Goff: Let's get clean, clever

MARTIN DE RUYTER

STROLLING: Labour leader Phil Goff and Maryan Street walk around Fashion Island.

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The current economic climate is grim, but it can be fixed by fostering "clean, green and clever" businesses, and the Nelson region can play a leading role, Labour leader Phil Goff says.

"Nelson has the potential to be one of the powerhouses of New Zealand. It's got a whole lot of resources and it's an area where some exciting things are happening, but people are feeling, quite often, they are going backwards," Mr Goff told The Nelson Mail.

As part of his day-long visit to Nelson yesterday Mr Goff met representatives from the region's primary industries.

He also met people from Nelson's Cawthron Institute and spent time at natural health products manufacturer Nutri-Zeal at Appleby and Richmond's Aquaflow.

Mr Goff said as well as adding value to our primary products, those enterprises were the kind of businesses Labour thought the country needed to develop – clean tech economies.

There was huge opportunity in a business like Aquaflow which not only cleaned up polluted water, but also created value by producing bio-fuel out of the process. The company had a contract to work on the Rotorua lakes.

He was also impressed with the value-added work that Nutri-Zeal was doing.

"That's why Nutri-Zeal is great. They are taking things and saying, `Hey, this is what value it is if we just export the berries or the hops. But, hey, if we take this a couple of further steps down the production line then we can create much more value."

Mr Goff admitted the idea of adding value to primary products and fostering green technology was not new.

Nelson-based Labour List MP Maryan Street echoed Mr Goff's sentiments, saying it was entirely possible Nelson could lead an economic recovery.

The region produced a lot of primary products and had an abundance of clever people who were right on the cutting edge of green technologies and who were able to apply themselves to new technology and developing new products.

Mr Goff said the previous Labour government had plans in place to foster clean green smart technology through its $700 million new research, development, and innovation plan, New Zealand Fast Forward, and its research and development tax cut scheme, which National had axed.

People were asking what the Government's long-term plans were.

He said plans the Government had unveiled so far, like the Job Summit and mining more conservation land, had been fizzers.

Nelson MP Nick Smith agreed the Nelson economy was tight but said the Government was investing in infrastructure in the region through projects like the new courthouse and the Ruby Bay bypass.

It was ironic Mr Goff criticised the Government for not supporting green technologies as in the past two weeks funding had been announced for a number of green projects, such as a nappy recycling business in Christchurch. He acknowledged the Government had scrapped the research and development tax but its advice was that it was a boon to accountants rather than promoting development.

It had been replaced with the Primary Growth Partnership which had a $320 million grant.

The Cawthron Institute was one business in the region which stood to gain from that.

Mr Goff also called on some Nelson retailers, including Greg Shaw, at Everyman Records, and Tim Babbage, at Beggs Music Store, before taking a walkabout at Nelson's Fashion Island.

He said retailers are saying things are tough, with signs of a recovery not obvious. They felt next month's rise in GST couldn't come at a worse time, with margins already tight.

Like other retailers, those in Nelson he spoke with indicated they would have to absorb the hike in GST, at least initially.

Retailers were also feeling the drop in visitors to the region and real estate agents said while prices had held, sales had fallen.

- © Fairfax NZ News