Lee denies the Australian mining company GRD Macrae an extension of its gold-mining access arrangement for an area in the Victoria Conservation Park near Reefton. The company has gained the necessary resource consents to dig a one-kilometre, 275-metre-deep pit. The tailings dams would have been the size of an average dairy farm. The company claimed the project will provide more than 200 jobs and pour $500 million into the economy over the next 12 years.

The Police launch a new campaign in Auckland in an effort to attract 600-700 new recruits. Police Minister George Hawkins says the campaign was particularly designed to get more Maori, Pacific Islanders, Asians and women on the beat.

21 August 2001

New Zealand Insurance will be cutting staff by about 100 over the next few months.

The social welfare system in Germany heads for a shake-up as unemployment rises. Minister Rudolf Scharping says that people who are unwilling to take jobs financed by the government will lose not just part, but all of their state support. Scharping: "People have no right to laziness."

Business and union leaders, and opposition MPs join a chorus of condemnation from the West Coast at Sandra Lee's veto of the proposed gold mine.

A public meeting in Reefton urges government to overturn Sandra Lee's decision. Union Church pastor Ian Davidson, who is also a DoC Ranger, says almost 100% of the town supports the expansion of the goldmine. Davidson: "Church people are praying for employment and progress in the town…"

22 August 2001

A self-employed couple is taking Winz to the Court of Appeals because the department refuses to backdate their claim for an accommodation supplement to the time when they became eligible. After the man had heart surgery, the couple applied for and received an accommodation supplement, but now argue that their entitlement should have been backdated to when they became eligible, rather than when they applied. They have already lost appeals to challenge the legislation through Winz, the Social Security Appeals Authority and the High Court.

Fujitsu, Japan's largest personal computer manufacturer, plans to cut 16,400 jobs.

23 August 2001

Representatives of environmental and conservation organisations from throughout NZ give Conservation Minister Sandra Lee a standing ovation at the ECO annual conference being held in Wanganui.

24 August 2001

Nestle New Zealand is closing its Waiuku factory and offering the 125 staff there the opportunity of working in Wiri, where it is expanding existing facilities. In all, there will be 25 new jobs after the closure of the Waiuku plant and the expansion at Wiri. In a related move, Nestle is closing its confectionary factory in Victoria, Australia with all 143 workers losing their jobs.

27 August 2001

Shell New Zealand says the company will spend hundreds of millions of dollars and create hundreds of construction jobs as it develops its Taranaki energy assets. At the centre of this activity will be the Pohokura field, a huge gas and condensate discovery just off the North Taranaki coastline.

Cabinet is unable to reach agreement on what form the paid parental leave scheme will take. Minister of Women's Affairs Laila Harre had said details would be finalised this month but the coalition government has not been able to agree on the specifics of how much time or at what rate the scheme will pay.

28 August 2001

Sandra Lee fronts up to a West Coasters march on parliament. "I made a decision and the decision was no. I apologise to the West Coast but I stand by my decision."

Earlier, on parliament grounds, a slanging match took place between the 450 Coasters and 130 conservationists who turned up to support Sandra Lee.

29 August 2001

Affco meat workers at Rangiuru are laid-off for an extended period of eight weeks due to a lack of work as farmers sell their bobby calves for fattening rather than sending them to the works. The plant normally closes for three to four weeks in late September and October.

Computer manufacturer and seller Gateway will shed 19 NZ jobs as part of plans to quit all of its Australasian businesses. The company is also leaving Europe and its intention is to cut one quarter of its 24,600 worldwide staff.

Britain is experiencing a huge shortage of teachers. Chief inspector of schools Mike Tomlinson says that 40% of new teachers leave the profession within three years.

30 August 2001

Japanese electronics company Toshiba says it will cut 18,800 jobs after it announces record losses. Hitachi announces it will cut its workforce by 20,000 people.

4 September 2001

Knowledge Wave conference organisers have set up a trust to ensure the best ideas from the conference are captured in an action plan aimed at raising NZ's economic performance.

Businesses in the Auckland area are reported as feeling optimistic about the economic outlook for the next six months, as the Chamber of Commerce survey shows optimists outnumbering pessimists by two-to-one. The survey showed that serious concerns still remain about the shortage of skilled workers in the Auckland region.

