Nats to pour extra $20m into R&D

Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Martin Hunter

A National-led government would pour an extra $20 million a year into research and development and hold Job Fairs in Australia to help New Zealand companies bring skilled Kiwi workers home, party leader John Key announced today.

National also wants reform of the Resource Management Act to be one of its key business development policies.

Mr Key unveiled the party's priorities for its Business Growth Agenda during a presentation at Auckland company Compac in Onehunga this morning, alongside economic development spokesman Steven Joyce.

The party has 10 priorities, some of which had already been announced. Among the new policies were doubling the level of business R&D to 1 per cent of GDP by 2018, and holding Job Fairs in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to bring back skilled Kiwis back from Australia.

Mr Joyce said an extra $20 million a year would go to Callaghan Innovation, which would lift its R&D funding for businesses to $162 million a year.

He said the Job Fairs were going to be one-offs, but could be annual events. They would effectively be recruitment drives for the private sector.

"These companies are saying they need the additional skilled people, some of the skilled labour that we've lost [to Australia] in the past 10 or 20 years, and we're more than happy to help."

The Job Fairs would not be a huge cost and could be funded out of existing baselines, he said.

Reform of the Resource Management Act was also one of the 10 priorities. National was unable to get its desired reform of the Act across the line this term after the Act MP John Banks resigned from Parliament and other governing partners the Maori and United Future Parties refused to support the changes.

At issue was a change to the overriding purpose of the Act which the Maori and United Future along with opposition parties said unduly prioritised economic development over protection of the environment.

National has argued its desired changes to the Act are important for ensuring greater supply of land for building to alleviate housing market pressures.

Other priorities include free trade agreements with South Korea, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the World Trade Organisation Government Procurement Agreement. Mr Joyce hoped that, if re-elected, at least two of those should be completed by the end of the next parliamentary term.

Compac managing director and founder Hamish Kennedy said Compac had received R&D funding from Callaghan Innovation, which had boosted its own R&D programme by about 20 per cent.

Compac, which makes packaging including for fruit, now has about 90 dedicated R&D staff out of 400 in total.

"R&D fuels our growth.".

He supported the Job Fairs and said finding skilled workers was one of the biggest problems for the company.

"Mainly engineering, but right through the company."