The increased spending in the skills area was a positive point, but Grace says that it falls a long way short of what is needed in order for New Zealand business. While government has promised funding to cover 250,000 people in industry training, the current investment of $4 million per year falls well short of the estimated $30 million that Grace says is required to cover training that amount of people.
With large numbers of New Zealand printers already having left these shores for Australia, Grace believes that yesterday’s budget is likely to do little to stem the tide.
“It’s done no more harm to business. But it hasn’t added a lot of the things that business has been looking for,” she says.
Grace believed that tax and compliance issues were the two biggest bugbears for businesses in the printing industry.
“As an industry, we need to look at the environment for business, and ask if we currently have a positive environment or not.
“Employers will continue to struggle in the current legislative environment.
“I think there’s a need to address the tax issue. If there were tax cuts, there wouldn’t be so much pressure on employers to pay workers more in this inflationary environment.”
Training is a major issue for Printing Industries New Zealand and the Printing and Allied Industries Training Council, of which Grace is also chief executive. And, while Grace says things are reasonably good, the budget did not do as much to improve them as it could have.
“It’s difficult to compare our training here with other countries overseas. The method of funding here is unique and very good but it’s not funded to the level that the rhetoric indicates.
“Having said that, industry training got more from the budget than the Universities got.”