A Christchurch woman is jailed for five months after being found guilty of social welfare fraud amounting to overpayments of $44,557.

Former Winz boss Christine Rankin has joined the celebrity speaking circuit. The Auckland company Celebrity Speakers, which hires out "big names" for between $1800 and $12,000 an engagement, says Ms Rankin "… has a lot of things she can speak about."

5 September 2001

In a political coup for the government, former PM Jim Bolger has been appointed as chairman of the "People's Bank". This is expected to blunt opposition attacks on the bank, which is an Alliance Party initiative. National Party finance spokesman Bill English remarks: "Bolger might be our mate, but the Bank is still a dog."

National's housing spokesman David Carter reveals that seven state housing families are paying income-related rents to live in houses valued at over half a million dollars each, in the Glen Innes area of Auckland. Carter argues that the government should sell the houses and use the money to build more homes for the families on waiting lists for state houses.

6 September 2001

British Airways will eliminate 1,800 jobs, or 3% of its workforce, in an effort to cut costs.

There is speculation that Taranaki may have won the battle for a $750 million magnesium processing plant, which will bring 300 jobs to the province. The Australian company Samag had previously said it was also looking at Wairoa and Southland.

7 September 2001

US stock markets suffer a bout of heavy selling which wipes billions from company valuations. The sell-off is triggered by worse-than-expected US unemployment figures, fueling fears that consumer spending could soon weaken. US unemployment is now at a four-year high of 4.9%

10 September 2001

Air New Zealand is in a crisis as its subsidiary Ansett Australia (which is making a loss of $1.5 million a day) is close to being put into receivership. If the Australian carrier goes down, it could take Air New Zealand with it. Air New Zealand wants to avert disaster by selling Ansett Australia to its rival Qantas.

The percentage of NZ'ers owning their own homes is at a 45-year low. Just two-thirds of NZ'ers own their own homes, part of a steady 15-year decline from 1986 when 73.7% owned homes.

11 September 2001

Terror in America. The world is shocked and stunned as terrorists hijack domestic airliners and crash them into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Centre and into the Pentagon in Washington. Thousands of people die in the collapse of the buildings.

12 September 2001

Almost $3 billion is wiped off the value of NZ shares in the immediate wake of the terrorist attacks. Market leader Telecom plunges 30c to an eight-year low. Air New Zealand is amongst the worst hit, on fears of a tourist downturn and higher oil prices.

Ansett Australia is placed into voluntary administration after a last-ditch effort by Air New Zealand to sell it to Qantas for $1 fails, and pleas to the Australian government to pick up the airline fall on deaf ears.

13 September 2001

Air New Zealand loses $1.43 billion in the last financial year … the largest annual loss in NZ corporate history. Over the last two years, Air New Zealand has wiped out 75% of the value of its shareholder funds.

The government offers to put up a loan of $550 million towards an emergency bailout of Air New Zealand. Analysts say the airline needs $1 billion to keep operating.

14 September 2001

Ansett Australia, Australia's second-largest airline and a subsidiary of Air New Zealand, collapses and stops flying. Thousands of passengers are stranded and 16,000 employees face unemployment.

The introduction of bigger trucks onto NZ roads could boost the economy by almost $1 billion and create 33,000 new jobs, according to the Road Transport Forum. Chief executive Tony Friedlander told a parliamentary select committee that if nothing was done, the numbers of trucks on NZ roads would treble in the next ten years. The Land Transit Safety Authority recommends increasing the maximum truck weight from 44 tonnes to 62 tonnes, over five years, and to increase the present 20-metre limit on the length of trucks to 25 metres.

15 September 2001

Angry Ansett workers blockade PM Helen Clark's commercial flight from Melbourne. She is forced to take an NZ Airforce plane instead.

Thousands of trans-tasman passengers are thrown into turmoil as protests by Ansett workers force Air New Zealand to suspend flights and Qantas to delay services.

Australian economists warn that the demise of Ansett Australia will have a powerful immediate effect on Australia's economy. Craig James, chief economist at Commonwealth Securities , says: "For the tourism sector this is a body blow they could have done without in the wake of events in the US. We are seeing resistance to air travel and that will hit a number of tourist destinations…"

16 September 2001

Graduate doctors, nurses and midwives may be offered loyalty payments if they choose to stay in NZ and help ease the hospital staffing crisis.

