Skills & Employment Forum Launch

Thursday 21 August 2003

Welcome to Christchurch and Canterbury where we keep blazing new trails for productive partnerships. Few things are more important to our well being than the jobs that come from good economic health.

One of the reasons we have such a good record for this stuff is because we have long had strong community support for activist Councils and mayors to push job and wealth creation.

We are a people's republic that also manages to respect the fact that you have to cook an economic cake before you think

about how to slice it up. In fact Management magazine just ran a feature on Christchurch's leadership which summed us up as "cutting edge conservatives." I plead guilty to that charge.

It is worth pointing out in the context of today that our local tradition which I took into setting up the Mayors for Jobs campaign means that this Canterbury model is now working on a national level.

If we go back a few historic steps it is worth noting that before I went into politics my day job, and night job for many years was involved with job creation schemes in the community.

Our present economic conditions with the jobless at record lows offers us both new chances and new insights. The chance is to work toward something very close to full employment here in Canterbury. The insight is that to get there we have to change some of the ways we do things.

We have huge skills gaps in our society. Every generation we tend to get told that we are at a historic crossroads. Just for once I think that is really true. The crossroads here in Canterbury have some significant potholes looming up fast.

We are soon going to have one of the oldest populations of any city in New Zealand. Unless we change the way we look

at working life we are going to end up with huge skill losses.

Another challenge is the skills gap of the present and the future. We need to look hard at whether we are really educating our young to take an active, informed role in a modern globalised economy. These are just two examples of the huge potholes looming up fast.

I believe that as a city, a province and a nation we all need to grow up, get out of our sectoral burrows and be willing to work hard together.

The good news is that in Canterbury we are already doing it. Pete Townsend, myself and others have been working on a plan for a truly prosperous Christchurch for some time.

(Outline key points of prosperous Christchurch)

I believe that in the modern economy cities have to be willing to become city states - to take up the trading and economic challenges in front of them without waiting to be saved either by central government or the invisible hand of the market. The best hands to shape our future are our own.

To be able to do this we have to work together ....it is not a platitude, or bumper sticker it is in fact a stark economic

imperative. Cynics like to mock the "vision thing." I completely disagree.

I disagree as someone once lucky enough to help a Kaikoura hapu breathe the ember of their economic vision into full flame and life. They called their vision Kaikoura Whalewatch. It wins world awards for excellence. It began purely as a vision.

Today gives us a joint chance to grow a similar forceful vision for our future prosperity. I hope you get to make the most of this chance.