Tea ladies to be drug tested
Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson seems to be living in an alternative universe, with her comment on Checkpoint yesterday that tea ladies in the adventure tourism industry […]
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
The real reason for the secret ballot law
The tories are all puffed up about finally getting their secret ballot law passed. It’s about freedom they say, they’re on the side of the working man.
Thing is it’s not. And they most certainly aren’t.
Roads to nowhere paved with your gold
You know how the government’s short of cash, eh? Well, the guy spending $14 billion on highways that don’t make sense on the government’s rosy numbers, isn’t even going to consider whether they’re still a good idea now the IMF says petrol is heading to $5 a litre. Nor is he concerned about the $6 billion shortfall because that’s in ‘the future’ – because he’ll be out of office by then (seriously)
Clean, Green & Clever: NZ Institute’s last prescription
Ever since I went to his Fabian lecture in February, I’ve been meaning to write about Rick Boven’s last major work before leaving […]
All in the game
Everyone’s leaped on the Nats’ contraceptives for benies bid to distract from banks.com. Guess I’ll jump in too. Capitalist morality goes: the world/God rewards the good, which is why capitalists are rich – so, the poor, like beneficiaries, must be morally bad – the world would be better without bad people. Eugenics has been and remains a logical endpoint of capitalist morality.
Austerity = low tax take “surprise”
The government has a $1.8 billion income shortfall. But it’s alright, it’s not their fault… Their policies don’t affect the economy. Unless they need to take credit. 6.7% unemployment? Nothing to do with us, and nothing to do with our tax shortfall…
Birth Control
At first glance it seems strange to have Sue Bradford, a former Green MP, against what is a very ‘green’ policy – free contraception. But she has a point when she talks about beneficiaries feeling forced into sterility they don’t want. Meanwhile, what’s with the right’s obsession with targeting women having babies while on a benefit?
Contraception debate
The Government is planning to offer free long-term contraception for beneficiaries and their daughters. At one level its a sensible idea. But it comes with too much baggage attached. The Nats have already made such a mess of it that they can’t make this proposal with any credibility.
Cutting holes in the safety net
The Nats’ welfare cuts will cost $500m over 4 years. Supposedly save a billion. Net saving: $125m a year. 1% of benefit costs. 1/8th of the cost of extra beneficiaries under National. Won’t really save even that little. No jobs. Unemployment rising. National’s problem is it tries to save costs of the welfare safety net by cutting holes in the net. The real solution is to stop people falling in. Best welfare policy is a jobs policy.
He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy
Don’t get me wrong. Apart from a couple of policies (asset sales, overseas investment, no borrowing for tax cuts), Colin Craig’s politics are bad. But I like his Boscawen-like mad honesty. It’s fun. Mainly because it makes him so uncomfortable for his new National suitors. But his up-frontness ends when asked about his compulsory Christianity employment contracts.
NRT: Bringing Ports of Auckland to heel
Over the past few months, we’ve seen Auckland City’s wholly-owned port, Ports of Auckland, waging war against its own workforce, costing the city millions of dollars in lost dividends. Now, the Auckland Council has acted, requiring its intermediate Auckland Council Investments Limited to impose “good employer” provisions on its subsidiaries.
House Price Inflation
Land prices rising much faster than wages. Shares, derivatives, hedge funds or other financial instruments are designed so that banks can gamble with our money. Win or lose they always get a cut. Loss comes out of our pensions and other savings. Or, if they really stuff it up, taxpayers are expected to borrow more from them to pay for it. Banks following their own self interest and are compounding economies to oblivion. The “invisible hand” has failed..
Another MMP rort?
The media are doing a good job investigating John Banks’ donation history. The Police are presumably also doing theirs, and it seems clear that the matter must end up in Court and the issue of who is telling the truth will be decided by a judge. Some in the media have dismissed the question of any threat to National’s majority. Short-term maybe, long-term I’m not so sure.
Nice work
Number of additional jobs per year needed to match population growth: 25,000 * Jobs promised by National last Budget to be added in March 2012 year: 36,000 * Actual number of jobs added: 20,000 * Additional unemployed: 5,000 * Change in number of fulltime jobs: -6,000 * Change in number of parttime jobs: 25,000 * Growth in underemployment: 4,000 * Broken promises: 1 really big one
Talley’s cracking
It is a fundamental injustice of our society that one family, which already has more than it can ever need, can hold 1,300 families, who have very little, to ransom just to make a little more cash. But the union makes us working people strong. By standing together, the workers are beating Talley’s in the AFFCO lockout. Talley’s cracked. Wants half them back. The workers have said ‘all of us or none of us’.
1000 more jobless each week
The unemployment rate has jumped to 6.7%, as National delivered only 20,000 of the 36,000 jobs promised last budget. Last quarter there were 12,000 more jobless.
Where’s our recovery John? Have you sold that off too?
