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KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister John Key told his job summit in Auckland today that New Zealand is not a country of whiners and slackers and had the right attitude to get through the global recession.
He told more than 200 business, community and union leaders we would see unemployment grow in the coming year as the world recession bites.
The Herald understands one of the proposals at today's summit will be for a nine-day working fortnight in manufacturing with the tenth day a Government-funded training day.
Economic development minister Gerry Brownlee told nzherald.co.nz that nothing was ruled in or out and all suggestions put on the table today would be looked at.
Mr Key told the summit: "We are not a country of whiners. We are not a country of slackers. We are not a country of selfish individuals.
"We are a gritty little country with the smarts and determination needed to weather this storm."
Mr Key said in his speech that the Government was looking for practical, achievable steps that could be taken to save and create as many jobs as possible.
Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard told the summit he was prepared to cut interest rates further if if was necessary and gave a warning to banks that they had to play their part in tackling the economic downturn.
"We are facing the biggest destruction of global wealth the world has ever seen," Dr Bollard said.
He estimated that around the world the amount of wealth destroyed included $2 trillion in credit, $30 trillion in equity markets, $4 trillion in housing and $3 trillion in lost output.
Difficult conditions
Mr Key told participants they already knew how difficult economic conditions were and he was not going to spend much time talking about it.
"Our job today is not to promise the impossible," he said. "But we can all play a part in lessening the blow."
Mr Key added: "We will not gain anything today or in the months ahead if we become lost in hand-wringing and crystal ball gazing about how bad things are or could be.
"What we do know is that we are in uncharted waters."
Mr Key called the summit to discuss ideas to protect and create jobs as the economy is hit by the international financial crisis and ongoing recession.
Ideas already floated included troubled firms going to four-day weeks and having the Government subsidise the fifth day while workers do training or community work.
Those in the building industry have asked for subsidies for wood frame homes arguing it will boost both the construction and forestry sectors.
One manufacturers group has called for businesses to be given a year long tax holiday to encourage investment.
Agricultural entrepreneur Craig Norgate said there was no silver bullet to cure the economic chills, but favoured local authorities taking on debt to invest in infrastructure and capital projects that they might ordinarily baulk at.
"I think it's got to be a number of little things: the jobs will be lost in little bites right around the country, and they will be saved by little bites," Mr Norgate said.
Those at the summit have been presented with a grim picture of the state of the economy and the Government books, as well as the future outlook.
All the indications from New Zealand's major trading partners are gloomy with rising unemployment and massive uncertainty about the health of the world's financial and wider economic sectors.
The Government is projecting that it has to borrow $40 billion over the next three years, creating a massive increase in debt.
Despite this, Prime Minister John Key has said there will be some money to pay for bright ideas.
"We think there is some headroom for us to fund some of the initiatives that will undoubtedly come out from the employment summit," Mr Key said.
There may be some new money along with reprioritisation.
Some good ideas that were too expensive would not go ahead, he said.
- NZ HERALD STAFF, NZPA
