Plans to grow overseas investment face critics

15/09/2012 10:40:51 a.m.

Raewyn wrote:

Steven Joyce is like a stuck record talks too much and says nothing.Its amazing how he uses Christchurch for job creation.Christchurch was never in their plan as it happened after they were elected.So if Christchurch had not of happened where were the jobs coming from Steven Joyce?

25/08/2012 1:25:14 p.m.

Graeme wrote:

Steven Joyce said on The Nation on Sunday how important it is to attract oversea capital and you need to dumb down the RMA etc to do this. This is going to be the oil and intensive farming bonanza! Well over the last seven and half years in a particular area of the economy we have attracted 10 billion dollars a year on average. So we have had the overseas investment where are these scale businesses like the energy assets National is so keen to sell times ten!!! The NZ Stock market should have ten or eleven major scale or perhaps dozens of smaller new company listings shouldn’t it? Well according to Joyce anyway. That money went into largely non-productive investment in housing in the form of private housing mortgages. Residential mortgage loans went from $98065m at December 2004 to $173835m at June 2012. Joyce says we have no property bubble and the distortion of investment in residential property in our economy has been fixed by taxation changes. We've had the overseas investment, the economy must be booming! Yeah right!

20/08/2012 2:12:00 p.m.

JvZ wrote:

Fascinating to see Steven Joyce confirming the illusions in New Zealand about jobs. I see the exact same thing in college where students are being prepared to find a job, where Steven Joyce confirms that the industry should go and talk with students so they can find a job that these businesses need, right, we need more wage slaves to make the profits for shareholders. It's a f#cked up mind set, that I would believe has been here since decades. We need jobs that people need, that's something different. We do not need jobs that fulfill the short term profit interest of investors (foreign or domestic), but we need jobs that create a structurally long term healthy society. Not one for selfish egos and selfish greed.

20/08/2012 11:36:17 a.m.

Phil wrote:

Rachael is nice. Joyce is a motor mouth bully who totally dominated this party broadcast. These interviewers were woefully inept and not worth their place. Do your homework and challenge this pap from Joyce. More rigour please.

19/08/2012 6:07:03 p.m.

Charles wrote:

'ROB' and 'DAVID' you comments are purely politically biased and ignorant. Informed comments really need to be free from any bias. This does require some intelligence which obviously you both fail at. New Zealand’s OECD ranking fell under the fifth Labour Govt. In 2007, New Zealand’s GDP averaged $US26,600 per capita in purchasing power parity terms, ranking 22 out of 30 OECD countries. Six out of the eight countries that rank below New Zealand were admitted during 1994-2000. Among older members, New Zealand only outperforms Portugal and Turkey. Ranking the lowest in the top half of the OECD is Finland, with average income of $US35,300 per capita. Over 2000-2007, New Zealand’s real GDP per capita grew at 2.1% per year, while the average growth rate for the rest of the OECD was 2.4% (or 1.8% if weighted by population). If each country continued to grow at its average growth rate for the period 2000-2007, New Zealand would only reach the middle rung of the OECD ladder in 2170. In the last three years to 2007, New Zealand’s growth performance was poorer than the rest of the OECD (1.5% vs 3.0% per year). If these growth rates were sustained, New Zealand would drop to 24th place in 2010 and continue to fall further later on. It Labour continued with ther promised $26B election spree we would certianly have ended up like Greece.

19/08/2012 2:15:24 p.m.

Hamish wrote:

How about investing govt/tax money in industry that relies on manpower and brings money into the country through exports? The results could be a drop in unemployment and a rise in exports, forestry with state backing, give the people jobs to go to. Time for national to understand the private sector cant/wont do the job alone!

19/08/2012 12:30:01 p.m.

David wrote:

@Mike stop misrepresenting facts. Exports grew... but did they lead to a fall in unemployment? no. Exports are controlled by the free market... not government. In the last 3 years countries have been clammering for food commodities... again nothing to do with National. Its funny how you try taking credit for something that has had nothing to do with National. The OECD says the main driver behind rising income gaps has been greater inequality in wages and salaries, as the high-skilled have benefited more from technological progress than the low-skilled. It warned about the rise of the high earners in rich societies and the falling share of income going to those at the bottom, saying governments must move quickly to tackle inequality. "This study dispels the assumptions that the benefits of economic growth will automatically trickle down to the disadvantaged and that greater inequality fosters greater social mobility," said OECD secretary-general Angel Gurraacía. But the rise in part-time and low-paid work also extended the wage gap, the report said. The main reason for the widening gap was that benefit levels fell in nearly all OECD countries, eligibility rules were tightened to contain spending on social protection, and transfers to the poorest failed to keep pace with earnings growth. As a result, the benefit system in most countries had become less effective in reducing inequalities over the past 15 years. New Zealand under John Key has the biggest wealth gap of any OECD country... even worse than Greece.

19/08/2012 11:29:00 a.m.

Jono wrote:

@Rob. I do not buy this bollocks. Quite the opposite - it worries me that because Joyce sounds persuasive, he will become the acceptable face of National, when bumbling donkey has lost all credibility. Opposition parties will need to work hard to make headway against Joyce, if they want to win in 2014.

19/08/2012 10:36:29 a.m.

Rob wrote:

Joyce "impressive". Come on - like Brownlee, Smith, Bennett and Key, Joyce is simply arrogant. He sat there telling lies and hiding behind techno-speak. Tarrant et al let hi get away with it. The shame of it is that so many people - like Charles and Jono - buy this bollocks. Joyce can talk down to us plebs as much as he likes - it doesn't cover for the fact that he and his mates run the worst government since Shipley.

19/08/2012 9:07:57 a.m.

jh wrote:

Do Harcourt's Shanghai sale "products" count as exports?