Dr Richard Worth MP
National Party Economic Development Spokesman

4 April 2007

Economic development policy falls short

The Labour Government's new regional economic development policy has fallen short, says National Party Economic Development spokesman Dr Richard Worth.

"Existing regional development programmes are fragmented and focused on unrealistic short-term objectives. It's going to take more than tweaking these programmes to develop an environment where business can flourish."

National supports reducing the number of regions from 26 to 14, but Dr Worth says work is needed to create an innovative, export-led and high wage economy.

"Regional development policy should recognise that it is not possible to simply provide funds without a clear identification of the objectives.

"The proposed contestable Enterprising Partnerships Fund and the Regional Strategy Fund fails in that regard.

"Even worse, the decision-making ability on the contestable fund has been taken away from NZTE and transferred to Cabinet ministers.

"Economic development agencies throughout New Zealand recognise that substantial gains will be made by improvements to infrastructure, simplification of taxation, and business compliance regimes.

"The Labour Government is ideologically stuck on the merit of legislation that is failing to fulfil its intended purposes.

"That legislation includes the Resource Management Act which stifles public private partnerships in appropriate sectors, and employment law which Labour refuses to change to recognise the merit of probation periods for workers."

ENDS

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