Leeann Watson: Business Canterbury Chief Executive on Business NZ report

A warning our major political parties need to display more bipartisan planning so we don't buckle to a dwindling population and economic growth. 

Business NZ's report warns a labour shortage of at least a quarter of a million is expected before 2050, and there's also a one in four chance the population doesn't grow.

Business Canterbury Chief Executive Leeann Watson told Andrew Dickens says major parties need to reach a certain level of bipartisan agreement on the country's big decisions 

She says businesses want to see steady incremental progress not a pendulum shift which potentially puts us backwards.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:17):
There's a worrying new report out this morning from Business
New Zealand. It projects a shortfall of at least two
hundred and fifty thousand workers by twenty forty five, with
health and pensions absorbing one hundred percent of our income tax.
They also reckon there's a one and four chance of
no population growth at all, and they'd like to see
a national bipartisan vision. Leanne Watson is the chief executive

(00:40):
of Business Canterbury Joints in Now. Hello Leanne, Good morning Andrew.
Not a pleasant read, but are they right?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Look, I think there is a number of things in
the report that certainly requires some more robust thinking that
I think calling for too much by part of an
agreement might be a little unrealistic, particularly as we are
heading into an election year next year. What we do
need is a clear understanding of the go no go
areas from major political parties and definitely reducing that pendulum

(01:08):
swing to something more manageable for business. You know, the
business people I talk to around the country looking for
a conversation about steady, incremental progress, not a pendulum sliff
shift which would potentially south go backwards.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
So that's what a national, a nation bipartisan vision would
look to you just calm down, kick to full time goals.
But the thing that gets me is the two hundred
and fifty thousand workers. I mean, we need workers, business
needs workers. Do we need to change immigration settings? You know,
what what can we do about this shortfall? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Absolutely, And look, I think you know there is definite
air requirement here to ensure that we create some I
guess the scale and the timing of those policy settings
needs to be you know, really clearly laid out for
businesses and for migrants themselves. I mean, we will always
need international talent. We're a country at the bottom of
the world and we're a small country, so it's a

(02:00):
combination of both. Though we need international talent, we need
to provide certainly around those immigration settings. Because when you're
making a decision to move, you know, from the other
side of the world to a different country, you don't
do so lightly, and so having potential for those settings
to change from one government to another is really unsettling
for both those people making those decisions. But also for

(02:22):
the employers who are making big investments on bringing people
into the country. We also need help with it to
grow our own talent, and we need to make sure
there's a really good interface between our education sector and
industry around future workforce planning, and some of that has happening.
You know, we've got a couple of great universities in Canterbury,
caniber University in particular, really engaged with our business community

(02:44):
to make sure that they're getting those conversations going and
getting the right talent coming through our education system.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'm loving your tone, though, because this comes out at
a bad time and we've had a hard year and
everyone's talking us down and you know, the confidence is low,
and then we hear this like by twenty fifty it's
going to be even worse. But you're actually saying there's
still a lot to look forward to.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Oh absolutely. I mean I'm from Canterbury and you know
we are fortunate we are in our region and you know,
in the South Island, you know, things are actually going
reasonably well. We've got you know, really great net internal migration.
You know, we're seeing population growth, you know, we're seeing
export growth, and so I think you know there is

(03:26):
a lot to be positive about around our economy in
the future. Has it been challenging for the last sort
of five years, Absolutely it has. But I think, you know,
if we get these settings right, if we create confidence,
and you know, we've been doing a bit of work
in Canterbary to provide some of the answers to make
sure that we do have a long term vision and
there's a role for the private sector to play in

(03:48):
that in terms of having a really strong ambition. There
is a role for local government and central government to
create the right environment for you know, businesses to do
what they do best, which is to innovate, to invest
and to grow. And all of the times it's actually
government getting out of the way and sometimes without pulling
the right.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Lead exactly all of us working together. Lea and Watson
from Business Cannibury, I thank you so much for your
time today.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
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