The brighter future – now with wood

40 comments on “The brighter future – now with wood ”

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1. mickysavage 1

   7 January 2013 at 8:22 am

   The Herald article uses that odious phrase “kick the tyres”. I presume that Joyce said it. I cannot imagine any journalist worth their weight using such a phrase.

   The blind ideology of the nats is appalling. Despite repeated promises of new jobs the reality is that NZ is losing them, and those that remain are becoming worse paid and less safe.

   If any punter thinks in 2014 that the Government is somehow pro jobs then there are a couple of bridges that I would like to see if I can sell them.
2. bad12 2

   7 January 2013 at 8:54 am

   Oh good, bridges for sale??? i have always wanted to own one, do you have a price???…
   • The Al1en 2.1

     7 January 2013 at 9:48 am

     Forget bridges, I’m offering crater side time shares on the moon.
     • bad12 2.1.1

       7 January 2013 at 10:06 am

       Wow!!! i gotta have one, how much and will a cheque do…
       • The Al1en 2.1.1.1

         7 January 2013 at 10:20 am

         If you have to ask, you can’t afford 😆
         • mike e vipe e 2.1.1.1.1

           7 January 2013 at 5:04 pm

           on the moon a bouncing check will give you a brighter future!
   • Rogue Trooper 2.2

     8 January 2013 at 7:58 pm

     I hope infrastructure investment comes with those chopped sticks
     https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/524702_512916725408935_1336578327_n.jpg
3. bad12 3

   7 January 2013 at 9:07 am

   Now that the oil drillers have all done a bunk, Joyce and Slippery the Prime Minister have to have another carrot to hold out in front of the gullible,

   If there is such a demand for processed wood the Government should build the infrastructure to achieve this and reap the profits from doing so,

   i have to wonder how much this bunch of Shysters are going to pay the Chinese to provide the economy with at best 1000 jobs,

   Cheap electricity is soon to become as cheap a joke as what the Slippery lead National Government are, the future price of electricity,(if the sales are not stopped), will be dictated by how much the international raiders have to borrow from the banksters to wrest the shares in the power co’s from the hands of the ma and pa investors…
4. Dv 4

   7 January 2013 at 9:10 am

   Plenty of cheap electricity when Comalco closes.
   • Lightly 4.1

     7 January 2013 at 9:18 am

     yep. nowhere near those central north island forests though.

     seriously, Kawerau’s losing hundreds of jobs in pulp and paper, and Joyce is promising that a rash of new jobs is just around the corner?
     • tc 4.1.1

       7 January 2013 at 9:36 am

       Kawerau scaling back gives the needed capacity for any ‘potential’ manufacturing and in general the decline in demand makes this no issue as the generators are pulling back as it’s not required currently and copuld ramp back up as the capacity exists.

       The japanese already owns big chunks of forest with timber mills alongside (Kaitaia, Masterton and Gisborne I think) then send them off shore to manufacture as the labours so much cheaper.

       Where’s the arguments and logic that says the chinese will do what the jap’s don’t Stevie wonder ? Value add wood products don’t robotically make themselves.

       Spot the holiday season morsel for the journo kiddies to devour without question….all too easy really.
       • mickysavage 4.1.1.1

         7 January 2013 at 10:39 am

         The next thing that Joyce will be announcing is a monorail …
     • Fortran 4.1.2

       7 January 2013 at 1:01 pm

       A large part of Kawerau’s job losses is that the Herald now uses Malaysian imported cheap paper – and doesn’t the paper show it, with reduced print size too.
       The paper is thinner than toilet paper, and the content is similarly destined.
5. Bill 5

   7 January 2013 at 9:23 am

   The 400 million proceeds from asset sales to be spent on irrigation…Is my memory faulty? Didn’t they initially claim asset sale proceeds would go towards such stuff as health and eductaion or something? And now they want to throw it at dairy to create jobs in “high-value foods and further intensification of agriculture”?! Does that include a reprise of Mackenzie country concrete padded cows by any chance? Y’know, the ones earmarked to produce that allegy free milk or whatever it was?

