Joyce doesn’t back Kiwi workers to get job done

The extraordinary dismissive attitude of the Transport Minister Steven Joyce shows National does not back our rail workers to complete the job of building the rolling stock for Auckland’s rail network, Labour’s Transport spokesperson Darren Hughes said today.

“Steven Joyce has been dismissive of the report before even looking at the opportunities it presents,” Darren Hughes said.

“The RMTU and Dunedin City Council investigation clearly showed that it is possible to produce the rolling stock required within the budget allocated for the project. The bonus for Kiwis is that it would create hundreds of jobs, as well as boosting the tax take and GDP.

“Mr Joyce’s ‘cup half empty’ approach at a time when 168,000 Kiwis are looking for work is quite astonishing.

“Prime Minister John Key’s crusade to find some ‘step change’ for the economy has so far produced little, and when industries themselves provide a way to get Kiwis back into work, his right hand man rules it out before he’s taken a good look at the proposal.

“Stephen Joyce claims that our rail manufacturing industry isn’t up to the task shows just how little he knows about our rail industry. Today he even admitted to never having visited the rail yards at Woburn in Wellington and Hillside in Dunedin where the locomotives could be built.

“New Zealand taxpayers will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on this rolling stock. It beggars belief that Stephen Joyce won’t consider putting some of that money towards supporting Kiwi jobs,” Darren Hughes said.

ENDS

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