FEATURE: Wairoa now looking for people to fill jobs | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

KATHY WEBB

Unemployment in Wairoa has dropped from 1200 a decade ago to 90. People have jobs and a dollar in their pockets.

Wairoa's mayor Les Probert is pleased with the way things are going, particularly the near-disappearance of unemployment. In fact, his next challenge is exactly the reverse.

"We are in the peculiar situation where there are going to be more jobs than people to fill them," he says.

He and his offsider, Wairoa District Council chief executive Peter Freeman, have a plan. It's a low-key one because the council hasn't got a lot of staff, or spare cash to throw around.

But it's a holistic plan that takes into account the social factors underlying many of Wairoa's problems, including fragmented families and generations of welfare dependency.

Two years ago, after the shooting of a Black Power gang member by rival Mongrel Mob members, Mr Probert and Mr Freeman hatched a "Reclaiming Wairoa" strategy. Now it's beginning to pay off.

"There's no smugness here," Mr Freeman says.

"There's no easy answer. We have bone-deep problems, but we are doing something to improve the overall performance of our community."

The plan includes Family Start, a programme that offers young mothers help with parenting and life skills.

"We are finding that this sort of dislocation, with people not married and all over the place, that people can't cope with life, let alone life plus other things," says Mr Freeman.

Wairoa has been embarrassed time and again by publicity about turf wars between its Mongrel Mob and Black Power gangs, culminating in the murder two years ago of a Black Power member.

Police senior sergeant Tony Bates says crime in Wairoa is on a downward trend, and the gangs have settled down, although "we still have moments".

"There will always be issues there to be resolved, but we are working on it."

A lot of the problems tend to be among those "loosely associated" with the gangs, he says. On the economic side, Wairoa has been enjoying five years of high commodity prices for farmers. The money has flowed through businesses in town.

"When farmers are doing well, Wairoa does well," says Federated Farmers chairman Tony East.

Farmers are now being warned to put a close watch on their costs, but most will have used the good years to consolidate by reducing debt, putting on fertiliser and improving their stock management.

However, Mr East believes the wider district will not really go ahead until something is done about the Napier-Wairoa road. He is scathing about its condition.

"The goat track - that's what people call it. People avoid it. It's one of the most significant detriments to development in Wairoa."

And it's people that Mr Probert is concerned about. He wants not just tourists but many more people living in Wairoa.

The district's population has fallen from a peak of 12,000 in 1961 to 8916 in the 2001 Census. About 58 percent are Maori.

The council is part of a project to help Maori landowners improve their farming practices, develop their land and increase their incomes. There are now four monitor farms in the district taking part in that project.

The council also surveyed employers and found most were anticipating a big shortage of staff in the near future.

The Affco meatworks, which employs more than 600, is working through a programme of upgrading and expansion; and two sawmills formerly owned by two families have been bought for a venture that will provide many, many more jobs.

Mr Probert is coy about putting a figure on the exact number of people the joint-venture timber mill will employ, but says it will run double shifts to fulfill a contract to supply sawn and treated pine for a North American market that will take everything Wairoa can send.

A shortage of tradespeople has led the council and Wairoa College to establish a Trades Academy at the college. Its first intake of 15 pupils began classes last week in a dedicated base on campus, where they will study literacy, numeracy and trades theory three days a week. The other two days will be out on the job, getting practical experience.

College principal Brian Simpson says the academy was set up "in recognition that not every student at Wairoa College will go to university", and that the town needs more tradespeople. Those in the trades course will be put into apprenticeships anywhere they can be obtained, not just in Wairoa.