Business groups have estimated Australia needs 21,000 more tradespeople to solve its national skills shortage crisis. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Hendy says the lack of qualified workers is the biggest hurdle for business for the first time in 14 years.

Australian Industry Group AIG chief executive Heather Ridout says that unless the problem is solved, the skills shortage will hurt the Australian economy. An AIG report found one-in-two firms could not find skilled labour. Among the states, Queensland firms had the biggest problems, with 70% reporting difficulties finding skilled workers.

Source _ The Courier-Mail, Brisbane 19 October 2004 "Trade skills now paying top dollars" by Fleur Anderson.

The Auckland survey also finds that with unemployment at low levels, more businesses are concerned about finding unskilled workers. 22% of businesses say unskilled labour is harder to find than it was three months ago.

Source - Dominion Post 19 October 2004 "Shortage of labour worries businesses" by Anna Jaquiery; Press Release, Auckland Chamber of Commerce 18 October 2004 "Business Confidence Rising Despite Skills Shortage".

Beaumont: "Basically, it is about the difficulty of balancing work and other personal and caring responsibilities. Employers needed to consider flexible working hours and arrangements that suit workers, and invest in further training for their staff. The answer is in providing decent work for New Zealanders that will enable women, older workers and the unemployed to participate fully in the labour market."

Source - Media release NZ CTU 19 October 2004 "Women workers key to tackling skills shortages".

The Bill will establish a Commission which will register and monitor charities. Registration is voluntary, but charities will miss out on tax exemption if they don't sign up. The registered charities will also have to file annual financial returns with the Commission.

Provisions in the Bill under fire from charities and political parties include:

— prohibiting officers of charities from getting indemnity insurance;

— the Commission's wide powers to de-register charities for various reasons, including for serious wrong-doing or dishonesty offences by individual officers;

— making officers personally liable for paying administrative penalties to the Commission, and;

— requiring the charities to fund the Commission through fees ... when other such bodies (like the Commerce Commission) are funded from taxes.

Wilson is also asking members of the Social Services Select Committee to consider codifying the common law so that charities can undertake secondary purposes, for example advocacy, in support of their charitable purposes.

Act MP Muriel Newman: "The Charities Bill is Labour's attempt to regulate the voluntary sector. ACT has always opposed the push for wholesale regulation. And when the Bill was introduced, it was opposed by virtually all charities who made a submission ... A Bill like this has the power to undermine the voluntary infrastructure underpinning civil society. Kiwis deserve an assurance that government will consult before forcing heavy-handed rules and regulations onto agencies which could drive them out of business."

Source - Charities Commission press statement 21 October 2004 "Changes proposed to Charities Bill" statement by Margaret Wilson; New Zealand Herald 17 October 2004 "Cullen says Charities Bill a bit more charitable now" by Kevin Taylor; Press Release Sue Bradford Green Party 19 October 2004 "A cheap muzzle is still a muzzle"; Press Release Muriel Newman "Save the Charities" at www.act.org.nz

There has been a huge increase in the numbers of students being granted these exemptions. The Ministry figures: In 1999, 2,802 students left early; in 2003, it was 3,840.

Ministry student support manager Murray Williams told The Dominion Post that he believes that "99% of students" who have been granted an early-leaving exemption are successful, and go on to good careers. He says that regular checks are made on early leavers, and course providers are obliged to contact the Ministry if the students stop turning up. Williams: "As soon as we get the call, we're on to them."

Source - The Dominion Post 20 October 2004 "Students abusing early-leave system" by Sophie Neville

Skilling: "It's not just about the money. Asset ownership allows people to exert much more control over their lives and enhances people's life opportunities. For example, asset ownership is consistently linked to improved health and employment outcomes, higher reported well-being, family stability, and improved educational outcomes for children".

But despite the substantial personal and community benefits from asset ownership, the Institute notes that there are few deliberate policies in New Zealand to encourage people to save and to build wealth. New Zealand has the least asset-friendly policies of all English-speaking countries and most of the OECD. Skilling: "It is no coincidence that New Zealand has the most hands-off approach to asset accumulation in the Anglo world and also has amongst the worst outcomes in terms of savings and household wealth".

Many lower-income families struggle to save for a deposit for a house, especially in the main urban centres. Until 1986, many New Zealanders were able to buy their first home by capitalising on the family benefit (a weekly payment to families for every child in the country, which was scrapped in 1986).

However, un-named government sources in The Dominion Post say it would be much more difficult to put this kind of policy into practice today, because support payments are no longer universal but are targeted and tied to individual circumstances which readily change. There are also concerns about the impact on the housing market, inflation and building costs if a large group of new-home owners entered the local market.

Source - The Dominion Post, 21 October 2004 "State aid for first home buyers" by Vernon Small;

The executive summary of the Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005 published by the World Economic Forum can be downloaded (PDF 93Kb, 13 pg) here

Source - Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005; Sunday Star Times 17 October 2004 "So far, so growth" by Rod Oram.

About 60% of those who were eligible to borrow money last year did so, up from 57% last year. In 1999, 50% of eligible students borrowed money for their studies. But repayment times are dropping. The forecast average repayment time is now 9.3 years, compared with an expected repayment time of 9.6 years in 2003 and 10.3 years in 2002.

Source - NZ Herald 20 October 2004 "Students 4 per cent more in hock" by Stuart Dye; Media release Association of University Staff, 21 October 2004," AUS Tertiary Update".

Research shows that quality care is particularly vital for under-twos, who are at a critical stage of development. But some argue that existing standards for infant care don't guarantee an assurance of quality. Helen May, professor of Early Childhood Education at Victoria University, says that the current 1:5 staff-to-infant ratio is not good enough. May: "The regulations were always designed at the minimum of acceptability. Quality is above that. What we're trying to get is to move the minimum standard closer towards quality."

The Ministry of Education agrees lowering the staff to infant ratios would lead to better outcomes for children and has indicated it would like to see improvement to 1:4 or even 1:3. But Ministry spokesperson Ross Boyd says that rushing the changes would only result in daycare centres being unable to comply with regulations. The point is to improve the ratio, not force services out of business. The shortage of trained staff is unlikely to see any improvement in ratios before 2007.

Source - Sunday Star-Times 10 October 2004 "Babies in daycare: more staff needed for quality care" by Emily Watt.

No details have been announced yet, but in June this year documents were leaked in London revealing that Britain was considering a quota system that would effectively restrict applications from Asian and African countries. The document also considered restricting the scheme to countries with return arrangements. The changes are also likely to prevent working holiday makers to switch to the more permanent working visas after two years — a step towards permanent residency — which was a significant feature of last year's changes. About 9,000 UK citizens use the New Zealand working holidays scheme each year while about 7,000 New Zealanders use the British equivalent.