   And having dome a very quick google search….in the 2012 budget they said…250 million for Kiwi Rail and the rest for “health funding, a new advanced technology institute, school upgrades and other capital investments”. And those other capital investments are irrigation….400 million worth of irrigation. And that leaves (according to budget figures) minus 100 million for health funding etc

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10808269
   • mickysavage 5.1

     7 January 2013 at 10:42 am

     Yep debt reduction, new schools and hospitals, irrigation for Canterbury, Kiwirail …

     Key and Joyce are absolute geniuses. They can spend the same money many times over. It is a skill Key learnt from his time at Merril and Lynch.
6. MrSmith 6

   7 January 2013 at 9:42 am

   Yes the Nat’s have been singing this song for a while now, ‘we have know other chose than to dig stuff up’, ‘sell our assets’, ‘more cows’, ‘now more people’, ‘it’s all those Greenies fault’.

   In a way it’s a compliment to the Greens, as the Nat’s must be worried their free beer tomorrow slogan is wearing a little thin.
7. geoff 7

   7 January 2013 at 10:08 am

   I bet National pumps that ‘anti-jobs’ line during their election campaign. Fuck policy, is this the time before the election the spin doctors say you have to sow your memes?
   • handle 7.1

     7 January 2013 at 11:17 am

     The opposition should know that too. Time for a strong and clear response is now.
   • millsy 7.2

     7 January 2013 at 10:58 pm

     National has no right to scream about ‘anti-jobs’ when they told KiwiRail to close down Hillside as well as the Napier-Gisborne line, and got Solid Energy to do the same to its West Coast coal mines.

     And if Joyce even thinks about opening up conservation land for mining. I will be the first one to chain myself to the bulldozer.
8. Erentz 8

   7 January 2013 at 11:20 am

   Regarding closing mills and job losses in Kawerau, anyone got a link to some good analysis on why this is happening?
   • mike e vipe e 8.1

     7 January 2013 at 12:18 pm

     news papers are going bust
     • mike e vipe e 8.1.1

       7 January 2013 at 4:47 pm

       NZ dollar to high Speculators are making a killing and the result is manufacturing is dying!
   • Saarbo 8.2

     7 January 2013 at 6:57 pm

     There is a question mark why Kawerau is closing another paper machine while Albury Mill(Victoria/NSW Border) and Boyer Mill (Tasmania) are still operating. These 3 mills make up Norske Skog’s Australasian capacity (Used to be Fletcher Paper) . Traditionally these 3 mills have satisfied 100% of Australasia’s newsprint capacity, any surplus was exported to Asia.

     The bottom line is that demand has collapsed, so Norske Skog would have to close capacity somewhere within Australasia. But I would have expected given the NZD/AUD cross rate that Kawerau would be a lower cost producer than the 2 Aussie mills, so I would have expected Norske to shut capacity in Aus before NZ.

     I understand that the Australian government provided Norske with some sort of financial assistance package which I suspect may have played a part in the closing of Kawerau.

     Interestingly Fletchers were very aware in the 90’s that newsprint had a limited future and did investigate converting the Kawerau paper machines from newsprint into some other sort of paper but instead chose to sell their newsprint paper mills world wide.
9. onsos 9

   7 January 2013 at 11:40 am

   I like your graph! It actually has a proper axes and stuff!

   +1
10. alex 10

    7 January 2013 at 11:49 am

    I actually like the idea of more investment in forestry, and then processing the wood on shore rather than shipping off raw logs. This idea certainly beats the hell out of deep sea drilling.
    • tc 10.1

      7 January 2013 at 12:07 pm

      Agree Alex but dig into why this currently doesn’t occur.

      Perhaps it’s foreign owned forests and timber mills, lower labour and proceessing costs overseas closer to the end market, size and scale issues and wait for it….maybe just maybe infrastructure like rail.

      Any of the above look like something Stevie Wonders band can magically fix in time to rustle up a few thousand jobs or billions of export earnings.
    • millsy 10.2

      7 January 2013 at 10:54 pm

      Should never have sold off the forests IMO. Our forestry sector went down hill from there. Only real winners are the pension funds that snapped up the cutting right, and the Mongerel Mob/Tribesmen who got to tap into a pool of young bored recruits that were left on the scrapheap.
11. MeToo 11

    7 January 2013 at 12:50 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eusMzC7Rx7M

    It’s log, log
    It’s big
    It’s heavy
    It’s wood…
12. Draco T Bastard 12

    7 January 2013 at 12:50 pm

    Stop the exportation of raw resources and you’ll find that a) the prices of those resources will drop which b) means that local manufacturers will be able to afford them and c) thus NZ manufacturing will get a boost.

