Meat and Wool NZ: “Job Summit Disappointing”

18 comments on “Meat and Wool NZ: “Job Summit Disappointing” ”

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1. Tim Ellis 1

   6 March 2009 at 1:29 pm

   I suppose you can’t please everybody, although that notoriously right-wing male business leader Laila Harre was pretty impressed with the whole thing.
2. Steve Pierson 2

   6 March 2009 at 1:43 pm

   Tim. Were you impressed with the ideas?

   Frankly, I can’t wait for that cycleway to get built and start boosting us out of recession. Appearantly, it will create literally a month or two worth of work for each of 4000 people.

   Meanwhile, At least 650, probably more like a thousand, people lost their jobs this week alone.
3. Tim Ellis 3

   6 March 2009 at 1:58 pm

   SP, how many jobs did Jim Anderton’s Ministry of Economic Development, that “jobs machine” that cost by a factor of hundreds more than the Jobs Summit create?

   I don’t really think anybody expected the jobs summit to stop businesses from going to the wall, but I’m not surprised that you would paint it with such absurdity. Many more than a thousand jobs are going to be lost this year and not even Labour with all its brilliant plans (which we haven’t heard, but you’re silent on that) would have had more than a marginal difference to the jobs market.
   • lprent 3.1

     6 March 2009 at 2:57 pm

     You mean that oppositions are meant to release policy? Don’t say that, you’d have to fire John Key and National for their performance last year.
     • Tim Ellis 3.1.1

       6 March 2009 at 3:20 pm

       You mean the hundreds and hundreds of pages of policy published on National’s website before the election LP? Or do you mean the long list of promises in National’s first 100 days, which were all achieved within the time period, released well before the election?

       Yes I think oppositions when criticising a government’s performance should show what they would do differently. I haven’t heard much of that from Phil Goff so far. From many of his comments it’s not clear at all whether he agrees or disagrees with the government. It’s fair to say that some of Labour’s u-turns of which the EFA and its tax plans feature high up the list, make it very unclear just what Labour does or doesn’t support.
       • George D 3.1.1.1

         6 March 2009 at 3:44 pm

         
         You mean the hundreds and hundreds of pages of policy published on National’s website before the election LP?
         
         Bullshit.

         I went to National’s website before the election looking for their foreign policy. All I found was a several page discussion document that was a few years old. I wasn’t impressed.

         Other policy areas were similarly sparse.
         • lprent 3.1.1.1.1

           6 March 2009 at 5:38 pm

           Thats what I saw as well. A positive dearth of policy. Positive only because then the Nats had only vague things that they have to live up to – which at least meant that you avoided the tortured logic of self-justifying robber baron logic. “Flaying is good for the peasant because….” Cue Tony Ryall, Judith Collins, ….. and Act of course.

           It’s quite funny, these days it is hard to find anyone who voted National who remembers why they voted for. As far as I can see they simply voted against having a government in for 4 terms. Oh and they voted for tax cuts – so now they will get tax cuts and pay for it by mortgaging their kids
       • r0b 3.1.1.2

         6 March 2009 at 3:53 pm

         Or do you mean the long list of promises in National’s first 100 days, which were all achieved within the time period

         You are citing this abuse of democracy is an “advantage” Tim? Have you no shame at all? Bulldozed rush of legislation makes mockery of democracy:

         [The new government] has adopted a bulldozing approach that is disturbingly at odds with democratic Government. Gerry Brownlee would not even name the bills to be passed under urgency, but only the subject areas that they canvassed. Worse, he refused to give Opposition parties advance copies of any of the bills, until just before they were to be debated in Parliament.

         The fact that the matters were being dealt with under urgency already meant that there would be no chance for public submission; there is no room in the action plan for tedious details such as the select committee process, by which interested parties get to express their view about
         proposed legislation. But the public was denied the opportunity to even see the legislation, because the Nats were producing for debate law that had not been completely drafted and officially tabled and therefore, under Parliament’s rules, cannot be formally published.

         Extraordinarily, it was left to the Greens to scan paper copies and, in a samizdat-style operation reminiscent of the gulag-era Soviet Union, publish them on its own website. It is a state of affairs seriously at odds with the notion of a Parliamentary democracy.

         … the Nats, by contrast, are looking remarkably like bullies.
4. r0b 4

   6 March 2009 at 2:12 pm

   I don’t really think anybody expected the jobs summit to stop businesses from going to the wall

   Why waste all that money on a useless talk fest then? Bloody irresponsible.

