Bill English MP
National Party Finance Spokesman

16 March 2007

Labour policies fail to deliver on productivity

Household incomes will stagnate if record low productivity growth continues, says National Party Finance spokesman Bill English.

Figures released by Statistics NZ today show labour productivity grew by 0.4% in the year to March 2006 - the lowest labour productivity growth recorded since the series began in 1988.

“These figures are further confirmation of low productivity growth since 2000. Even allowing for the effects of low unemployment, productivity performance is getting worse,” says Mr English

“If we want our economy to grow we need to get people working smarter - increasing their productivity. And in the long term only productivity increases will drive increases in wages across the economy.

“But New Zealand is failing to deliver the productivity growth it needs to even maintain incomes let alone make up ground compared to Australia.

“Our future potential growth rate is looking bleak unless we can turn around these appallingly low levels of productivity growth.

“Policies like labour market regulation and other regulatory burdens and red tape, as well as the taxation burden on businesses, have to be addressed.

“The Labour Government has correctly identified productivity as critical to growth. But the more they talk about it and fail to act, the worse it gets.”

Ends

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