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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Unemployment plan isn’t working


PM rejects estimate of 11.2pc jobless
Government departments are bracing for the unemployment rate to reach double figures as the economy shrinks and the outlook for New Zealand's trading partners gets bleaker. Prime Minister John Key refused to speculate yesterday about how high unemployment could go, but rejected a calculation by think tank the New Zealand Institute that it could reach 11.2 per cent. He said the Government was concentrating on ways to curb the rise in joblessness, including options to be considered at Friday's job summit, rather than seeking regular Treasury updates.

This Government cannot claim their stimulus package is the 3rd best stimulus package in the world when they base that claim on old figures that didn’t consider the rest of the planets response since November, especially when the majority of the stimulus package is in fact money Labour put aside. Their stimulus package is more akin to a warm glass of milk before bedtime and their inability to come up with a response to the global meltdown is embarrassing and their scramble to deny how bad it will become starts looking like denial. If John Key denied unemployment will hit 11.2% what was his response to Paula Bennett’s claim in Parliament on the first day back this year that she had seen reports suggesting unemployment will be as high 14%?

John Key’s solution to all of this? A ‘job summit’ that the Labour Party aren’t even invited to, hardly the broad based discussion National had promised, the economy is in freefall and this Government has no plan other than to glide through the honeymoon period and hope for the best.

Has anyone noticed that we haven’t heard from Rodney Hide for a while, doesn’t that concern anyone? Where is he and what awfulness is he brewing?

1 Comments:

At 24/2/09 8:14 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"A 'job summit' that the Labour Party aren't invited to"

And this is why their 'jobs summit' is looking more like a sick joke rather than something they want to make a real go at. Might it be worth National approaching this with at least the illusion of sincerity in the face of thousands of layoffs?

As for Rodney my guess is he was helping the lab technicians defrost Roger for his recent Orewa appearance ;) .

 

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