Last week, Jim Anderton said that the tidal wave of youth unemployment we’re experiencing will lead to more suicides. He’s right. The best response from the Right: slash young people’s wages and that might create a few more jobs. But Te Ururoa Flavell’s suggestion to ostracise and condemn the dead is just as bad.
While Key is monkeying around in LA achieving nothing, Labour is pushing ahead with policies that will take this country forward. Last night, Phil Goff announced the party’s procurement policy at a meeting of Kiwirail Hillside workers, who have just experienced the results of government contracting that ignores wider economic impacts on the country.
Guest poster David Clark at Red Alert has broken news on job cuts at Child Youth and Family. Front line staff will go – yet another broken promise from National.
Yesterday, hundreds of parents protested cuts to early childhood education on Queen St and gave Phil Goff a 60,000 signature petition to take to Wellington. 1000 people in the Octagon called on the government to consider Kiwi jobs when awarding contracts. What is wrong with the priorities of this government that puts tax cuts ahead of kids and job?
Two years ago, this government sparked the biggest protests in a generation when it tried to open up the most precious parts of our conservation estate to mining. The policy got canned but the agenda has continued below the surface. Now, 100 DoC staff have been sacked while the MED unit for oil drilling and mining will nearly double its staff.
Employers and Manufacturers Association head Alasdair Thompson’s sexist outbursts have drawn near universal condemnation, and are likely to cost him his job. But while we’re about the business of punishing sexist dinosaurs, we should set our sights a little higher than Thompson.
Low-paid, crappy job? It’s obviously your fault, according to the Right. You mustn’t have enough qualifications, or the correct ones. The good jobs are out there, they’re just hiding. Or, if they’re not, you can weave one from thin air. But, even if this free market magic were real, what’s the end point? The crap jobs still need to be filled.
We are hearing no end of job loss stories in the news and the government has no plan for New Zealand jobs. Their best idea is to cut the wages of the young, rather than to create jobs of real value. We need workers paid a Living Wage so all Kiwis can have fulfilling lives.
Joyce was told that building the new train cars at the Kiwirail workshop in Dunedin would bring half a billion into the economy. Joyce insisted Kiwirail go with the ‘cheapest’ option. China. Now, another 40 jobs have been axed. Not to mention other economic losses. Joyce is unrepentant. Blind to the cost of ‘cheap’. Aussie’s do it smarter than Joyce.
The Budget is unravelling at a startling rate of knots. Bill English is floundering to explain his dodgy asset sales numbers that count the benefits but not the costs. Now, a senior minister has admitted that John Key’s claim that “there are 170,000 new jobs being created as a result of this Budget” is a lie. We actually really do deserve better than this.
Fire at will was meant to help young people into work, wasn’t it?
Elect a Labour-led government. Create 100K jobs.
*Key says that we will get to vote on his Kiwisaver cuts in the election. Truth is, they passed the law last week and the tax credits are cut from July 1. *What’s up with the dodgy Kiwibank numbers? Plans for sale? *The govt is importing World Cup workers while 270K are jobless. *Key’s jokes falling flat with pissed off voters.
The response to two recent posts here at The Standard have shown what a contentious topic the minimum wage is. So it’s timely that yesterday saw the release of the CTU’s summary of research on Minimum Wage and Jobs.
Prominent scientist Sir Paul Callaghan thinks Kiwis are choosing to be poor. I reckon he’s right too, but we probably disagree about the reasons.
John Key thinks he can smile and wave his way through the worst natural disaster this country has faced. He acts like all he has to do is cheer-lead and the city will rebuild itself. It’s a stunning dereliction of duty. The contrast with the vision and leadership the Left is showing is marked.
John Key reckons the unemployed need “a kick in the pants”. Paula Bennett reckons the Nats’ harsh reforms mean that “the dream is over” for beneficiaries. Meanwhile, back in the real world…
MrSmith argues that the government’s announcement of $42 million over four years for trades training for the Canterbury rebuild is mis-directed. He says it takes too long to train a tradesperson and the money would be better spent getting building workers back from Aussie, or keeping the ones that are still leaving.
