David
PARKER
Spokesperson for Finance

8 February 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT
Joyce Calls For Foreign Investment But Overseas Companies Pulling Out

Steven Joyce says more foreign direct investment will cure unemployment but foreign companies such as the Summit owners and Norse Skog are pulling out because they can't make a buck, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker.

“Steven Joyce says foreign direct investment will create jobs but he’s ignoring the facts. Foreign companies aren’t investing; they’re pulling out. National’s economic settings and the high exchange rate mean they can’t make a dollar. That’s the facts.

“The list is long and increasing. Norske Skog. Petrobras. Mainzeal. Rio Tinto, threatening to pull out. Summit’s owners Sumitomo.

“Under National’s economy it’s nigh-impossible for overseas or local companies to make money. New Zealand’s world-leading Hamilton Jet, a company that bests even Rolls Royce, told the Manufacturing Inquiry that a $20 million investment would yield just a two per cent return under an 80c exchange rate with no debt.

“It doesn’t make sense to invest with numbers like that. Today I’m going to meet with workers and employers at Summit Wool Spinners in Oamaru to hear directly from them what’s wrong.

“Steven Joyce can call for foreign investment all he likes but his policies are scaring overseas companies away. Another reason why 33,000 people gave up on the labour force last quarter.

“The only foreign investment market doing well is rural land. That doesn’t create jobs or increase our output but does send profits offshore and puts land beyond the reach of Kiwis.

“The supposed Mr Fixit Steven Joyce has presided over a fall in 30,000 jobs in one year as Minister of Employment, despite promising to create 170,000 in four years. For a man of action he hasn’t even finished announcing his Business Growth Agenda. I have four words for Steven Joyce: ‘Get on with it’.”

“Labour has the ideas and the vision to get the economy moving, manufacturers exporting and Kiwis working.”

ENDS

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