Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Leeann Watson: Business Canterbury Chief Executive on Business NZ report

Transcript

Leeann Watson: Business Canterbury Chief Executive on Business NZ report · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There's a worrying new report out this morning from Business
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: New Zealand. It projects a short fall of at least
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty thousand workers by twenty forty five,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: with health and pensions absorbing one hundred percent of our
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: income tax. They also reckon there's a one and four
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: chance of no population growth at all, and they'd like
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to see a national bipartisan vision. Leanne Watson is the
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  Speaker 1: chief executive of Business Canterbury Joints. So now, hell are Leanne?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning Andrew?
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  Speaker 1: Not a pleasant read? But are they right?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I think there is a number of things
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  Speaker 2: in the report that certainly requires some more robust thinking
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  Speaker 2: that I think calling for too much by part of
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  Speaker 2: an agreement might be a little unrealistic, particularly as we
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  Speaker 2: are heading into an election year next year. What we
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  Speaker 2: do need is a clear understanding of the go no
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: go areas from major politicoal parties and definitely reducing that
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: pendulum swing to something more manageable for business. You know,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: the business people I talked to around the country are
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: looking for a conversation about steady incremental progress, not a
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: pendulum sliff shift which would potentially south go backwards.
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  Speaker 1: So that's what a national, a nation bipartisan vision would
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  Speaker 1: look to you just calm down, kick to full time goals.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: But the thing that gets me is the two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty thousand workers. I mean, we need workers, business
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  Speaker 1: needs workers. Do we need to change immigration settings? You know,
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  Speaker 1: what what can we do about this shortfall?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, And look, I think you know there is
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  Speaker 2: definitely air requirement here to ensure that we create some
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  Speaker 2: I guess the scale and the timing of those policy
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  Speaker 2: settings needs to be you know, really clearly laid out
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  Speaker 2: for businesses and for migrants and salves. I mean, we
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  Speaker 2: will always need international talent. We're a country at the
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: bottom of the world and we're a small country, so
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: it's a combination of both. Though we need international talent,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: we need to provide certainly around those immigration settings, because
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  Speaker 2: when you're making a decision to move, you know, from
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  Speaker 2: the other side of the world to a different country,
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  Speaker 2: you don't do so lightly, and so having potential for
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  Speaker 2: those settings to change from one government to another is
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  Speaker 2: really unsettling for both those people making those decisions, but
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  Speaker 2: also for the employers who are making big investments on
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  Speaker 2: bringing people into the country. We also need to help
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  Speaker 2: with her to grow our own talent, and we need
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  Speaker 2: to make sure there's a really good interface between our
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  Speaker 2: education sector and industry around future workforce planning, and some
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  Speaker 2: of that has happening. You know, we've got a couple
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  Speaker 2: of great universities in Canterbury, caniber University in particular, really
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  Speaker 2: engaged with our business community to make sure that they're
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  Speaker 2: getting those conversations going and getting the right talent coming
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  Speaker 2: through our education systems.
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  Speaker 1: I'm loving your tone, though, because this comes out at
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  Speaker 1: a bad time and we've had a hard year and
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  Speaker 1: everyone's talking us down and you know, the confidence is low,
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  Speaker 1: and then we hear this like by twenty fifty it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be even worse. But you're actually saying there's
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: still a lot to look forward to.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely. I mean I'm from Canterbury and you know
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  Speaker 2: we are fortunate we are in our region and you know,
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  Speaker 2: in the South Island, you know, things are actually going
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  Speaker 2: reasonably well. We've got a really great net month internal migration.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: You know, we've seen population growth, you know, we're seeing
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  Speaker 2: export growth and so I think, you know, there is
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: a lot to be positive about around our economy in
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  Speaker 2: the future. Has it been challenging for the last sort
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: of five years. Absolutely it has. But I think, you know,
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  Speaker 2: if we get these settings right, if we create confidence,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, we've been doing a bit of work
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: in Canterbury to provide some of the answers to make
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: sure that we do have a long term vision and
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  Speaker 2: there's a role for the private sector to play and
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  Speaker 2: that in terms of having a really strong ambition. There
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: is a role for local government and central government to
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  Speaker 2: create the right environment for you know, businesses to do
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  Speaker 2: what they do best, which is to innovate, to invest
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  Speaker 2: and to grow. And all of these times it's actually
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  Speaker 2: government getting out of the way and sometimes without pulling the.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Right lead exactly all of us working together. Leea and
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  Speaker 1: Watson from Business Canterbury. I thank you so much for
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  Speaker 1: your time today.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to News Talks it Be from five am week or
• 4:00
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