Quote:
Cunliffe said today that New Zealand manufacturing was in long-term decline, with manufacturing exports falling 19 per cent in real terms since 2008. Since then there had been a net loss of 1700 manufacturing companies in New Zealand, and manufacturing employment had fallen by 42,000, he said.
Cunliffe touted the "three Is" of investment, innovation and industry as being crucial to boosting the sector.
Labour would introduce accelerated depreciation for companies in advanced manufacturing and wood processing, which it said would cost $30m in the first year, rising to $70m a year.
The party planned to introduce it to all manufacturers over time.
Research and development tax credits, scrapped by National in 2008, would be reintroduced at a rate of 12.5 per cent, costing taxpayers $200m to $250m a year.
"Just yesterday, the New Zealand Productivity Commission concluded that we are falling behind the rest of the world and that R&D is a big part of that problem," Cunliffe said.
"The Productivity Commission found that our GDP per capita lags 27 per cent behind the OECD average. Weget a staggering 40 per cent less GDP per hour worked than the average developed nation.
"We are working harder and getting less for it."
So FP's rejoinder to that, was agreeing with Phil O'Reilly's response that the govt should just lower company tax. And SP quite correctly pointed out that the renamed Business Roundtable is still very neo-liberal in nature. They're probably all National or Act voters, and all of their output should be filtered with that in mind.