The government announces changes to its immigration policies in response to calls for NZ to attract more skilled and business migrants.

The Ansett collapse has left 16,000 out of work and is the biggest single job loss in Australian corporate history.

Hundreds of Ansett workers have extended their anti-NZ boycott to all NZ-made products and businesses as the backlash over the airline's collapse gains momentum.

PM Helen Clark goes on Australian television to urge Australians not to take out their anger at Ansett's collapse on New Zealanders.

17 September 2001

Nearly $2 billion is wiped from the value of the NZ sharemarket as it plunges to its lowest level in almost three years. The slump, one of the worst in its history, comes as investors bail out of NZ shares before tonight's re-opening of the Wall St markets.

Air New Zealand's share price plummets to almost half its previous value. Air New Zealand's future is plunged into deep uncertainty following doubts about the adequacy of last week's $550 million government rescue package, and the aftermath of the US terrorist attacks. Speculation is rife that the airline will soon go into receivership or statutory management.

The Business Roundtable publishes a report, Middle Class Welfare, which argues that NZ's middle class should pay for its own education, healthcare and retirement benefits.

United leader Peter Dunne says the new immigration policies are generally welcome, but the country still lacks " a coherent and integrated population policy". He says NZ has the capacity to sustain a significantly larger population of around 5 million people, and we should be aiming to achieve this over the next 10-15 years.

18 September 2001

Wall St Stock Exchange re-opens after its longest break in trading since World War One.

Some jobless Ansett workers could be employed by Qantas under a temporary aircraft leasing arrangement put forward by Qantas.

Some US airline stocks have dropped between 25% and 65%, wiping $12 billion of their value. The industry wants a $24 billion rescue package from the government to get the airlines through the next year.

Asian airlines are also trimming staff and routes amid profit and credit rating downgrades.

19 September 2001

Around the world, central bankers cut rates in an effort to counter the international economic slowdown following last week's terrorist attacks. This includes a half per cent floating mortgage rate cut here in NZ.

In the US, insurance company shares fall after the industry estimates losses as high as $30 billion after the attacks.

20 September 2001

Finance Minister Michael Cullen says the government will pump more money into roads, new schools and other building projects in an effort to stave off recession. See story in this issue.

The US airline industry has announced more than 68,000 job cuts since the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. The Los Angeles Times predicts that direct airline job losses will go as high as 100,000 and that tens thousands more jobs will disappear as the airline manufacturing and the travel industries contract.

An American snack food producer plans to set up a processing plant in South Auckland employing 480 people. The Wisconsin-based company Jack Link's will produce products, such as beef jerky, which are expected to earn $40-70 million a year in exports. Manukau City Mayor Sir Barry Curtis says the ease of obtaining resource consents and a $35,000 business incentive grant helped to draw the company to the city.

21 September 2001

Almost $1.2 trillion has been wiped off the market value of US stocks in the four days of trading since the terrorist attacks. Analysts are comparing the situation with the panic selling that followed the 1941 Japanese assault on Pearl Harbour and the 1987 stockmarket crash.

Ansett Airlines will fly again today under Qantas lease as potential buyers start to emerge for all or part of the collapsed airline. The deal will see 1500 of Ansett's 16,000 staff employed again for an indefinite period.

CTU president Ross Wilson is booed during Ansett worker rallies in Melbourne and Sydney. He spoke at the rallies of 16,000 Ansett workers "to face up to you and say how sorry we are that Air New Zealand has made such a bloody mess of your airline." Wilson asked for co-operation in keeping Air New Zealand "alive" on behalf of the 9,000 Air New Zealand employees.

On the sharemarket, Air New Zealand's value has crumbled to $210 million, after being worth almost $800 million only three weeks ago.

Tourism leaders meet in Auckland as the industry works on a "battle plan" to counter the expected slump following both the terror attacks and Air New Zealand's financial woes. Tour operators are reporting many cancellations from Americans afraid to fly, and travellers stung by the collapse of Ansett.

Boeing will shed up to 30% of its commercial aircraft workforce — as many as 31,000 people — as a result of last week's terrorist attacks.

22 September 2001

US economists are expecting the American jobless rate to surge well above 5% next month and even higher in the months ahead. "We could potentially see as many as a million lay-offs before this is over," says Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc One Investment Advisers in Ohio.