Manufacturing Must Be Supported
Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
9 August 2012
Manufacturing Must Be Supported
New Zealand First is calling for urgent action to help save jobs in the manufacturing sector.
This follows the latest Household Labour Force Survey recording a loss of 10,500 jobs in the manufacturing sector for the June Quarter.
Rt Hon Winston Peters says the latest unemployment figures demonstrate that the Government continues to turn its back on local jobs and industry, preferring to import cheap goods manufactured in China.
“International research shows that manufacturing jobs produce the highest value. For every job created in manufacturing, two to five further jobs are created elsewhere.”
Mr Peters says New Zealand First would implement policies to boost exports and create new jobs.
“We have legislation ready to change the Reserve Bank Act to give the bank a mandate to get the New Zealand dollar under control and make our exports more competitive.
“We also have other policies to make manufacturing more attractive and they would boost sales of local goods ahead of imports”, says Mr Peters.
ENDS