Polytechnic reforms job losses: National
WELLINGTON: The National Party says the Government’s plans to reform polytechnics and institutes of technology will lead to 1000 job losses, a radical centralised model, and the closure of polytechnics in the regions.
But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has rubbished these claims, adding that the Government needs to intervene in order to save polytechnics in the regions and stop job losses.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins, however, conceded that the proposals had ‘‘implications’’ for people’s jobs, but it was irresponsible to speculate about job losses.
Yesterday morning, in her State of the Nation speech to a business audience in Auckland, Ms Ardern said the vocational education sector needed urgent restructuring, and that Mr Hipkins would release a consultation document next week.
But National leader Simon Bridges said his party had been leaked details of the document, and it recommended abolishing regional polytechnics and centralising a number of functions into four regional hubs.
He said it would also lead to 1000 fewer jobs and a ‘‘very radical, nationalised’’ model more typical of Venezuela, which would take control away from communities.
National’s tertiary education spokesman, Shane Reti, said the job losses would hit lecturers in regional polytechnics as well as administrative jobs.
He conceded the sector needed change and National may have centralised some functions, ‘‘but we would not have consolidated regional polytechnics into hubs and massmoved’’ administrative functions to a centralised model.
Mr Bridges said the Government’s plan was similar to proposals to overhaul the school system by moving some of the school boards’ responsibilities to regional hubs. The Government is now considering these proposals.
Ms Ardern said it was ‘‘speculative’’ to say there would be regional hubs for polytechnics, but ‘‘absolutely’’ rejected that there would be 1000 job losses.
She said the vocational education sector was dysfunctional and losing jobs at the moment, and that would continue if the Government did not reform the sector.
‘‘It requires intervention. What we run the risk of, if we do nothing, is that we will lose them [regional polytechnics] because we have had to put money into providers thus far who have been failing.
‘‘I want to ensure they continue to have a place in regional New Zealand. We need to have training facilities across the country. But if we don’t do something differently, we risk losing them altogether.’’
Mr Hipkins said next week’s announcement would have ‘‘implications’’ for people’s jobs, but it was irresponsible to speculate about how many job losses there might be.
‘‘To be clear, if we don’t do something, the regions are going to lose their polytechnics.
‘‘We must do something about this. The polytechnics have been haemorrhaging students , haemorrhaging money, and it’s simply unsustainable.’’
FARMERS’ confidence in the economy has hit a nineyear low with just 5% expecting conditions to improve in the year ahead, largely because of the USChina tariff trade war and Brexit uncertainties.
Difficulty in recruiting skilled staff is now at a record level of concern for the rural sector, while regulation and compliance costs remain a major issue.
The number of farms in profit has taken a hit, more are making losses and more are breaking even.
Federated Farmers vicepresident and economics spokesman Andrew Hoggard said the findings from the Fed’s January midseason farm confidence survey was the lowest level since mid2009, when the country was just emerging from the 200708 global financial crisis.
‘‘As with the wider business community, I think we’re seeing concern about the impact of global uncertainty and instability on our key export markets, with the likes of Brexit and USChina trade relations,’’ he said in a statement yesterday.
The coalition Government has been plagued by poor business outlook surveys for the past year, which are only just showing signs of turning for the better, as noted by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in her ‘‘state of the nation’’ address yesterday.
Just 5.1% of the 1462 farmer respondents expected general economic conditions to improve during the next 12 months and 45.9% expected they would worsen.
Mr Hoggard said the level of pessimism was a fivefold increase on the July 2017 survey.
The agriculture sector has now joined the longsuffering construction, manufacturing and hospitality sectors, which have all been facing various levels of skill and recruitment shortages for the past two years, which often dampens businesses’ ability to expand.
Mr Hoggard said the continu ing difficulty recruiting staff was another finding which stood out.
A net 40.1% had found it harder during the past six months to recruit skilled and motivated staff, as opposed to easier, which was up 4.2 points on the July 2018 survey.
‘‘While that might reflect seasonal factors, it’s also driven by the generally tight labour
❛ Dairy’s worsened — no surprise given the fall in dairy commodity prices and farmgate milk price forecasts in the second half of 2018 — and arable’s also fell slightly Federated Farmers vicepresident and economics spokesman Andrew Hoggard
market and immigration restrictions,’’ Mr Hoggard said.
‘‘Dairy and arable farmers have found staff recruitment particularly hard.
‘‘This indicator has steadily worsened over the 10year life of the survey and is at a record level of difficulty,’’ he said.
Mr Hoggard said just on 56% of respondents said they were making a profit, down from 62.3% in July 2018.
‘‘Meat and wool farmers continue to be the most positive about their current profitability, and their sentiment improved a little since July,’’ he said.
Meanwhile 9.3% are making a loss, up from 7.8%, while 32.4% are just breaking even, up from 27.8%, he said.
‘‘Dairy’s worsened — no surprise given the fall in dairy commodity prices and farmgate milk price forecasts in the second half of 2018 — and arab le’s also fell slightly,’’ Mr Hoggard said.
He said a continuing finding of the last four surveys, was that regulation and compliance costs remained the greatest concern for farmers.
‘‘Concerns about climate change policy and the ETS [emissions trading scheme] that became increasingly prevalent over the past three surveys has levelled out, and concern about the political situation has also decreased,’’ Mr Hoggard said.
He noted that drought did not register in the survey as a concern, which was ‘‘most unusual’’ for a January survey.