Bradford Sue: General Debate 
Bradford Sue: General Debate 
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SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 I would like to take a few minutes today to talk about jobs. Yesterday I was horrified to read in the newspaper that just a couple of weeks after Sealord’s in Nelson—the mussel factory there—announced that it was going to axe over 300 jobs two South Island seafood companies may be granted permits to bring in migrant workers. I would like to call on the Government to seriously consider ensuring that the Immigration Service does not grant those permits. It is unthinkable that at a time when over 300 jobs have been lost in exactly the same industry—seafood processing—the Government should consider allowing permits to be granted to bring in workers from apparently Asia and South America to do the same jobs in the same district. 
The two factories that have applied for the permits are Talley’s Fisheries in Motueka and Aotearoa Seafoods in Kaikoura. This is the same “top of the south” district where the mussel processing jobs have been lost. On top of that I understand that Talley’s Fisheries intends to pay those migrant workers the minimum wage of $12 an hour or just above that—a princely sum—whereas the workers at the Sealord’s plant who are going to lose their jobs or have lost them already are actually paid thank goodness a lot more than that. They have been loyal workers they are skilled workers and they have been paid properly for the work they do. The jobs that are being lost are apparently to be replaced elsewhere if Talley’s Fisheries gets its way by workers from overseas who will be working for the minimum wage. I believe and fear that this is simply a tactic to force down wages and keep unionised workers out of certain workplaces. Labour must not allow its immigration schemes to be used in this way. 
The Green Party is more than happy to support schemes that bring in migrant labour where there is genuinely no local workforce available for those jobs. But it is simply not acceptable to see a Government scheme propping up employers who are using migrant workers’ wages and conditions to undercut those of other workers in this country who are doing the same work. This is a case of companies attempting to exploit foreign workers and use them as a blunt tool to bring down wages in the top of the South Island. I sincerely hope that the Minister will take this situation seriously and not allow that to go through. 
We also have a lot of other lay-offs in the news; the list is getting longer and longer by the week I am sorry to say. The  
Press  
on 12 June stated it was expecting 50000 more unemployed people by 2011. When the Reserve Bank recently decided to keep the official cash rate at its current level it made predictions of unemployment rising to 6 percent over the next few years. Of course like everyone else in this House I hope these predictions do not come true but it is a reality we have to face at a time of overseas conditions that we cannot control including the growing impacts of climate change and peak oil and an incipient global recession. We cannot ignore how that is impacting and will continue to impact on our economy. 
Our regions are suffering from the Government’s failure to promote a diverse economy. For example Dannevirke alone has suffered job losses at the Oringi meatworks the Norsewear clothing plant and back in 2006 the Feltex Carpets plant. Now as industrial dairy moves in and a drought hits the region the number of sheep on our southern Hawke’s Bay farms has actually gone down. That results in a flow-through to the local economy which does not have the diversity it once had with a manufacturing base that enabled it to survive bad news from the agricultural side. In this country we need to promote more diverse local economies rather than to have each town put its hope entirely on one industry. The current bubble is industrial dairy. Do we have any economic plan for what happens when that particular bubble pops after dairy has steamrolled over and irrigated under all our farms and forests? 
Laila Harré from the National Distribution Union formerly a member of this House says of the Government’s apparent belief that the only manufacturing worth nurturing is innovative high-end and technologically cutting edge that Labour has lost the plot. “Who says that New Zealanders are brainier than the rest of the world? In order to keep the brainy jobs going we need the brawny jobs.” she says. We cannot afford to lose our manufacturing base in this country. It is not enough to believe in the knowledge economy; we need to preserve and expand our ability to make what we need here. 
Finally I would just like to mention the National Party. I was at a breakfast forum a few weeks ago where Kate Wilkinson spoke on behalf of her party about KiwiSaver and other matters. I would like to say that workers and ordinary people around this country are desperate to know what in fact National’s industrial relations policy is not just those of us who are here in this House.