We need to get our act together

It's time we the people of Hawke's Bay and especially our leaders woke up to the true state of our local economy. The latest employment statistics are shocking but are probably an indication of our future direction unless we acknowledge the issues and develop strategies to deal with them.

The unemployment numbers are hardly surprising given fruit picking and other seasonal work has yet to yet to eventuate. Possibly the situation could even be worse if it were not for the thousands emigrating elsewhere in search of better opportunities. Alternatively its also possible the lack of population growth is a contributing cause of the malaise.

One statistic that stands out is Maori and Pacifica people are about 3 times more likely to be jobless. Since Maori comprise 24% of the total Hastings population and Pacifica a further 5%, there is clearly a relationship between our overall second highest unemployment ranking  and ethnicity. The figures for Napier are only slightly lower.

The proportion of Maori in our community will continue to rise because already 35% of those in the 0–15 year age group are Maori. These young people will soon be looking for jobs, and the percentage of these groups will continue to increase significantly within just a few decades.

We also have a problem with our brightest and most talented young people departing for higher education and opportunities often to never return, or only to do so as a retirement option. 

These are the demographic realities. Unless we change our thinking unemployment will become an ever more serious problem.

We need people to be better skilled, we need more jobs, and we need those jobs to be more lucrative. Whilst our farms, orchards and forestry are the backbone of our  economy  we cannot rely on primary industries to provide these improvements  in the future. Pastoral farming is not a great creator of employment because increased production is the result of greater efficiency not more manpower. Nor will horticulture deliver because as we already know their jobs require limited skills and offer irregular and relatively poorly paid work that is subject to seasonality, weather and other disruptions. For many this is not the stuff of careers.

To move forward we need to do a number of  things. Firstly attitudes to education must change. Those who have yet to join the work force need to develop the skills that an employer can use to meet the needs of their customers. In particular they need to be able to communicate orally and in writing, in english. There are too many who cannot construct a simple sentence without excessive expletives and meaningless expressions such as  “like”, and   “yknow what I mean”.Second they must have skills in basic arithmetic so they can add, subtract and have some appreciation of basic logic. They also need to be reliable.

Next we need to improve our educational offering. Whilst the EIT provides tertiary courses the numbers attending are a fraction of those at Otago University, a city with a smaller urban population than Napier and Hastings combined. We must provide study options that encourage more of our brightest to stay, and more from other parts of the country to come here to study. Suggesting we will never get a university because we don't already have one is not just defeatist, it condemns us to second ranking in perpetuity. 

Population growth is a major driver of economic growth. We are close to shrinking and if we do not face reality and stop pretending how great the place is, we will enter an endless downward spiral. Recently we ceased being the 5th  largest urban area in the country and soon we are likely to slip to 7th behind both Tauranga and Dunedin. We must find out exactly why people are leaving and not returning, why they are not flocking here, then develop strategies to reverse the situation.

We need more manufacturing and distribution jobs and not just those connected to the core primary output. We need to grow our visitor industry because it creates jobs and does not require a huge investment, and can be made to happen quickly. People claim to like coming here so why have the numbers dropped so significantly.

Then we need serious leadership from our leaders. I recently commented on the Mayor of Napier's statement that we don't want better air services because it will just allow locals to spend their money elsewhere.  This is symptomatic of the elitist attitude of too many of those who control our destiny.  We need to do everything we can to make Hawke's Bay a better place to stay, to shift to, and to visit. True, some very high profile business people have shifted here in recent times but where are the jobs? They might like living here but clearly they do not like Hawke's Bay as a place to do business. 

It is also time we stopped building monuments that pamper leaders vanity and concentrate instead on providing the infrastructure and other things that will actually make a difference.

We need to get our act together. The recent departure of the heads of the Hastings Business Association, and the Chamber of Commerce after scarcely a few weeks in the job suggests not only that we are seriously dysfunctional, but essential initiatives are being delayed. We have an Airport Board determined to sit tight and prevent more able people taking over, whilst building an industrial park instead of concentrating on the core business of ensuring we have competitive links with the rest of the world. We also need leaders  who ensure we get a better deal from Government rather than a better deal for themselves.

Wake up Hawke's Bay before we discover we have morphed into a gigantic retirement village where the dominant occupation is looking after the elderly.