Fran O’Sullivan reckons the Government will offer tax-breaks to keep the Hobbit in NZ.
But it also looks like they’ll try to keep claim it’s about the (settled) dispute.
If that’s the case there’s some truly gymnastic spin to look forward to this week.
Labour’s new economic agenda is a welcome shift to the centre.
It’s the first time in more than 25 years that a major party has turned its back on the neo-liberal policies that have failed New Zealand so badly.
Bloody good stuff!
Emails have surfaced showing the Hobbit dispute was settled early this late last week.
So why did Jackson go on the offensive on Thursday?
Is he not talking to Warners or is there more in play in this than the actors dispute?
If labour stability is the big issue with keeping the Hobbit here the answer is very simple.
Employ workers as employees, not contractors.
Russell Brown’s anti-union take on the Hobbit dispute has been cited by righties all over the internet as “evidence” the union is wrong.
So let’s take a look at what he’s saying and how it matches up with employment law, industrial relations and all the rest of that good stuff.
It looked like Actors Equity and Peter Jackson had come to an agreement.
They’d even written a joint statement to announce the boycott was off.
So why has the whole thing blown up?
In the US banks that turned mortgages into “complex financial instruments” that were so complex nobody knows who owns what are foreclosing on homeowners.
That’s despite the banks having failed to prove they have a right to. And the justice system is backing the big money. It’s gangster capitalism at its finest.
Congressman Alan Grayson explains…
It’s official, Len Brown is the first ever super city mayor. My congratulations to him and to his team who have worked so […]
Actors Equity have the Aussie actors’ minimum standards up on their site and they look pretty minimal.
So what’s all the fuss about and why is John Key suddenly interested in getting involved in an industrial dispute?
After all he’s previously claimed it’s “not appropriate” for the government to intervene in other disputes.
So he’s apologised to the Governor General personally but not to the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who he has described as […]
Helen Kelly has brought the two parties in the hobbit dispute together.
That’s a job well done and a big step in settling this dispute.
But there is still the broader issue of independent contracting being used to circumvent employment law and whether it could be fixed by legislation.
The Hobbit dispute is being run to a very familiar playbook.
Let’s have a look at the employers’ tactics and what the union can do to counter them.
Arts Minister Chris Finlayson has backed the Hobbit producers’ refusal to negotiate with Kiwi workers.
He’s citing a Crown Law opinion that backs Jackson’s claim he can’t negotiate with workers collectively.
But he’s deliberately asked a very narrow question to get the answer he wants – an answer he’s using to back foreign big business over the rights of Kiwi workers.
Peter Jackson and others film industry employers are claiming they can’t employ their workers as employees.
That claim is simply untrue.
So what’s the real reason for their reluctance to employee people on proper agreements?
The MEAA has responded to Peter Jacksons Tirade.
And it looks like he’s not been very straight-up about how the situation got to this.
According to NBR Key is locked down in a bunker of spin that separates him from his party and his caucus.
And it seems like that’s holding the hard right policy back for now.
But things will change in a second term.
Film workers in New Zealand have been exploited for years
Now their union is standing up for them.
And Sir Peter Jackson is throwing a tantrum about it.
It looks like a Labour candidate may be involved in electoral fraud.
If this is the case the party says it will come down on them hard.
But it may also have to take a look at how local body candidates get on the Labour ticket.
Leaked notes from a meeting between Peter Shirtcliffe and Wayne Eagleson have revealed backroom dealings to kill off MMP.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the party of big business and the big-business-backed anti-MMP lobby would be colluding.
After all, it’s in all of their interests to take power from the voters and put it back in the hands of the elite.
Key is strongly backing Hide.
That might be because he doesn’t want to deal with the ideologues who would replace him. Or it might be because Hide knows where the skeletons are buried.
Either way Key’s going to find it harder and harder to distance himself from the mess.
John Key has tried to use the ACT fiasco to take a clumsy swing at MMP.
I guess he reckons it’s just too hard to rip voters off when you have to chase a party vote.
According to the ODT government MP’s are going to be travelling around the country trying to convince New Zealanders that their plan to cut taxes for the rich isn’t actually a plan to cut taxes for the rich at all.
One way or another ACT’s troubles are going to ripple through the entire political discourse.
So what’s likely to happen with Garrett?
And what does it mean for everyone else?
Rodney Hide can either ditch Garrett and likely lose his leadership.
Or he can back him and likely kill off Act.
It’s a classic individual versus collective dilemma.
The feds want the OCR frozen.
But that’s not a sustainable answer for exporters.
It’s time to look at better ways of controlling inflation.
Continental Philosopher Slavoj Zizek talks about ethical buying and charity and the contradictions they entail. I’m not sure I agree with him (I […]
It seems Act MP and wannabe tough guy David Garrett has a conviction for assault.
I guess you don’t have to dig too far beneath the skin of these Sensible Sentencing Trust types to find their inner thug.
Teachers are striking on Wednesday.
But there’s not a lot of information about why.
That’s an information void the government will fill if the PPTA doesn’t.
I meant to post on Sean Plunket’s last day with Morning report last week but better late than never I suppose. Plunket is […]
There seems to be confusing in National’s camp about further attacks on workers rights.
Unfortunately this tallies with rumours they’re planning big changes in a second term.
Over the next few weeks the nats and other vested interests will try to muddy the waters over the SCF bailout.
This sophistry is designed to distract from the massive transfer of wealth from the many to the few.
And why shouldn’t they try this tactic? It worked for asset sales two and a half decades ago.
Funny how quickly John Key and Bill English found that spare $1.7bn for wealthy investors after all that talk about how we should be tightening our belts.
It’s shows exactly where their priorities are.
According to John Key, teachers who want to maintain reasonably class sizes and free flu vaccines are disconnected from the real world. That […]
The Herald’s top story today screams “Strikers’ Helpless Victims”.
But it turns out that staff have been suspended.
I guess that doesn’t fit the Herald’s class war perspective.
The Sensible Sentencing Trust has lied about having Labour’s support.
Labour must come down on the trust like a ton of bricks for this bullsh*t.
Anything else is a betrayal of Labour’s members and their values.
Labour co-hosted the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s parliamentary conference.
That’s disgraceful pandering to disgraceful people.
It’s time Labour showed some spine and offered an alternative to the SST’s cowardly “lock ’em up” posturing.
