National fails to deliver green jobs package
New Zealanders will be asking how “Australia can create 50,000 green jobs while we are getting just 160 so far for a bike track”, Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe says.
David Cunliffe said National should be urgently investigating a green jobs package similar to Australia's.
Yesterday Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a $94 million jobs package made up of around 30,000 trainee and apprentice positions concentrating on "green skills" in building and construction, 10,000 jobs in a new National Green Jobs Corps, 6,000 local green jobs through the jobs fund, and the 4,000 people already working in the housing insulation programme.
David Cunliffe said: "That's the equivalent of 10,000 new jobs in New Zealand, a quarter of all those hard-working Kiwis thrown on the scrapheap since National took office. Contrast that to the white elephant cycleway creating perhaps 160 to 300 jobs over three years --- less than one day's sackings at the current rate.
“National will no doubt be self-congratulatory at its annual conference this weekend, but they’re not doing enough in terms of maintaining or creating employment. Apart from the token cycleway, its so-called green employment initiatives --- Auckland rail electrification, home insulation and biofuels --- were all happening under Labour.”
David Cunliffe said New Zealand could have a global leadership role in renewable energy and environmental technology that “builds off our fantastic primary industries. Instead we have a government whose response to recession has been one of retrenchment, creeping deregulation and yet again flogging off more of our land and assets to foreigners.
“There’s no future in that approach. New Zealanders deserve a government with vision and commitment to sustainable full employment in the future and to helping New Zealand maximise its potential. Building serious capability in environmental business should be a no-brainer. Why isn't the government doing it?"
"Instead of a credible plan to create much-needed jobs, National has cut R and D tax credits and the Fast Forward research fund, and gutted the Conservation Department’s budget. Why? New Zealanders deserve action. A credible plan for 10,000 Kiwi green jobs would be a start,” David Cunliffe said.
