Creating staterun investment bank one of ideas CTU is floating to public

AUCKLAND: Create a staterun investment bank, trial fourday work weeks at scale, and establish a ‘‘Ministry of Green Works’’ — these are some of the ideas the Council of Trade Unions is floating with the public as election year approaches.

Representatives from the organisation, which brings together 27 New Zealand unions, will spend the next six months travelling the country and consulting on a suite of highlevel policy proposals outlined in the CTU’s new economic strategy.

The strategy was coauthored by the CTU’s Craig Renney (an economic adviser to Finance

Minister Grant Robertson in the last term of government) and Diana Russell.

The CTU plans to refine its ideas and detail them in a report it will publish early next year.

One of the ideas it would like feedback on is creating an investment bank to service parts of the economy neglected by banks, including Maori businesses that struggle to get finance from lenders that do not want to secure debt against communallyowned land.

The CTU said the bank, which could be partfunded by levies on other banks’ profits, could derisk projects that have longterm benefits to New Zealand.

It also saw potential for the bank to establish an investment fund for members.

As for the Ministry of Green Works proposal, the CTU said this department could act as an automatic stabiliser in the housing market by building more houses when the construction pipeline lagged behind demand and pulling back when supply from the market was sufficient.

It suggested the ministry could be a ‘‘vehicle for central and local government to insource currently outsourced development activities’’, and separately, be responsible for ensuring Three Waters infrastructure is delivered.

The CTU had several ideas on the employment relations front.

It proposed a law change to default KiwiSaver lift the bar about what constitutes ‘‘contracting’’ to better protect workers who miss out on entitlements due to being classified as a contractor.

The CTU suggested decoupling parental leave so each partner’s leave is independent.

‘‘This helps to break down gender segregation in the workplace and reduces the gender pay gap as a result,’’ the CTU said.

‘‘Sweden, Iceland, and Norway have one of the most equitable parentalleave schemes which has led to fathers using over 45 %, 45%, and 40% of the available parentalleave benefits, respectively.’’

The CTU suggested doing a big trial of a fourday work week.

‘‘This would be undertaken at a sector level, on the same 100/80/100 basis as the UK,’’ it said.

It also recommended progressively extending the provision of public earlychildhood education services, so it could be free to all children, and making full sick leave and bereavement leave available to employees from their first day of employment.

On the energy front, the CTU wanted to see further steps taken to encourage a switch to cleaner energy.

It added a suggestion to ‘‘change the way the electricity market works to ensure the amount of electricity suppliers are paid is relative to their generating costs instead of the current system of an arbitrarily high price set by one generator, usually a fossil fuel producer.’’

Finally, the CTU said government departments that did costbenefit analysis of policy proposals should also highlight the cost of not investing. The CTU said they should estimate ‘‘the ‘liability’ the Crown faced for future expenditure set alongside the debt and operating balance figures’’.

The CTU has already worked closely with the Government and lobby group, BusinessNZ, to a create a Fair Pay Agreements scheme, and is helping design a state income insurance scheme.

It recognised these initiatives in its strategy, but said, ‘‘[T]here is still much more to be done . . .

‘‘[T]he longterm economic problems facing New Zealand are the problems that existed before the pandemic. We face a recovery from Covid19 that is increasingly Kshaped.

‘‘People with skills, in secure work, and with assets, will continue to do well as the economy comes back from Covid19. People with insecure work, fewer skills, and low incomes will increasingly feel the impacts of inflation, face housing stress, and a more insecure future.’’

The CTU said it wanted the Government to tackle the ‘‘interrelated problems of productivity, investment, climate change, infrastructure, taxation, jobs, income, equity and wellbeing’’. —