Not as simple as getting off the Couch

This BLOG was first published in the Franklin County News on Wednesday 21st December 2017.

The Government announced they would consider some ‘work for the dole’ type schemes and Shane Jones, the list MP for NZ First, now Regional Economic Development Minister announced, “...there will be no more sitting on the couch.”

The mainstream media, missing the point, indulged itself in what can only be called pedantic roughhouse diversionary reporting.

Our culture has an expectation that everyone that can work will (or be at home looking after the kids). The belief is, “...it saves us from the dullness and boredom of life. It puts our energies to a proper use. Unused energies create disorder in us. They make us physically unhealthy and mentally unhappy. Time hangs heavy on our shoulders when there is no work.” Hence the old adage ‘the devil finds work for idle hands’.

If we look around us, for the most part we will see that everyone is busy. Work is an important part of our lives. We might ask if it has come to the point where it has taken over our lives. But that is another discussion.

Everything we now do is tied in some way to work. So when people are not working, especially if they are capable of work, and if we are paying them as well, we tend to have a not so understanding or kindly view of them. Such people are quickly typecast as malingerers and wasters, probably lying on the couch drinking or on drugs all day.

We search diligently for examples to prove and justify our prejudicial bias. And the media is always there to help reinforce our view.

To most thoughtful people, unemployment benefits embody a painful trade-off. They are the mark of a civilized society, clubbing together to provide assistance to those in need. But do unemployment benefits really encourage people to duck work?

The benefit protects people who find themselves out of work from having to rush into an unsuitable job. It is nothing to celebrate if an unemployed person cannot afford to spend months finding a job which they are qualified for but are forced to accept the first available job, be it unsuitable, to put food on the table.

Of course that begs the question ‘where are the jobs all these people are going to?

Famous economists from all schools of thought say that you have serious problems if you have 10% of the workforce out of work. Let us remember where Shane Jones is, the level is sometimes double that.

Some will argue that a level of unemployment is good for the economy. Good for whom I can guess, but certainly not for those unemployed.

The Employers & Manufacturers Association tells us 72% of employers surveyed find it difficult or very difficult to recruit staff in skilled positions. 65% say there is, or soon will be, a skills shortage in their industry sector. 56% are expecting their businesses to grow over the next six months.

Hello, is anyone doing the maths?

Land for Food or Houses

This column was first published in the Franklin County News on 5th December 2017.

There will be many among our community who will remember, vividly, the Auckland Super City proposal debate. It got pretty rough at times. There was the incident where the then Auckland City Mayor, John Banks, mistakenly sent a text to the Mayor of North Shore, Andrew Williams, calling him a lunatic. The Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey tried to be a peace maker and was accused of “elitist bullshit” by the Auckland Regional Council Mike Lee.

Rodney Hide was the Government Minister promoting one council, one mayor with 20-30 Local Boards for the greater Auckland region.

Our then District Council led by Mayor Mark Ball organised a number of public meetings asking me to chair some of them. The most notable for me was the packed Pukekohe Town Hall meeting. It was packed and after the various speakers had finished their pieces the floor was open and there was no shortage of folk wanting to say their piece, and pretty determined they were too.

A major source of contention was that it was a land grab to build houses for the burgeoning Auckland population and Franklin was one of the biggest areas of A class growing soils in the country.

The debate on land use has arisen again as those houses are being built on what were once productive market gardens and farms. At the same time we got a sharp reminder how vulnerable the food supply is when a very wet winter made both growing and harvesting difficult and some vegetable supplies reduced.

Since 2001 NZ has lost 6,000ha of vegetable growing land. There is a misconception that we export most of our horticultural produce. Certainly we export a lot of our fruit produce but only 4% of our vegetables exported, most of it is for domestic supply. Pukekohe is one of the main growing areas for feeding NZ vegetables, especially in the spring.

Reduce the supply and it’s pretty obvious, the price goes up and maybe we even end up relying on imports for our vegetables.

European settlement of NZ usually developed around areas where the settlers could farm, firstly to feed themselves and then maybe sell surplus produce. As those areas grew in population we saw the development of service towns to include people who made their living from supporting the surrounding farming community. And that is when the dilemma began as the ‘urban’ population grew.

We are more city based than ever. With a rapidly expanding world population tipped to rise a staggering 24% from 7.5 billion today to about 9.8 billion by 2050, the world’s farmers will need to produce at least 60% more food than they currently do, if all the mouths are to be fed adequately.

According to the World Bank, if you invest in agriculture, you are two to three times more likely to have a positive impact on poverty reduction, livelihoods, and food security, than in any other sectors.

There is no doubt we need homes, there is a desperate shortage in Auckland. And that need has brought home to us the need also for a food security policy with a nationwide vision for how we feed ourselves.