Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU
The Prime Minister’s State of the Nation speech is an exercise in smoke and mirrors which deflects from the reality that he has overseen the worst economic growth in 30 years, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff.
“Luxon wants to “go for growth” but since he and Nicola Willis took power, unemployment has skyrocketed, growth has plummeted, and record numbers of New Zealanders are heading overseas. They have overseen the worst record on economic growth since 1991,” said Wagstaff.
“It beggars’ belief to hear the Prime Minister talk up the need for investment in science and innovation, when over the last year his Government has cut research funding and axed more than 500 jobs in the public science sector. The new policies to merge Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) and “commercialise science” miss the point. The focus should be on increasing investment in science and properly funding CRIs and universities, not mergers, cuts, and slogans.
“Aotearoa New Zealand is only spending about half the OECD average on science and research and development (R&D). That needs to change, and yet we heard nothing today about increased funding for science and research.
“We are also alarmed at the Prime Minister’s signal that workplace health and safety is a cost rather than an investment in workers’ lives. Safe workplaces are prdocutive workplaces.
“The Prime Minister and Minister of Finance continue to demonstrate how out of touch they are with working people by failing to recognise the economic hardship that people are living through as a result of their heartless choices and their lack of an economic plan or industrial strategy.
“Working people in New Zealand are now experiencing extraordinary economic insecurity, from job losses and stagnating wages to housing insecurity and rising costs.
“At a time when people were crying out for economic investment and support through the cost-of-living crisis, the Government slashed and burned public services and infrastructure while making decisions that have increased costs, such as bringing back prescription fees, increasing public transport fees, indexing benefit increases to inflation rather than wage growth, and cutting the minimum wage in real terms for two consecutive years.
“The Government likes to talk about the need to tackle our poor productivity performance, and the need for a longer-term plan to arrest our decline, but their actions continue to take us in the opposite direction. We need an industry plan to create good high wage jobs in highly productive and low emissions industries.
“For too long politicians have failed to tackle the generational crises that confront us, from inequality to climate change, and the future of work. It’s past time that politicians recognise the need to do things differently and build an economy that works for everyone,” said Wagstaff.
