$6 billion projects head for fast track

Stock Exchange chief executive Mark Weldon, who chaired Prime Minister John Key's Job Summit, says the taskforces for major investments are among the ideas from the summit that are being readied for action within six to eight weeks. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Government hopes to unleash $6 billion to $8 billion in "ready-to-go" private investment through proposed taskforces to help investors through regulatory hoops.

Stock Exchange chief executive Mark Weldon, who chaired Prime Minister John Key's Job Summit last week, says the taskforces for major investments are among the ideas from the summit that are being readied for action within six to eight weeks.

"The private sector has $6 billion to $8 billion of investment that is sitting on the shelf waiting to go," he said.

The figure is likely to include major energy projects such as Transpower's upgrading of the national electricity grid, costed at $3.8 billion over five years, and Genesis's proposed $500 million gas-fired Kaipara power station, which is waiting for a decision by planning commissioners.

But Mr Weldon said other big projects would need consents from "housing" authorities, pointing to possible property developments.

He has brought together two of the summit's top 20 "big ideas" into one that will be championed by a private-sector leader likely to be named after the Cabinet meets on Monday.

One idea, from the group on "helping firms survive", proposed taskforces "to anticipate and actively manage approval and regulatory processes for major and/or complex processes". The other, from the business investment group, proposed taskforces "for vetting major infrastructure investment proposals and ensuring regulatory processes are quickly and consistently completed".

A spokesman for Mr Key said Monday's Cabinet meeting would allocate about 50 ideas from the Job Summit to ministers and set deadlines. Items earmarked for possible inclusion in this year's Budget would need detailed reports by early next month.

Mr Weldon said he would also propose to the Cabinet business, union and iwi leaders to work with ministers on each item. All the leaders would give their time voluntarily and pay their own travel and hotel costs.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett and Education Minister Anne Tolley have already met on Thursday with Air NZ chief executive Rob Fyfe, Business NZ and Industry Training Federation leaders to discuss a summit idea to help struggling businesses put their workers on a nine-day fortnight, with the tenth day spent in training.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly, who took part by video-conference from Australia, said the issue of who would pay for the tenth day was still open.

Unions pressed at the summit for employers and the Government to each pay half of the employees' wages for the day. Mr Key said afterwards that the Government was "more likely to fund training than wage replacement".

But Ms Bennett said after Thursday's meeting that a wage subsidy was "on the table" for discussion.

Ms Kelly said that for low-paid workers, "it will be very difficult to forgo an income. The employer can chip in. In some cases the workers will. It will require, as an incentive, a Government subsidy of some substance."

Mr Weldon said Ms Kelly and Mr Fyfe would keep working with ministers on details such as whether training would be on- or off-site and whether the scheme should be restricted to companies employing more than 20 or 50 workers.

Industry Training Federation president John Meeuwsen, who also attended Thursday's meeting, said Work and Income staff were already finding ways to subsidise training informally. "We had one example this morning where a Work and Income office helped with a third of the $16-an-hour wage for a new employer to take on an existing apprentice [from another employer]."

LIKELY CANDIDATES
* Upgrading the national electricity grid $3.8bn
* Gas-fired power station near Helensville $500m

www.beehive.govt.nz/feature/summit