4 May 2021

Shovel-ready job numbers fall short

From Midday Report, 12:16 pm on 4 May 2021

The National Party has hit out against the government's shovel-ready scheme, saying the number of new jobs it's created is inadequate. The spend up was announced in July last year, saying it would create more than 20,000 jobs. The opposition's employment spokesperson Louise Upston says the government's failed to deliver on that promise, with just over half of that initial figure materialising. Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson said in answers to written parliamentary questions that the numbers released at the time were estimates but had since been adjusted after engineering reviews. Louise Upston speaks to Emma Hatton.