Industry NZ staff paid handsomely

By KEVIN TAYLOR

One in three Industry New Zealand staff get paid $100,000 or more a year, a rate not beaten even by big private sector payer Telecom.

Forty of the 120 Industry New Zealand staff were paid more than $100,000, according to the annual report to the end of June.

Chief executive Neil Mackay received between $230,000 and $240,000, up from between $200,000 and $210,000 the previous year.

Three staff were paid between $190,000 and $200,000, and a further four, between $170,000 and $180,000.

By comparison, less than one in five of Telecom's 6900 employees - 1300 staff - get $100,000 or more.

Mackay yesterday rejected comparisons with Telecom as invalid.

"The bottom line is this is a consulting organisation, that needs to properly connect and advise business.

"You need to have the skills and talent to do that, what I would call client-facing activity."

He said the outstanding results outlined in the annual report were testimony to the quality of the staff the organisation had employed.

If staff were going to advise businesses they needed the skills, talent and experience to do so.

Mackay said some of the staff had taken a pay cut to come to Industry NZ. They had done so because they believed in what the organisation was doing and believed they could make a difference.

He said the businesses Industry NZ dealt with were forecasting the creation of more than 8000 jobs and increased sales of $2.5 billion in the next two to five years.

A spokesman for Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton said many Industry NZ staff were industry or sector specialists and were recruited from the private sector.

They got "total cash" packages instead of getting a salary and extras like vehicles, bonus payments or other benefits.

Act MP Rodney Hide, who has campaigned against Industry NZ and the Government's policy of picking business winners, said the only jobs the body had created were within the organisation.

They had come at considerable cost to taxpayers.

"The entire thing is a boondoggle," he said.

More details are expected to emerge in the next few weeks on the merger of Industry NZ with Trade NZ, which the Government confirmed in September.

Anderton said yesterday that Industry NZ, set up in October 2000 on his urgings, had been a "strong success".

He listed among its achievements the 51 potential investment opportunities the major investment service was involved in.

The organisation also handed out $10.4 million in regional partnership grants, with money going to every region of the country.

The scheme promotes sustainable regional economic development by helping regions identify and develop strategies and put them into action.

Major regional initiatives included the Waikato technology park, which received $2 million, and the Rotorua centre for excellence in wood processing and training, which also got $2 million.

Industry NZ also co-ordinated four taskforces set up as a result of the Government's growth and innovation framework.

The taskforces are coming up with strategies to target the biotechnology, creative industries, and information and communications technology sectors.

* Industry New Zealand will open an "innovation pavilion" at Auckland's Viaduct Harbour this month, showcasing the country's entrepreneurial and innovative successes.

Mackay said the Carter Holt Harvey New Zealand Pavilion would give visitors an appreciation of the mark New Zealand business people had made on the world.