Participants in the upcoming “Jobs Summit” sponsored by Prime Minister John Key, which is supposed to help find ways to keep and grow jobs in New Zealand, are overwhelmingly white, male and from business, especially big business. The New Zealand Herald reported on the guest list today.
Among the participants are 165 men but only 30 women; there are 20 Maori, 2 Pacific Islanders and one Asian (meaning 172 are white); 118 of the guests are from the business sector: Big businesses (62), finance (22) and 30 from smaller businesses and sector groups, but only 12 are from unions; there are 30 from central government, 10 from local government and four from state-owned enterprises. Only three are from community organisations, one dealing with disabled people.
Add it all up, as the Herald did, and the make-up of the attendees doesn’t look very much like New Zealand. Obviously business must be a major component of this sort of summit, but wouldn't it make sense to have workers, the unemployed and community organisations helping them better represented? And wouldn’t it make sense to have greater participation by Maori and Pacific Islanders in particular, who are among the hardest hit by unemployment? And why no participation by the migrant community?
I don’t know that anyone really expects anything concrete or even useful to come out of the summit. That’s a good thing, really, because that makes it impossible for the summit to disappoint—the only thing it may do is exceed expectations.
But I have to admit I’d feel a bit more optimistic about the summit if it looked a little more like New Zealand, and a little less like a typical National Party gathering.
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