KEY POINTS:
The Post-Primary Teacher's Union has slammed the Government's multi-million dollar investment into scientific research, labelling it as money poured in the wrong end.
The Government is making what it says is the largest ever boost to research, development and innovation funding with $700 million to help the pastoral
and food industries.
But PPTA president Robin Duff said there are critical shortages in science, maths and technology teachers in secondary schools.
"Where will these innovative scientists come from if there is no one there to teach them?" he said.
He said wages in specialist fields would need to be increased by $10,000 to attract people into teaching.
"On top of the current shortage, we understand that no physics teachers have been trained in Auckland for the last two years," Mr Duff said.
But science and industry groups welcomed the Government's pledge, designed to turbo charge the agricultural and food sectors.
Prime MInister Helen Clark said the fund was part of the Government's plan to transform the economy into an innovative supplier of high value goods and services.
"We need to lift our levels of innovation on the farm, in the factory and in the laboratory to keep ahead of the rest of the world and ensure that our pastoral and food industries are part of the new economy for New Zealand in the future," she said.
Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton said the four broad areas where challenges and opportunities had been identified were sustainable pastoral systems, research and education capability, food innovation clusters and internationalisation.
Helen Clark said the fund would have a strong focus on making New Zealand's pastoral and food industries environmentally and economically sustainable.
She told reporters today that New Zealand's primary commodity industries were going to be under intense and growing pressure from low cost and high volume producers.
"That is not the way of the future for our primary industries. We have to get into much more value add. Good things have been done, but a lot more needs to be done and it's got to be driven by science and R and D (research and development)."
Helen Clark said the Labour-led Government had always played a more "hands-on" role in the economy than National and was prepared to enter into "partnership" arrangements with key sectors.
"This happens to be a critical industry sector which supplies about 57 per cent of our export earnings from goods and it could do a lot better. It's going to need a huge push from innovation to do that."
Helen Clark said the boost to agricultural research and development was a "huge step change" in innovation.
"We all know that our primary commodity industries are going to be under intense and growing pressure from low cost and high volume producers," she told reporters.
"That is not the way of the future for our primary industries. We have to get into much more value add. Good things have been done, but a lot more needs to be done and it's got to be driven by science and R and D (research and development)."
Helen Clark said the Labour-led Government had always played a more "hands on" role in the economy than National and was prepared to enter into "partnership" arrangements with key sectors.
"This happens to be a critical industry sector which supplies about 57 per cent of our export earnings from goods and it could do a lot better. It's going to need a huge push from innovation to do that."
Asked why it had taken so long to come up with the boost, Miss Clark said there had been a "more intense focus" on how to add value to the industry in recent years.
The initiative stems from a report delivered by the Food and Beverage Taskforce in 2006.
That report warned that New Zealand producers had to become a lot smarter if they were to successfully deal with stiff competition from low-cost, high-volume producers in other countries.
- NZPA
