Finance Minister Grant Robertson appeared before media at Parliament on Thursday flanked by Business NZ CEO Kirk Hope, and CTU President Richard Wagstaff, along with assorted papers and luncheon detritus.

This was the first meeting of the Future of Work tripartite forum.

First announced in May, it couldn’t come soon enough for the Government which is seeing business confidence hit lows not seen since the financial crisis.

But the assembled journalists were quickly told that the meeting was about discussing what business, Government and the unions had in common, rather than what separates them.

Questions about business confidence were batted away.

Hope said disagreements were “for a different set of forums, frankly”.

Robertson agreed.

“We worked together on establishing a set of topics that we’ve got a shared and common interest in,” he said. . . . . .