Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:

* Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of engineers are losing their jobs and leaving the country as work dries up due to stalling infrastructure projects;

* Templer pleaded for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects, but Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop simply responded the Government had approved projects, without addressing Templer’s point;

* However, our Chart of the Day below shows the coalition Government prioritised debt reduction over infrastructure investment in Budget 2024, forecasting a 45% fall in capital spending over the next four years;

* Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said yesterday (see interview of the day below) it was her “personal view" that the foreign buyer ban on homes should be eased for wealthy migrants wanting to invest in New Zealand and that there were ongoing discussions "above my paygrade" with NZ First coalition partner Winston Peters about relaxing the ban;

* Universities have been told to prepare for a funding cut because an earlier 4% funding ‘lifeline’ won’t be renewed, The Post-$$$’s Glenn McConnell reported this morning; and,

* There’s a report this morning that everyone from church ministers to sex workers are taking advantage of Pasifika workers here to pick fruit. (See more in further reading below)

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes from paying subscribers we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing.)

Engineering NZ calls b******t on the Govt’s projects talk

Engineering NZ CEO Richard Templer has called out the Government’s gaslighting about its ‘Going for Growth’ strategy being focused on infrastructure development, when actual decisions on the ground in the last 15 months since the formation of the Government have been to stall, freeze and dump various state-funded building plans with the aim of deficit and debt reduction.

Here’s the detail, as reported by Rachel Helyer Donaldson yesterday via RNZ (bolding mine):

“The shutdown of education rebuilds, the shutdown of hospital builds and upgrades the slow down on roading, the changes in the Three Waters space has meant that New Zealand engineers and New Zealand constructors, the people who build the roads, waters network and buildings, have all had to look for work elsewhere and that has seen people heading overseas or contracting to work overseas and significant numbers."

"We don't have any detailed statistics because obviously some of the firms involved are not going to put them into the public arena, but we do know that hundreds of engineers have lost their jobs as a result of these changes."

"If you think about a building project that has stopped, say like Dunedin Hospital, you have structural engineers who are building the design and the structure, geotechnical engineers who are involved in all the foundation work, fire engineers who do all the systems, building service engineers, typically mechanical engineers and electrical engineers who are doing everything inside, [from] lighting to specialised electronics.

"Then you have all the tradespeople underneath: the builders, the concrete layers, the tilers, the painters, the electricians involved in the wiring. All those trades and all those engineers are suddenly left without work to do."

Templer said he knew of "some large infrastructure firms" in Australia who were "rapidly hiring large numbers of New Zealand engineers".

Meanwhile, other engineers will be lured to California to help with the rebuild after last month's devastating wildfires.

"New Zealand engineers are valued very highly in California because California gets earthquakes, just like New Zealand."

To avoid a "brain drain", he urged the government to free up funds for delivery and firm up the infrastructure pipeline.

"New Zealand cannot afford to wait - we need to get major project design and procurement underway as soon as possible. The funds for infrastructure projects need to be prioritised and released."

"New Zealand also needs a clear, committed infrastructure pipeline that outlives each political term. Engineers need to know what is happening, and when."

"We will keep losing our engineers and will pay the price. An engineering skills crisis is evident - the time to act is now." Engineering NZ’s CEO Richard Templer via RNZ

Chart of the day

Interview of the day

Substack essentials elsewhere

Thread of the day

‘The funds for infrastructure projects need to be prioritised and released’