    Throw in having the government printing money rather than the banks and all of a sudden we don’t need foreign investment to boost the economy as we’ll actually have the tools and resources available to do it ourselves.
13. George D 13

    7 January 2013 at 1:04 pm

    The Chinese know a lot more about manufacturing than New Zealand. There are still some very talented manufacturers here, but after 30 years of neoliberal policy, there isn’t much left.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if it was profitable for Chinese to invest in modern plant and scale up to create industry that suits their needs. I’m skeptical, but I’m not discounting this just yet.
    • Colonial Viper 13.1

      7 January 2013 at 7:52 pm

      The Chinese know a lot more about manufacturing than New Zealand.

      This is true. But its not the whole story. For instance, its also true that the average rail sleeper produced by NZ is (was) far superior to the average rail sleeper produced by China.

      These are the kinds of angles and advantages we must play, play well, and play hard.
      • David C 13.1.1

        8 January 2013 at 12:26 pm

        NZ rail sleepers? huh? out of what material?
14. George D 14

    7 January 2013 at 1:06 pm

    The bright side – the Government is feeling particularly vulnerable on manufacturing and jobs. Why else would Joyce schedule a summer interview on the subject?

    If Mike Smith is reading, tell Shearer to get out in front on this issue and hammer them. The Greens should also ramp up their campaigns.
    • tc 14.1

      7 January 2013 at 1:50 pm

      Joyce’s turn to mind the fort and throw the pre prepared bait into the shallow waters of our MSM and watch it get taken up. We pay top dollar for the spin tactics y’know.

      They’re not feeling vulnerable they know exactly what they’re doing and if DS get’s out front and doesn’t play it smart it’ll blow back on him. Care is required and time to introduce some consistent messaging that can be re-used across the spectrum.

      I’d supply some but I’m sure the Mallarfia brains trust have been working on this already.
      • MrSmith 14.1.1

        7 January 2013 at 6:40 pm

        “play it smart it’ll blow back on him.”

        Don’t you mean play it smart and say nothing like they have been, just incase someone sticks a mic in-front of mumble fuck.

        It appears the Labour parties current strategy is to remain silent and be thought a fool rather than speck up and remove all doubt, hope to be proved wrong.
15. tracey 15

    7 January 2013 at 4:09 pm

    nats must have done a holiday poll with economy and jobs as most worried about so its time to pull out the faux concern and faux focus
16. tracey 16

    7 January 2013 at 4:10 pm

    the chinese arent used to paying almost liveable wages though
17. tracey 17

    7 January 2013 at 4:16 pm

    couldnt an opposition mp issue a one line press release…

    does this mean another job summit??
18. MrSmith 18

    7 January 2013 at 7:45 pm

    And so the blame game begins.

    All my Tory mates are masters at this, it’s all the Maoris fault they cry or it’s all those Luddite Greenies fault or it’s all the US economy fault etc etc……. you get the picture.

    It’s never their fault tho and even if it is their rule book says find someone else to blame.
19. xtasy 19

    8 January 2013 at 1:35 am

    Re this hyped up Joyce propaganda the Herald tried to catch onto:

    I have NEVER read so much CRAP in any NZ newspaper for so bloody long!

    Joyce is just “daydreaming” about some comments a senior Mainland Chinese delegate made when last visiting here. It is NOT even worth printing this SHIT on newsprint, as it is all just speculative talk, without any substance and any real economic plan!

    If NZ woodprocessing would have such great potential, why the hell is IKEA not here counting the logs, chopping and sawing them, to make export products for China?

    Yes, it is the damned “silly season”, I know, but what crap have I read the last few days and weeks in any online and print, let alone heard and viewed on broadcast media. The brains have been short circuited, it is all about any nonsense any idiot may dream up and gabber on about, that is what we have at present. NO brain, no ideas, no substance and totally disqualified persons pretending they have journalistic skills.

    Go and get a f**ing life, thanks!

    If the Japs, the US, the Europeans do not come here to invest in wood manufacture, forget it! Hand it to Indonesia, and others, already slicing up the last rainforests there are.

    I take note, that the useless NZ Herald have not even bothered for 2 days now, to update their “opinion section” comments. It is like the Sunday Star Times a dying outlet for media. TVNZ and TV3 are also running on the smell of an oily rag, while sensible media was closed down last year.

    NZ is heading into total mental shutdown now, idiot territory and the “arse of the world” territory, it seems, and with dismay, I see the huge gaping hole in contributions on this forum now.

    Are we all being readied for the ape planet now, or for gas chambers, to do away with any dissent and intellect? I am considering finding my own “final solution”, as I see NO hope anymore at all for NZ!

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