What southern business wants
SUPPORT for dealing with the ongoing labour shortage is high on the wish list of Southern businesses ahead of Thursday’s Budget.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Grant Robertson will deliver the Budget, laying out the priority spending areas for the year ahead.
It would be a ‘‘Covid Budget’’ — as the ongoing effects of the pandemic were still being dealt with — and also a ‘‘recovery and wellbeing’’ Budget, Mr Robertson told a recent business event in Auckland.
In Dunedin, United Machinists chief executive Sarah Ramsay said there had been underinvestment in the manufacturing industry for decades.
The sector would like to see capital investment into machinery and equipment designed to increase efficiency and productivity, Ms Ramsay said.
What was needed was ‘‘not just another machine, but something that can run lights out or that offers smart gains in productivity’’.
That meant ‘‘automation, industry 4.0, the ability to be able to produce more per head of labour than what we are currently doing’’, she said.
‘‘So, from my perspective, anything they can do to derisk or incentivise is really important.’’
The sector would also like to see regional investment put into fit for purpose apprentices and graduates to make it easier for employers to hire apprentices.
Dunedin had no managed apprentice support locally, she said.
The investment could be either through increasing funding for existing graduate programmes or to provide adequate inmarket support to help facilitate apprentices, Ms Ramsay said.
United Machinists had not employed a New Zealand trade qualified machinist for three years, and all new engineers were migrant workers.
‘‘The right candidates aren’t being attracted to take up apprenticeships in the first place so, from an employer’s perspective, we are having to go out there and grow the attractiveness of the trade,’’ Ms Ramsaysaid.
Speight’s Ale House owner Mark Scully said the hospitality sector wanted money invested into a concentrated push to get tourism back to New Zealand.
‘‘There has been a lot of talk about resetting tourism but what form that will take doesn’t seem to be clear.
‘‘Once the world starts opening up, it’s important the world starts coming here because we may lose some of that domestic tourism. A lot of Kiwis haven’t been able to travel and they can now jump on a plane and go to Port Douglas or Rarotonga.
‘‘We are in a good place to attract tourists because international view is that we are well organised as a country,’’ he said.
The hospitality sector also wanted the Government to loosen immigration rules to let skilled workers in, Mr Scully said.
The Otago Chamber of Commerce also wanted to see more support for getting labour, president Grant McKenzie said.
‘‘Skills hub and workforce development are longterm issues the economy is seeing and we need to see some sup
❛ So from my perspective, anything they can do to derisk or incentivise is really important
port for it,’’ he said.
Support in the startup business space and for businesses struggling with the impact of Covid19 was also something the chamber wanted to see, Mr McKenzie said.
Federated Farmers Otago president Mark Patterson said the organisation wanted to see more investment into better connectivity for rural areas.
‘‘So much more is online now and we have areas where it is flat terrain but no cellphone coverage, and it is a huge disadvantage to run a business or even just a family when you don’t have access to fast broadband.’’
The sector was at risk of not being able to expand into new technologies without investment in connectivity.
Money needed to be put into initiatives to brand New Zealand to be able to market the country’s exports to the world.
There also needed to be a plan for how the country was going to make money, not just spend it, Mr Patterson said.