Auckland paying for feeble skills training

new-zealand-first-party

Thu Nov 26 2015 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Auckland paying for feeble skills training

Thursday, 26 November 2015, 12:04 pm
Press Release: New Zealand First Party

Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland

26 NOVEMBER 2015

AUCKLAND PAYING FOR FEEBLE SKILLS TRAINING APPROACH

The serious building workers shortage in Auckland points the finger directly at the government’s ineptitude.

“National completely neglected the opportunity to upskill Kiwis with the biggest ever short term building project in NZ history – the Christchurch Rebuild,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Apart from a wimpish, over-hyped plan to get some workers to Christchurch there was nothing of lasting value. The country needed a mammoth, army-style employment training scheme and instead got PR and spin.

“National stayed true to form with a Solution for Dummies.

“It gave the nod to construction companies to take the easy and cheap way out. Thousands of Filipino ‘construction’ workers came in. It’s doubtful if many were actually skilled.

“National knew that tens of thousands of new houses were needed in Auckland – along with trades people required in their thousands. National’s mass migration policy always had inevitable consequences.

“It knew that one in five Maori and Polynesian youth were without either training or jobs. It did little more than nothing.

“Six per cent unemployment and builder worker shortages represents a failure to train our own young people.

“Now we can expect the government to take the easy way out again – by extending migrant work visas for foreign construction workers so they fill the Auckland jobs. So much for the government claiming migrant workers would be a temporary solution.

“The OECD warned last year that New Zealand’s unmanaged flow of temporary workers, the biggest among 34 OECD countries, would be very bad for New Zealander’s job chances. Of course, they were right.”

ENDS

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