$5 a litre petrol, here we come
Last week, the IMF warned that oil prices will double over and above inflation in the next decade. The Greens crunched the numbers and say that means we’ll be paying $5 a litre for petrol in 2022. If it wasn’t clear before, it is now. A handful of white elephant highways is a poor use of $14 billion, especially when petrol is only getting more expensive.
Into Black-Scholes: where all the money went
A very interesting article on the BBC – the financial formula that ruined the world. Well, that’s a bit sensationalist, but it’s a […]
Inter-generational theft
Baby boomers strike again. In 1989, University fees for domestic students in New Zealand were less than $300. Moreover, for many students, 90% of that […]
Wages rise faster than inflation!
For the first time under this National government, average wages and salaries actually rose (2%) faster than inflation (1.6%), so in the last year people are ever so slightly better off – I think congratulations are in order!
Will Dunne heed his own poll on asset sales?
United Future are polling the public about their support for partial privatisation. Will Peter Dunne heed his own poll?
Some good vision
David Cunliffe delivered a solid speech yesterday in New Lynn laying out some good thoughts on the state of New Zealand.
In it he’s been very clear on what’s happened to New Zealand. in the last thirty years.
Tape of ACC-Pullar meeting raises more questions
Another secret taping, another political scandal. A recording of Pullar and Boag’s meeting with ACC by Pullar appears to show that Pullar did not “blackmail” ACC as alleged. This raises serious questions about how Pullar’s name got into the public arena. And why hasn’t Collins ordered ACC to correct its version of events since its had the transcript for weeks?
Policy for Money?
Party donations for the 2011 general election will be published on Tuesday . One new provision in the Act provides for the declaration of the number of donations in two bands; $1500 to $5,000, and up to $15,000. It will be very interesting to see the number of upper level donations in National and ACT particularly. They could hide Banks-type split donations from asset-sale backers.
Nats’ economic failures just another excuse for cuts
Didn’t take much clairvoyance to see that National would fail to meet its promise of a Budget surplus by 2014/15. You’ve never seen a Finance Minister have his forecasts cut so often and look so happy about it. His failure against his own artificial target gives him an excuse to cut. His party’s ineptness to blame but we pay. Students look to be his target this round.
The reverse Midas touch: the gap with Australia
Remember when we elected that guy with all the financial experience because he would be able to guide us through the tough time better and close the gap with Australia? Oops.
Nat’s sell Kiwis out for their mates (again)
Remember way back when the government were changing the law to take rights off film workers and increase tax breaks for Warners? It was all about keeping Kiwi jobs they said.
Well it turns out that at the same time they were doing this they were also making promises to Peter Jackson that those Kiwi jobs would be given to imported workers.
Banks’ secret donation from the ‘wide boys’
John Banks has had a miraculous change of heart on pokies. He used to say gambling bosses were “wide boys” who “sucked” the people of this country dry. Now, he’s rubbed up against John Key and become ‘relaxed’ about more pokies. Maybe the $15,000 undeclared donation from SkyCity helped. A donor Banks was legally required to disclose but didn’t. Labour’s laid a complaint. Update: donation has been referred to police.
$100m for Lizards
John Key and Bill English couldn’t find $150million over four years for increased parental leave that would hugely benefit future children. Horrors – we would have to borrow! But they could find $100million straight away to pay international investment banks including Australian company Lazard’s to advise on asset sales that robs our children’s future and that nobody else wants. It’s a matter of priorities – money gets money, kids get nothing.
ImperatorFish: To Save We Must First Kill
Failed to achieve
Tax increases on working people: GST hike, replaced Labour’s cuts with cuts for the rich, put tax on your employer Kiwisaver contributions, cut WfF tax credits. Record emigration to Australia: 53,237 last year, 1000+ per week.
A Butcher’s Shop, a Toy Shop, a Candy Store and a Childcare Centre
Steven Joyce’s personal fiefdom of Economic Development, Science and Innovation, Building and Housing, and Labour is confirmed. Now for the redundancies…
Asset sales mean power price rises
Molly Melhuish was one of dozens of oral submitters on the Privatising Your Assets Mixed Ownership Model Bill yesterday – all opposed. Her research shows the average price of power from a private provider is 3.31 c/kWh higher than from an SOE. Contact Energy’s boss says private investors need prices to rise even more. The implication is privatisation will remove the shackles.
The lucky ticket
By popular acclaim we’re putting this comment by rosy up as a Guest Post. Rosy describes success in life by analogy to winning various divisions of lotto…
Genesis boss living it up on your money
The FYI project and I/S at No Right Turn have uncovered what appears to be massive abuse of expenses by Genesis CEO Albert Brantley, whom we pay $1.2m a year. It puts me in mind of Marie Antoinette. And we know what happened to her. Almost as shocking is the small stuff. Lucky Genesis is subject to the OIA, for now, so this guy could be found out.
What is neoliberalism?
KJT offers a welcome refresher on the dominant economic/political ideology of our time. The one that has lead us to where we are today: Neo-Liberalism is a moral and intellectual justification for greed. A way for those few who accumulate wealth, by impoverishing many, to justify themselves, and keep those they are stealing from docile and compliant.