Concerns over free student labour

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said the intern scheme was an exciting idea for the town. Photo / Glenn Taylor

Plans by Wairoa District Council to bring in up to 10 university interns from as far away as Europe have been labelled an expensive distraction by some councillors.

But the district's mayor and chief executive say the unpaid students will add significant value to the council, working on projects that would otherwise not get done.

Concerns about spending on new projects have been the subject of two extraordinary meetings of the council over the past fortnight, with councillors this week agreeing to suspend $650,000 of funding for four projects until more details were provided.

Councillor Chris Joblin said yesterday he was worried that one item of new spending not put on hold - $300,000 for office accommodation and refitting - would be swallowed up by the intern programme.

But council chief executive Fergus Power said only about $12,500 would be spent on office space for the interns. "They're going to bring huge benefits to the district in terms of energy, problem solving, economic development, tourism development, systems improvement within council," Mr Power said.

"These people are coming to work for us for absolutely nothing and it's unfathomable to me why anybody would be complaining about the minimal amount of expenditure spend on actually giving them some space and a desk to work at whilst working for nothing."

Mr Joblin said the interns would be a distraction to Mr Power and other senior staff who would act as their mentors, but Mr Power also rejected that concern.

"The interns require an induction period but once the first couple of weeks have gone by they're solving problems for you, not creating problems."

Councillor Benita Cairns said she also had concerns about the programme, which she said had originally been presented to councillors as providing summer internships to university students who had been schooled in Wairoa.

"It seems on the face of it to be becoming more about overseas students being able to take advantage of being in Wairoa."

She said she wanted to see an analysis showing the scheme would be beneficial for ratepayers, because the council was "not in the business of education".

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said the intern scheme was an exciting idea.

"We're putting ourselves on the map. We're providing them with a bed and we're getting so much out the other end."

He also rejected the concern that mentoring the students would be a distraction for council managers. "We'll reap the benefits from the distractions," he said.

Mr Power has been forging relationships with universities in New Zealand and overseas as part of a strategy of turning Wairoa into what he calls a "mecca for bright young minds".

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the council and the University of Applied Sciences in Ludwigsburg, Germany. It will see Ludwigsburg student Johannes Klohn take up an internship in Wairoa between November and January.

Mr Power said Mr Klohn was "passionate about rural firefighting" and, with Wairoa having a shortage of volunteer rural firefighters, he would be inducted as a firefighter in the district so he could "fulfil a very useful dual role while with the community".