The National Government has relaxed the rules for so-called business migrants, those who can get easy access to a passport by investing in New Zealand. The Minister is proud that the scheme has now raised $562 million. He says it is part of the government’s economic growth programme.
It’s not often that the Nats do anything praiseworthy, so I like to take note when they get it right. Their new youth jobs scheme, even though it only partially reverses their previous cuts, is at least a step in the right direction.
You’re the ruling government. Which do you choose, tax cuts for 47 millionaires or salaries for 121 new teachers? It’s not a hypothetical question…
From the Dunedin Study, to The Spirit Level, to the IPCC – there is a lot of evidence out there that our government should be basing their policy on. Let’s champion that aim.
A unemployment disaster is slowly unfolding in Christchurch. For now, the tide of job losses is being partially held back by wage subsidies supporting nearly 70,000 workers, but those will be phased out by June. Then, all hell will break loose. The Government has no plan for this and, according to Key, hasn’t even bothered to understand the scope of the crisis.
The $6.8 million package for businesses offered last week by the government was an insult: business mentors and export junkets – just what people who aren’t allowed to access their businesses need. Now, Key and Bennett have announced they are slashing wage support and and the job loss payment. It will hammer the Christchurch economy.
62,000 Christchurch workers are now receiving special earthquake payments. Most of these workers’ businesses have been closed by the earthquake and plan to re-open at some point by 6,300 jobs are gone for good That’s about 30% of Christchurch workers out of action and 3% without the hope that their workplace will re-open.
On Friday, the government sent out a Request for Proposal for building companies to build 2,500 temporary modular homes in Christchurch. It looks like step towards the rebuilding plan I and others have been suggesting for the past couple of weeks. Now, lets see an aggressive timetable and a plan for what comes next.
Me & others: How come the government seems to have no plan for rebuilding Christchurch or desire to get one?
Righties: Well, um, Key’s awesome and, anyway, what’s your plan, smart-arse ?
Me: I’m not the government, rebuilding Christchurch isn’t my job. But here’s where I would start.
Facing a housing shortage in Auckland now and a massive rebuilding programme in Christchurch to come, the Government has announced the biggest public building initiative since World War 2. Thousands of unemployed young people will be paid to train as apprentices in building trades and contribute to their country’s future.
Under Labour, when there was effectively full employment, there were still 1,700 people who had been continuously on the dole for over 4 years. I was prepared to accept most of these were ‘bludgers’. Turns out I was too cynical. Paula Bennett found only 658 were ineligible. Werewolf has an excellent article busting more benefit myths.
Because it’s failed ideology prevents it from leading job creation, National came up with ‘Community Max’. Pointless make work schemes have flourished. At the end, more participants are back on the dole than would have been if they had never left. A waste of time and money. Just like boot camps with a higher reoffending rate than home detention.
The Oz Job Expo was in Auckland this weekend, and 6000 people turned up and were willing to pay $15 to look for the job they couldn’t find in New Zealand. With much lower unemployment in Australia, job adverts way up since 2008 instead of way down here, and wages on average 30% higher, who could blame them?
Once upon a time New Zealand was the most prosperous country in the world, living on the sheep’s back. But that was when its population was only two million. The fruits of a raw commodity export sector now have to be spread over more than four million. We could provide decent jobs and income for all by processing these commodities in New Zealand.
*English vs English on assets sales, as business commentators come out against the flawed business case for privatisation. *Will Hide honour his word and resign over Supercity debacle? *Foreshore Bill to join CERRA as a constitutional outrage. *Economic woe keeps coming. *Is the ‘brighter future’ on its way or just more Key stunts?
By every significant measure our economy is a mess. Bill English is finance minister for what is looking increasingly like the most useless do-nothing NZ government in living memory. So is he working on a plan to put things right? Is he rolling out the big ideas that will get New Zealand moving again? No – he’s lashing out at public servants. Pathetic.
John Key has taken a swing at Kiwi workers who have lost their jobs thanks to the bankers’ recession and his economic mis-management. Key claims people are choosing to be long-term beneficiaries “even though work is available to them”. But the jobs aren’t there and that has caused long-term unemployment to explode under his watch.
