Reaction: Something for tomorrow

Craig Parrington is the director of Titan Sail Lofts, an Opua-based company which employs 10 staff at two locations making sails and other marine equipment.

Mr Parrington says Northland is on the verge of huge growth if government can gain the confidence of business large and small.

"Small business owners are very resilient," he says. "All they need is to be confident that tomorrow will be better.

"If tomorrow does not look better than today, the small business will give up."

Mr Parrington has lived in Northland for three years and his business employs 10 staff in Opua and Whangarei, contributing about $450,000 to the Northland economy this year.

He is also the executive trustee on the Northland Grow Trust, a regional economic development agency for Northland, and he was keen to see what was in the Budget for the regions.

What it offered them was 15 new or expanded programmes, worth $34 million in new spending, to encourage economic development.

Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton particularly emphasised the need to encourage development in the regions.

"We cannot have a strong New Zealand economy if we have weak regions," he said.

"We have to unleash the potential of regions by building on their strengths."

The main thrust for achieving that is the regional partnerships programme - worth $5.6 million last year, increasing to $11 million in the coming year and $17 million a year thereafter - designed to help regions identify local opportunities and respond to them.

In Mr Parrington's Northland region, projects identified so far are a $200,000 soil climate survey, a $100,000 grant towards opening up access to the Kaipara Harbour and an integrated transport study with no cost mentioned.

Mr Parrington's reaction to that was, "Any extra money is good, for Northland in particular, but even the $17 million a year - if it eventuates - is just a drop in the bucket compared with the $500-million-a-year-plus spent by Winz."

The basic problem with the Government approach, he said, was that it should stop doing economic studies and "start working with businesses to see what they need to expand."

In the case of his own firm, "we have a couple of vacancies for sailmakers now, and there's a standing offer with WINZ to send us people to train. But we haven't been able to fill them."

Part of the trouble was the difficulty finding people with the right work ethic "because it's too easy not to work."

But it was also very expensive for a small firm to carry out training.

"I'd like to see more emphasis put on the Government assisting with practical training.

"Regardless of how many students you may have studying IT, arts and culture, there's still a need for the traditional trades."


www.nzherald.co.nz/budget

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