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Having completed my last article, the next thing I did was pick up the Weekend Herald, where I spotted an article by Cecilia Robinson. It was a good read, which meant it wasn’t an article written by an in-house journalist, e.g., Thomas Coughlan. Cecilia, like me, is a glass-half-full person. Some of my articles might read differently, but, overall, I have a positive attitude to most things in life. Cecilia’s article was not only positive but backed up with facts. “Are we talking down an economy on the up?” was her headline.
Before even reading the article I felt she had a point. We often talk negatively about the economy, completely unaware of facts that show a very different direction of travel. Sometimes negative thoughts stem from feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction with the Government, particularly the National Party. We are quick to liken Nicola Willis to the utterly useless UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is known as ‘Rachel from Accounts’. But if you read Fran O’Sullivan’s article in the same paper discussing Nicola, then ‘Nicola from Accounts’ is an unfair characterisation. The facts in Cecilia’s article go some way to proving the point.
The economic divide between the left and right of politics illustrates the negativity on the left and the positivity on the right. This divide is brought about by subscribing to different ideologies. The left believe in big government running, or trying to run, every part of your life. There is no better way of keeping control of your very existence than taxing you to the hilt: look for where there isn’t a tax and immediately impose one.
To ensure everyone pays these unwanted taxes requires a huge army of civil servants – hence the 8am train from Johnsonville is packed with them devouring the morning edition of the left-wing rag, the Post. ‘Trusted New Zealand News’, the publisher says. It might be to the likes of those on the train, but that’s about it. There is a centre-right coalition in power, so good news for civil servants is as scarce as hens’ teeth. They come across as grey and drab, a bit like the weather in the city they inhabit.
The right, by comparison, believe, as much as possible in keeping out of your life. They prefer to set the economic means by which you can prosper and let you get on with it. The right are keen for you to keep as much of your hard-earned money as possible. I’m talking about the philosophy, not specifically the current coalition, which I am aware some of you are disgruntled about. But maybe the facts Cecilia found will give you a different take on where things are headed economically.
First, did you know that job volumes have now risen for 10 consecutive months: the first sustained up-tick since Covid. Anna Mowbray, founder and chief executive of job platform ZEIL, tracks hiring patterns across thousands of New Zealand businesses. She describes it as “a meaningful return to growth”. Ten months is long enough to rule out seasonal noise and long enough to see the distortions of a single industry or a single event. Anna notes that, for many employers and job seekers who have been grinding through a long flat stretch, “that relief is being strongly felt”.
Second, entry levels are up 31 per cent year-on-year. These are the first positions to go in a downturn and reliably the last ones to return, because they require employers to believe not just in today but in the next 12 months. Entry-level hiring isn’t a reaction to current demand. It’s a bet on future demand. Cecilia goes on to say the distributional effect of this kind of job growth is more significant than the headline number suggests. She says it reaches the parts of the economy that aggregate figures often miss: the households that don’t own properties, that don’t have buffers and that feel every turn of the cycle most acutely.
Cecilia has other good advice: people and businesses who are feeling the positivity should speak up and let everyone know about it. Positive news is something that feeds upon itself and if enough people and business leaders speak up it helps in changing the doom and gloom feeling that is pervading the country. The statistics she has presented in her article are good news. The job situation is one of the leading determinants when it comes whether the country is on the right or wrong track.
It won’t come from the media: they are coalition haters, determined to keep the bad news coming. Their job, as they see it, is to get rid of this government and ensure the election of the fiasco the other side represents. Maiki Sherman wasn’t chasing Stuart Smith and then incessantly banging on his door for a good news story. She was after a story to further damage the coalition or at least the National Party. She sees that as her job and her employer obviously agrees.
As the media, through their newsrooms and reporters, refuse to do their jobs and report balanced news, we are reliant on contributing writers to ferret out the honesty of what is happening. I say thank you to the likes of Cecilia Robinson and Bruce Cotterill for providing information that is honest and accurate.
