More bad news: Dead cat bounce for manufacturing

After declining for three months manufacturing has just eked into positive territory, signaling a dead cat bounce, says Labour’s Economic Development spokesperson David Cunliffe.

“The figures just get worse for the Government. Their deficit is blowing out, their job creation target is way behind, job ads are down and unemployment is the highest in 13 years.

“Now manufacturing is suffering from a dead-cat bounce after declining for three straight months and has been in negative territory for almost half of the year.

“The worst news is that employment in the industry has dropped for five straight months. There’s no surprise unemployment is the highest since Jenny Shipley.

“The Government is out of ideas and can barely muster the enthusiasm to respond coherently. Bill English refuses to acknowledge bad numbers and says anecdotally the economy is fine. The finance minister cannot even agree with his own Treasury officials whether the current account matters.

“We need answers not anecdotes. John Key has admitted he admires the reporting of Fox News. That’s because Fox and this Government live in an anecdotal alternate reality.

“In the real universes in the last four years 40,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost. But the Government refuses to act. It is content to sit on the side-lines and watch as New Zealand’s manufacturing base slowly crumbles.

“The crisis in manufacturing is all too real and no amount of spin can change that.

“The Government m
ust join the cross-party inquiry into manufacturing and look for solutions.”
ends

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Arguably Reassuring: Inspector-General Finds GCSB "Arguably" Legal

Of the 88 individuals:

• 15 cases involving 22 individuals did not have any information intercepted by GCSB.

• another four cases involving five individuals were the subjects of a New Zealand Security Intelligence Service warrant and the GCSB assisted in the execution of the warrants. The Inspector-General is of the view that there were arguably no breaches and the law is unclear.

• the Bureau only provided technical assistance which did not involve interception of communications, involving three of the individuals, so no breach occurred.

• the remaining cases involved the collection of metadata, and the Inspector-General formed the view that there had arguably been no breach, noting once again that the law is unclear.
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