Election 2020 is over, with a landslide victory for Labour. Now New Zealand awaits the formation of a new government, one that will face some herculean tasks including post-COVID economic recovery, the significant pipeline of infrastructure and construction work and the transition to a low emissions, circular economy.
Metals and the wider domestic manufacturing sector play a key role in these tasks – something we outlined in the Metals NZ Election Manifesto-2020.
And now is our opportunity to brief incoming ministers on how we can help and what they need to do during their term of office to enable that.
Metals is part of the New Zealand Manufacturing Alliance* and has worked in consultation with members to develop a Briefing for Incoming Ministers (BIM) providing policy recommendations that are fundamental to enabling domestic manufacturing to thrive and contribute to a modern, efficient, low-carbon and resilient New Zealand.
Along with providing insight into why New Zealand manufacturing matters, and calling for manufacturing representation at a Ministerial level, the BIM sets out policy recommendations across six key areas
- Innovation
- Trade
- Environment/climate change
- Procurement
- Skills training
- Regulatory reform
You can read our BIM here
*Just to remind you the Manufacturing Alliance is a group of significant industry associations representing a large part of New Zealand’s manufacturing sector outside of primary processing and food and beverage – The Manufacturers Network, Metals New Zealand, Plastics NZ, Wood Processors & Manufacturers Association (WPMA), the Maintenance Engineering Society of New Zealand (MESNZ) and the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA).
Our mission is to partner with government to enable domestic manufacturing to thrive and contribute to a modern, efficient, low-carbon and resilient New Zealand. Our recent Manufacturing Matters report, building on the work of MBIE’s 2018 Beyond Commodities sector report, presents a detailed and accurate description of the sector and a constructive set of proposals to work with government to help the sector successfully transform, addressing the challenges and associated opportunities of:
- Climate change and the transition to a low carbon and circular economy
- Industry 4.0
- Current/future skill shortages
- Growth in trade protectionism
- The significant pipeline of infrastructure and construction work.