   In the case of lost jobs National are the Government and they get to wear the blame – rational or not. National was quick to heap irrational blame on the last government (such as for natural cycles of emigration to Australia). Now they are the government and blame, both rational and irrational, is going to accrue to them. Hard to have any sympathy really.

   If National actually had a clue what to do, if they were actually taking effective action, then the public would probably forgive them for much of the pain that is coming. But if as it seems currently they are going to dither like a possum in the headlights for three years then the public, as it quite rightly should, is going to blame them for everything…
   • higherstandard 4.1

     6 March 2009 at 2:27 pm

     “Why waste all that money on a useless talk fest then? Bloody irresponsible.”

     That’s what I’ve been saying about parliament and the bureaucracy in Wellington for years 🙂

     How’s the travels treating you ?
     • r0b 4.1.1

       6 March 2009 at 2:37 pm

       It was slightly tongue in cheek HS, as the Nats made so much noise about cancelling other conferences, then appear to have held a pretty useless one of their own.

       Travels are going mighty fine thanks, plenty to do, plenty to see. Looking out for the effects of this recession in places that I know from long ago.
       • higherstandard 4.1.1.1

         6 March 2009 at 2:53 pm

         Good for you, take care.
         • r0b 4.1.1.1.1

           6 March 2009 at 2:58 pm

           Cheers, you too.
5. BLiP 5

   6 March 2009 at 2:15 pm

   Peterson probably had in mind comments made by Don Nicholson, President of Federated Farmers. Quoting Andrew Melon who advised President Hoover what to do in 1929, Nicholson said:

   ” ‘ liquidate labour, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate, it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.’

   “Although rough sounding there is a grain of sensible truth”.

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10559594

   He was actually talking about the “evils” of protectionism but, still, he seems to support us bunch of unproductive labour units getting liquidated while the more moral and enterprising amongst us can pick up the pieces. I guess that means the bankers and the merchants since they are the only ones not up for liquidation.
6. bobo 6

   6 March 2009 at 2:48 pm

   The long term outlook for meat production looks positive with water shortages going to effect North America’s farming output dramatically over next 10 years and there is still an ever growing world population. The problem with boom and busts is the long term outlook is ignored as economies are in survival mode. Maybe the future world economy that comes out of this crisis will get back to basics.
7. TightyRighty 7

   6 March 2009 at 4:29 pm

   even i was was relatively unimpressed by the outcomes of the job summary. great idea, good execution, but he’s right for all that horsepower……

   congrats to DraftFCB in welly, great idea there. good creative thinking from a creative outfit. maybe Kevin Roberts could be invited to give his creative insight to the jobs problem.
8. Matthew Pilott 8

   6 March 2009 at 5:12 pm

   How do I say this without disgusting the authors at The Standard…

   The PR for the conference sucked. Key talks about a do-fest, not a talk-fest. Unfortunately that’s unrealistic, because they weren’t going in with open chequebooks, and I don’t imagine anyone would have expected direct and instant outcomes.

   I imagine that of the ideas generated, both the Public and Private sectors have a lot to chew on – but that’s just supposition on my part. I am sure that National and the Government are working through some ideas, as are intersted parties in the Private sector.

   But, as pointed out here earlier, no one actually published the list of 20 ideas, there was no publicised plan of action, nothing to say who was looking at what, what they expected to come up with and a time frame for those actions.

   If so much of the economy depends on consumer confidence, a perception of action and this idea of keeping momentum (the same applies to National’s performance) then this conference promised a lot, delivered three more concrete ideas (though I can’t even remember one of them at this stage) and another 17 vague ideas that for all money look like a complete waste of time.

   Maybe something useful came out of it, but maybe I’m just being optimistic – you’d think if that were the case we’d be hearing all about it.

   Maybe it was just a big talk-fest and a PR stunt that’s seemingly backfired.
9. lprent 9

   10 March 2009 at 10:50 am

   MP: I’d agree, looking from the other side. I’ve made a point of asking people about it along with the general economic questions in the last week and a bit in the course of doing all of the moving (which reduced my usual coding and increased my IRL talking to wider range).

   They’re worried about the economy. Amongst the older people they’re getting deja-vu feelings about the ruthanasia… Everyone is starting to hoard and go for safety.

   The jobs summit is widely perceived as being a useless self-indulgent wank-fest with the participants doing bugger all. Highly unscientific – but I haven’t found a single person outside of the blogs or media who thinks that it will have any effect.

   That is a complete contrast to the type of perception that NACT were trying to portray (and the media generally wallowed in).

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