Andrew Dickens: The Government needs to act fast to save our engineers from leaving the country

So, the Government thinks they’re all about growth.  

So why in the weekend was Radio New Zealand reporting that engineering New Zealand was calling the Government out for gaslighting about it’s going for growth strategy. 

They accuse the Government of talking up infrastructure development.  And yet in the last 15 months since the formation of the Government they have stalled, frozen and dumped various state-funded building plans with the aim of deficit and debt reduction.  

It’s the cancellation of education rebuilds, the shutdown of hospital builds and upgrades, the slow down on roading, the changes in the three waters spac. 

It's all meant that New Zealand engineers and New Zealand constructors, the people who build the roads, waters network and buildings, have all had to look for work elsewhere and that has seen people heading overseas or contracting to work overseas and significant numbers."  

Large infrastructure firms" in Australia are rapidly hiring large numbers of New Zealand engineers".  

Other engineers have been lured to California to help with the rebuild after last month's devastating wildfires.  

Engineering New Zealand urges the Government to free up funds for delivery and firm up the infrastructure pipeline. 

Or in the immortal words of Mike Hosking - just do something. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the government says they're all about growth. The government
says they're layser focused on growth. The government says they're
going to stop saying no and they're going to start
saying yes. So why on the weekend was Engineering New
Zealand calling the government out for gaslighting about its going
for growth strategy. They accused the government of talking up

(00:21):
infrastructure development and yet in the last fifteen months since
the formation of the government, they have stalled, frozen and
dumped various state funded building plans with the aim of
deficit and debt reduction. And we're seeing it. It's the
cancelation of education rebuilds, the shutdown of hospital builds and upgrades,
the slowdown on roading, and the changes in the Three

(00:43):
Waters space as well. I mean, you can say what
you want about co governors, but at the end of
the day, Three Waters was about building some more dams.
It's all meant that New Zealand engineers and New Zealand constructors,
the people who build the roads and the water networks
and the buildings, they've all had to look for work
elsewhere and that has seen people heading overseas or contracting

(01:05):
to work overseas and it's in significant numbers, says Engineering
New Zealand. Engineering New Zealand says large infrastructure firms in
Australia are rapidly hiring large numbers of New Zealand engineers.
Engineering New Zealand seers other engineers have been lured to
California to help with the rebuild after last month's devastating wildfires.

(01:26):
Engineering New Zealand urges the government to free up funds
for the delivery and firm up the infrastructure pipeline, or,
in the immortal words of Mike Hosking, Engineering New Zealand
is saying, just do something. For more from early edition
with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks at B

(01:47):
from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio