Govt defends efforts to save, create jobs

Finance Minister Bill English has hit back at criticism over growing unemployment, saying Government spending is creating thousands of jobs.

Labour leader Phil Goff said today that it appeared the jobs summit in February was no more than a gimmick and little was being done to help people deal with the impact of the recession.

"There are more than 1000 New Zealanders each week going on the dole, 2000 jobs each week being lost altogether," Mr Goff said.

"There is nothing that has come out of the jobs summit that seems to have stemmed the flood in any way at all."

The three main ideas had either fallen over or been ineffective, Mr Goff said.

The nine-day working fortnight had saved only 345 jobs, the Government would not say how many jobs the cycleway project would create and the idea of a joint bank/government credit facility had been dumped already, he said.

"I think clearly now the jobs summit, which was meant to be in the prime minister's own words a `do-fest' not a `talk-fest', at best it was a `talk-fest' at worst it was a gimmick."

Mr English said criticism that the Government was not trying to save jobs was ridiculous.

Many job summit initiatives were helping, but there were wider policies in play.

"The Government has a large fiscal stimulus package anyway," Mr English said.

He told MPs that the $500 million worth of accelerated projects were now helping trades people and suppliers across the housing, transport and education sectors.

"In housing, the Housing New Zealand Corporation estimates that its expenditure is supporting 1341 jobs," Mr English said.

Private sector economists believed the extra spending would support around 10,000 jobs.

Mr Goff said that 2800 apprentices had lost their jobs before finishing their training and not enough was being done to support them.

Prime Minister John Key said unemployment levels were low compared to other countries, but the Government was doing all it could to keep people in work.

He said business confidence was still strong despite the tough economic conditions.

- NZPA