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 (00:00):
There's a worrying new report out this morning from Business
New Zealand. It projects a short fall 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

(00:22):
chief executive of Business Canterbury Joints. So now, hell are Leanne?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning Andrew?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Not a pleasant read? But are they right?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh? 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 politicoal parties and definitely reducing that
pendulum swing to something more manageable for business. You know,

(00:54):
the business people I talked to around the country are
looking for a conversation about steady incremental progress, not a
pendulum sliff shift which would potentially south go backwards.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
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?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah? Absolutely, And look, I think you know there is
definitely 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 and salves. 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

(01:43):
it's a 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

(02:04):
also for the employers who are making big investments on
bringing people into the country. We also need to help
with her 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

(02:25):
engaged with our business community to make sure that they're
getting those conversations going and getting the right talent coming
through our education systems.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
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 2 (02:49):
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 a really great net month internal migration.
You know, we've seen population growth, you know, we're seeing
export growth and so I think, you know, there is

(03:10):
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 Canterbury 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 and

(03:31):
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 these times it's actually
government getting out of the way and sometimes without pulling the.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Right lead exactly all of us working together. Leea and
Watson from Business Canterbury. I thank you so much for
your time today.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
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