By Hon Dr Megan Woods, Labour spokesperson for Manufacturing and Industry

The workers losing their jobs at the McCain’s Hastings vegetable processing factory don’t need economists to tell them that the economy isn’t working for them. They already know it.

So do the workers at Heinz Wattie’s, at Kinleith Mill, at Winstone Pulp, at Sealord, and at the many businesses that have shut their doors in the last two years.

New Zealand’s manufacturing sector has faced headwinds for a long time, but the past year has seen flash points that will be much harder to recover from.

Under this Government, we’ve seen output fall sharply, and the economy weaken. High interest rates and cheap imported goods produced with low-cost labour are squeezing our domestic market. Internationally, our distance from major markets makes it harder to compete.

Low productivity growth and a tax system that has consistently rewarded property speculation over productive enterprise have left our industrial base more fragile than it should be.

No one party owns that history, but a government that understood the problem would have come in with a plan to turn it around.

Since National took office, 36,000 New Zealanders have lost their jobs. Business liquidations have hit a fifteen-year high.

Each closure, each lost shift, each production line that goes quiet hits suppliers, communities, and regional economies in ways that ripple outward for years.

The recent closures of regional manufacturing plants – particularly in timber, pulp, and food processing – show how exposed some of our communities are to single employers.

And in places like Hawke’s Bay, losing McCain’s doesn’t just impact the workers and their families, it impacts everyone in New Zealand.

It impacts growers, who now have fewer places to sell their produce; consumers, who will face even higher food prices; and regions that have already been through enough.

Without local food processors, we risk becoming more dependent on foreign imports, undermining our own farmers and our food security.

At the heart of manufacturing’s struggles is an energy crisis – one this Government has made worse, even before the conflict in the Middle East started.

New Zealand’s power prices have been crushing energy-intensive industries for years, with several companies citing rising power bills as a key reason for closing.

The answer is straightforward: invest in home-grown, renewable generation, increase supply, and bring prices down.

 Instead, the Government has opted to double down on imported liquified natural gas, tying us further to volatile global markets, pushing up power bills, and doing little for the manufacturers who need affordable, reliable power now.

We have approached the Government and offered to work together in a bipartisan manner to ensure that New Zealand’s gas reserves are used in ways that deliver the greatest value to our economy.

At present, for example, the Government continues to use approximately 1.7 petajoules of domestic gas to heat schools and hospitals.

This is not the most effective use of our limited resources, as it neither supports industry nor contributes to the creation and protection of well‑paid jobs.

Converting these lower‑value uses to alternative energy sources would ensure that our gas is directed toward its highest‑value applications. Unfortunately, the Government has not taken us up on our offer to work together.

A Labour Government would take a fundamentally different approach.

New Zealand manufacturing must lean into its strengths. Our advantage lies in high-value niches, high quality food, advanced materials, engineering and technology.

We believe in working with industry to support these strengths, rather than standing by while it hollows out.

We’ve done it before. Labour established the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry Fund, partnering with businesses to invest in decarbonisation and reduce energy costs, and it worked.

National scrapped it, but that’s the kind of partnership we need between Government and business again.

We’ve announced the New Zealand Future Fund, a sovereign wealth fund designed to back innovative Kiwi businesses, create secure jobs and give people a reason to stay and build their future here.

While the current Government looks offshore, our Future Fund will keep more investment here in New Zealand, helping our manufacturing and industrial sectors grow.

We’ve also announced a simple, targeted capital gains tax that will shift investment away from property speculation and move it into the productive economy, level the playing field for businesses, and create jobs.

In the coming months, Labour will be announcing more policy, including our energy policy, which will lay out a credible path to bringing power prices down for businesses and households.

New Zealand’s manufacturing sector has endured years of neglect. The workers, the businesses, and the communities that depend on it deserve better.

You deserve a government with a real plan to invest in your future. That’s what Labour is offering.