Editorial, Manawatu Evening Standard, 20 February 1999
Job summit worth another attempt
It would be easy to be cynical about yet another employment summit planned for Palmerston North next month. Summits tend to provide a cathartic opportunity for interested parties to vent their spleen and feel better. Some sort of consensus is achieved, resolutions are made, one or two initiatives may actually get off the ground, and then everything collapses in a heap of frustration and inertia.
But it's worth another go. Organiser Ian Ritchie, for one, is determined that this summit should take employment out of the "too-hard" basket, result in action, not just words, and set up follow-up mechanisms to keep things going afterwards.
Certainly, it is encouraging to see the spokesperson for the local Poverty Action Group marshalling some key forces in tackling the underlying causes of the problem rather than having another justifiable grizzle about the struggles voluntary groups face in trying to help the people worst affected by poverty.
The fact Palmerston North is part of a region experiencing the lowest level of unemployment in the country is no reason for complacency. The statistics are cold comfort for those 5.3 percent of the workforce who want jobs but can't find them, and who struggle to provide adequate housing, food and basic needs for their families.
And the fact our serious crime levels are so low that our region is not deemed to be in need of one of the eight tactical policing squads to be set up under the national police review doesn't mean we are already doing enough to break the link between unemployment and crime.
Mr Ritchie's example in speaking up for voluntary welfare groups and then taking on a pivotal role in the employment summit is encouraging. This is surely the sort of speaking out which Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers president Harata Baucke was talking about when she visited Palmerston North this week. Social workers needed to do more than collect their pay packets and go to their nice cosy jobs, she said. Social work was about being keen to change things. If more people were willing to speak up when they saw things which were wrong, more problems. would be solved. But too many people kept quiet, afraid to rock the boat, often constrained by gagging clauses which prevented them from contributing their observations.
But while Palmerston North does seem to be blessed by people who are prepared to talk about the social evil of poverty and to be involved in finding solutions, they are not necessarily the people with the power to create work.
The lineup of speakers invited to the employment summit is devoid of employers, and that could well be its inherent weakness. Commentators, experts on economic policy, and the odd decision-maker may provide an interesting, informative and challenging summit.
But they will have to look beyond self-help initiatives. Somehow, this summit has to address what needs to be done before employers have the confidence to take on more staff, if the desired outcome of creating jobs is to be achieved.