Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, July 28th, 2009 - 14 comments
Sir Roger Douglas has a go at my post that looks at the GDP per person gap between Australia and New Zealand and concludes that, since it doubled during the neoliberal revolution of the late 80s/early 90s, implementing more neoliberal policies is unlikely to close that gap. His first complaint is that my numbers and his […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:55 pm, July 27th, 2009 - 7 comments
Business Roundtable chair Rob McLeod has a piece in today’s Dom Post motivating the case for amending anti-discrimination laws to allow “affirmative action” in the private sector workforce. As an exercise in intellectual dishonesty it’s truly a masterpiece. Selectively quoting the Chicago School academic Richard Epstein, a favourite in BRT circles, McLeod tries to motivate […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, July 24th, 2009 - 42 comments
Now, yesterday a couple of righties didn’t want to believe the evidence in front of their eyes that the GDP per person gap between Australia and New Zealand doubled during the neoliberal economic revolution. They got upset at my conclusion that repeating those same policies (which is what Don Brash’s 2025 Taskforce will inevitably recommend) […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, July 23rd, 2009 - 32 comments
Y’know, as John Key tries to get stuck into Phil Goff, I think it’s time for a quick recall of recent history. Key is a man who lied directly to the New Zealand people about his Tranz Rail shares. Key is a man who hid from the public every time he was asked about substantive […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, July 23rd, 2009 - 41 comments
Phil Goff. Please get your shit together. This latest fiasco of running up a guy who owns several properties as a case of a Kiwi hurt by the recession is just inexcusable. I don’t doubt the dude’s having cashflow problems. But using him as your poster boy was only ever going to backfire. There are […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:03 pm, July 22nd, 2009 - 3 comments
Public Sector Eye. A new blog from the PSA written by the union’s two national secretaries, Brenda Pilott and Richard Wagstaff. Finsec’s been running the gossip for a few years now, but this will be the first blog written by union national secretaries on issues affecting their members. Given current events it should be interesting […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, July 22nd, 2009 - 17 comments
The Maori Party’s Matariki Day Bill was pulled in the ballot. Man, a public holiday in the middle of winter. Currently it’s one long drag from Queens Birthday to Labour Weekend. Will the Tories vote against a public holiday in the middle of winter and, once again, oppose the goals of the Maori Party? We’ll […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, July 22nd, 2009 - 83 comments
The ludicrous attacks by the media on Goff over the dole scheme show that this is not an even playing field. Key is allowed to lie again and again. Ministers are allowed to shirk their responsibilities. The fact that 1300 more people on the dole each week barely gets a look in. The journos are […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:04 am, July 21st, 2009 - 88 comments
It was excellent to see Phil Goff laying down the gauntlet to Key yesterday. He announced Labour’s policy to temporarily relax partner means testing for the dole and promised a recession response package. On the same day, Key’s big achievement was noting the Hillary family had settled their dispute with Auckland museum. Goff is saying […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 48 comments
Labour leader Phil Goff has called for a temporary relaxation of the rules for getting the dole. Too many Kiwis on low and middle incomes are losing their jobs but are not able to get any assistance from the Government (despite having paid taxes for years) because their partner has a modest income. John Key […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, July 15th, 2009 - 42 comments
I was going to do a fisking of Key’s ‘major speech‘ today. But there’s nothing to fisk, no substance, no ideas, no vision. There’s just endless recycling of the same old Crosby-Textor lines and waffle. In fact, there’s one section that is just a bunch of rehashed lines – one after the other. You get […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, July 15th, 2009 - 9 comments
The Key Government decided not to monitor the implementation of its Fire at Will law. It probably feared embarrassment. Fortunately, the EMA and CTU have done something to fill the gap (from RNZ report, not yet online). The EMA conducted a survey of members and the CTU has asked workers to come to them for assistance if […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, July 14th, 2009 - 7 comments
One of the most fundamental rights at work is the right to come home at the end of the day healthy and safe. Now that work right, like so many others, has come under attack from National. NOHSAC, the National Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee, was set up by Margaret Wilson in 2003 to […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, July 14th, 2009 - 47 comments
As you know, things are tough in the job market at the moment. The firm figures won’t be out until later this month but unemployment has grown by probably well over 50,000 so far this year. The number of the dole has shot from 37,000 in March to 50,000 now and is growing at 1200 a […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 8 comments
It’s good news that carers for people with intellectual disabilities are getting more recognition. A court decision has found that sleep-over shifts are work and, so, workers need to be paid at least the minimum wage for the whole shift, not just when they have to get up to assist the person. Apparently, that will […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, July 8th, 2009 - 9 comments
MAF Biosecurity is set to cut 60 jobs – 30 of them filled. It claims the fall in imports means it’s over budget and doesn’t need so many staff. I’ve got a few problems with that. Let’s assume these 30 workers about to get the sack are on the average wage ($48,000). The savings from […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, July 8th, 2009 - 18 comments
A few weeks ago the NZPA reported that the Government had agreed to establish a taskforce to “work on ways to close the productivity gap between Australia and New Zealand”. The taskforce would be selected by ACT leader Rodney Hide and would be announced within the month. The story then sank without a trace. So […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, July 7th, 2009 - 6 comments
As has been expected for some time, the National Distribution Union has announced that its President, Robert Reid, will be taking over as National Secretary from Laila Harre in August. Harre will leave with a stronger union than she found it, and will probably be remembered best for the epic Progressive lockout, as well as […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, July 7th, 2009 - 24 comments
Is he named for the great economist John Maynard Keynes or Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan? Either way, he speaks a lot of sense: There was an attack on the ‘bureaucracy’ during the 2008 election, and the front line was held to be sacrosanct. The rest were bonfire candidates. Now we get an attack on the […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, July 3rd, 2009 - 11 comments
A short video from the NZEI from Tuesday’s pay equity rally at Parliament. There are also a bunch of photos on flickr from the CTU, EPMU and TEU.
