The opposition and its supporters keep asking where are the jobs?
Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce has an answer:
The minister said jobs will be created in mining, and the only question is whether Northland wants to go on sending families to western Australia – or have them employed at home.
He said those objecting to mining in the north also bemoan high unemployment and poverty levels.
Mr Joyce said the challenge is to allow mining and create jobs in New Zealand, while still protecting the environment.
Mining brings benefits and it has costs, including the impact on the environment.
I can’t think of any benefits of unemployment but it has very high costs – financial, personal and social.
The resource consent process should ensure that costs of mining are minimised and mitigated and are therefore outweighed by the benefits which include employment opportunities.
Homepaddock 
“Here are the jobs”, you say.
” jobs will be created”, says Joyce.
Where are the jobs?
In Stephen Joyce’s head.
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Robert, If you observe the changing demographics – the shrinking working-age population versus the aged dependent population – there are going to be constantly increasing numbers of jobs in the health and care sectors. And more people of working-age are going to have to be economically productive. Elle, well said.
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Lindsay – agreed, there will indeed be more need for workers in the aged-care sector. If only they were offered a decent wage for the work they do! That’s something worthwhile the Government could attend to. They won’t ignore that growth area, surely, Lindsay.
I fail to see what you are congratulating Ele on saying well – that ’employment demands mining’?
Hardly.
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mining is the cycle-way 2.0. the new cycleway was job summit 2.0. What does the minister want the unemployed from Invercargill to do – move to Northland in a job that doesn’t use their degrees when it is cheaper to fly from there to Australia?
According to the govt, there are benefits of unemployment in Wellington – less money spent on wages in the public sector.
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If only we could gather up the contents of the half empty glasses we would all have well over half a glass to toast success.
Yes aged care payments seem low but that is because the skill level is basic and the work has evolved from a desire to serve a community need.
How long would Fire, Ambulance, Civil Defence, a considerable portion of community welfare and neighborhood watch continue, if all those who donate their time and employers who accept the costs, demanded minimum wages for the hours they at present donate.
The one single problem with getting decent remuneration and travel payments to those who work in the aged care sector is the layered bureaucracy involved in delivery.
Government funds DHBs who then employ a bunch of leeches who take the funding and after creaming off a substantial portion employ the delivery team on ratdropping remuneration levels.
Can anybody tell me why the DHB cannot employ a management team to deliver the service with full audit and cost details to ensure the service is delivered at reasonable cost
My understanding is the age old problem of government running a business where those inconvenient facts are buried in bureaucratic undergrowth often staffed by people who would never get a job in the real world but are cunning enough to game the system.
The DHB ticks all the boxes by contracting the work out to “providers”, aint that a nice name for a leech.
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What!?
“Yes aged care payments seem low …” They are low. The skill level may be ‘basic’, Gravedodger, but the need is great. Those aged-care workers are not exploiting a situation and yet express their very real concern about the pressures they find themselves under, especially the low wage they receive, hours worked and travel required. You equate these workers with firefighting volunteers etc. Are you joking? Are you implying that they should volunteer?
What?
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Robert, I was commending Elle for pointing out there are no benefits to unemployment – except perhaps to the opposition.
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Dave – there is no single answer to unemployment, though there could be mining opportunities in Soutland too. Lower public sector costs is good, do you know how many public servants who’ve lost work have found work in the private sector? I’ve been told many walked straight in to good jobs, but that’s anecdote.
Robert – a low paid job is still better than no job, though I agree that people who care for others should be better paid. The only way to achieve that is through economic growth.
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I do know of a number of public servants who have lost their jobs who haven’t found work in the private sector – or the public sector. Some are on the dole, the rest have an earning partner but their income has halved.
And that’s not anecdote.
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“The only way to achieve that is through economic growth.”
So your aspirational leader keeps parroting, ad nauseum but it’s not happening, hasn’t happened and won’t happen. It’s the carrot he waves in front of the Faithful (that’s you, Ele) and you can’t see past it. If you could, you’d see what Dave sees, rather than the anecdotal, aspirational mirage Key has construsted for your mesmerization.
Sad, but true.
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