GDP highlights National’s ‘one trick pony’ economy
green-party
Thu Mar 22 2012 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
GDP highlights National’s ‘one trick pony’ economy
Thursday, 22 March 2012, 12:37 pm
Press Release: Green Party
22 March 2012
GDP highlights National’s ‘one trick pony’ economy
Today’s GDP statistics highlight an increasing dependence on milk powder to earn our way in the world, the Green Party said today.
While GDP growth was up 0.3 percent in the December 2011 quarter, manufacturing declined 2.5 percent over the same period.
“Agriculture is again providing the bulk of the impetus for growth in the New Zealand economy while manufacturing continues to decline and with it the opportunity to export high value-added products,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.
“Under National’s economic leadership, the New Zealand economy is becoming dangerously reliant on the fortunes of one commodity – milk powder.
“The New Zealand economy is in danger of becoming a one-trick pony.
“John Key is failing to transform our economy onto a more resilient and broad-based export footing.
“The Government’s focus on selling high-earning state-owned assets is a sad side-show to much bigger structural problems going on back in the real economy.”
The percentage of small and medium enterprises involved in exporting has remained around 15 percent since National took office in 2008, according to numbers provided by the Ministry of Economic Development.
“One of the key measures of a more resilient and competitive economy is the number of firms exporting. Under the National Government, the number of companies exporting has stagnated,” said Dr Norman.
“The Green Party has solutions to the wider structural problems of our economy — solutions that don’t involve selling our best assets offshore.
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“An alternative plan to selling off the best of our last remaining SOEs is to keep them and refocus their largely domestic operations towards booming renewable energy export markets abroad.
“We can create tens of thousands of new, clean technology jobs here at home if we’re smart.
“Instituting a tax on capital gains (excluding the family home) is another policy the Government could implement to drive much-needed investment into the productive economy.
“We can create the right incentives to enable New Zealand firms to compete with imports and to export, enabling us to live within our means once again.”
Link to MED’s report on SME export activity (p 54):
http://tiny.cc/8lpwl
The Green Party's alternative plan for our economy:
http://www.greens.org.nz/greenjobs
ENDS
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