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, July 3rd, 2009 - 91 comments
Yesterday in Question Time, Bill English sent a message loud and clear to teachers, police, doctors, nurses, and all other public servants (‘frontline’ or not): under National, you’ll be getting pay-cuts, don’t expect cost of living adjustments, watch as your pay-packet buys less and less. Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government has stated a number of […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, July 2nd, 2009 - 15 comments
First, it was ‘we’re going to do everything we can to keep Kiwis in jobs’ Next, it was ‘yeah, OK, we haven’t done anything significant to keep people in jobs (we borrowed a couple of small programmes from the Greens and the unions, though) but who cares? Look, other countries have more unemployed, so, um, […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:39 am, July 2nd, 2009 - 26 comments
National is overseeing the most dramatic rise in unemployment on record (yep, 2000 a week is more than the 1980s, more than the 1990s). They’ve got no answers, no ideas. All they can talk about is what Goff said 20 years ago and laugh. Like 2000 people a week losing their livelihoods is some kind […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, July 1st, 2009 - 13 comments
I wonder if Patrick Gower could keep a straight face while writing this: Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has dropped her additional Disability Issues portfolio because Prime Minister John Key wants her to concentrate on the growing numbers of people losing their jobs. Note his phrasing. Not ‘concentrate on reducing the growing number of people […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, July 1st, 2009 - 55 comments
I am outraged to learn that the Department of Labour told its employees they were not allowed attend the pay equity rally at Parliament yesterday. A leaked email from the department to its staff said: “Attendance at such a demonstration may well be perceived as crossing the line by criticising a decision of the Government. […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 30th, 2009 - Comments Off on Pay equity protest TODAY
It’s pissing down with rain here in Wellington but the pay equity protest is going ahead. Grab your workmates and head down to Parliament at lunch to tell the government to reverse their cuts and start taking pay equity seriously. What: Pay equity protest Where: Parliament When: 12.30 today More info at www.union.org.nz/payequity
Written By: - Date published: 5:26 am, June 26th, 2009 - 69 comments
I remember just over a year ago, Helen Clark announcing that the number of people on the unemployment benefit had fallen below 18,000 for the first time in 30 years. The roomful of Labour supporters erupted into applause. Contrary to the crap you hear from righties, Labour top priority is making sure everyone who wants one […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, June 25th, 2009 - 20 comments
John Key’s government has reacted to the thousands of job losses occurring each week in this country in much the same way a possum crossing a road reacts to headlights. Since over-promising and under-delivering with the Jobs Summit, they’ve been exposed as completely out of ideas. The dole queue is growing by 1100 each week, […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, June 25th, 2009 - 83 comments
John Key, 20 May 2007: My legacy will be a strong New Zealand economy with higher wages, lower taxes and greater competitiveness. My legacy will be a country that young New Zealanders want to stay and work in. The Press, 25 June 2009: Thousands of beneficiaries could soon be flipping burgers under a deal between […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:14 am, June 24th, 2009 - 25 comments
Yesterday, Goff asked Key for some evidence that his government is doing something to save jobs. Key squirmed and squirmed. Goff: What have the three main ideas that emerged from the Job Summit, and that he promised would save or create thousands of jobs, delivered in actual job numbers? Key: I would say that the […]
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