The New Zealand labour movement used to have its own newspaper. A group of us thought that now might be a good time for it to be digitally reborn: The Standard v2.0.
The Dom reports that:
Cabinet minister Trevor Mallard has escaped an assault charge over his altercation with National MP Tau Henare by pleading guilty to the lesser charge of fighting in a public place.
Appearing in Wellington District Court this afternoon, the Environment Minister was convicted and agreed to pay $500 to a Salvation Army drug and alcohol rehabilitation course.
He paid the fine before leaving.
From Stuff:
Cullen said “uncertainties” still existed, but Treasury had “significantly” lifted its revenue forecasts which meant the $1.5b in tax cuts in addition to more spending could be factored in to the budget.
“This figure is very soft as no decisions have been taken on the timing, size, shape or scope of our personal tax cuts,” Cullen said.
Cullen has also reemphasised that:
“I can say, however, that the Labour-led government’s personal tax cuts will meet the four tests that I have previously outlined. We will cut personal taxes:
- Without borrowing to do so
- Without cutting services
- Without exacerbating inflationary pressures
- Without creating greater inequalities in our society”
Cullen’s release is here.
Here’s a cool idea.
From the site:
I’ve just finished building CommitteeCaller.com, a site that allows one person to target an entire congressional committee over the phone. The web application utilizes the open source Asterisk PBX system to connect you to every senator or house member on a particular committee. No more digging around the ‘net entering zip-codes to retrieve phone numbers of representatives — CommitteeCaller.com automates the tedium of repetitively dialing your favorite politicians.
Reports suggest that the government is set to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour. Coming toward the start of 2008, this would mark the ninth rise in as many years.
When it comes to income, one trick ponies John Key and National would like you to believe that the only thing that counts is the tax rate. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Dom reports that this latest modest rise to the minimum wage will be worth around $30 a week to the 200,000 or so workers on the lowest pay rates. While some may claim that the minimum wage still isn’t high enough let’s not forget the alternative. Over the years National have opposed rises to the minimum wage at nearly every turn. Their record is shameful - John Key desperately wants you to forget the injustice of the National-90s. Just check out the graph below.
In nine years in government the Nats raised the minimum wage only three times.
In nine years under the Nats the minimum wage rose a mere 88 cents.
That’s less than 10 cents a year.
I’d call it “pocket change” but it’s not. The astounding fact is that the Nats were so miserly that we don’t even have a coin of low enough denomination in our circulating currency for the Nats to have added it to your hourly pay.
Workrights are going to be a huge issue at the next election here - the same way they were in Australia. Howard’s wholesale attack on Aussie workers was one of the main reasons the electorate rejected him. Bear that in mind when National releases the Business Roundtable’s their Industrial Relations policy.
My guess is that it’ll be heavy on slogans, light on real substance: John Key and National writ large.
UPDATE: The inflation-adjusted figures paint an equally compelling picture. Check them out at kiwiblogblog.
The NZ Herald reports the Service and Food Workers Union, the National Distribution Union and Unite have agreed in principle to merge into a new super-union.
The new union will represent some of the lowest paid workers in the country such as cleaners, checkout operators, fast food workers and factory process workers, and encompasses three of the most militant unions in the country.
And while the membership will be a lot less than the 54,000 suggested in the article (by my reckoning the three unions’ combined membership is around 40,000 members), it will certainly be a major new political and industrial force in this country.
As we pointed out in our post back in September, a merger makes real sense. A super-union’s economies of scale makes for a far more effective campaigning and organising machine, and the new union will need that if it plans to make good on its plans to organise the largely non-unionised retail and hospitality sector.
Matt McCarten certainly has big ambitions:
Unite general secretary Matt McCarten, who has grown his membership five-fold in the past two years through a media-savvy “Supersize my Pay” campaign, said he wanted the new union to double its numbers within a year to easily surpass the country’s biggest union, the 55,000-member Public Service Association.
“It’s not just about a union getting bigger. It’s about getting the critical mass,” he said.
“I think what it will become is the catalyst to organise other unions around it with a campaigning union approach around social justice issues.
“In my view I’d want it doubled within 12 months. The others all think that’s ambitious but I think we could do it, easy.
“I think workers don’t have a problem with joining a union at all. What we need is the capacity to meet their needs - that’s what has held us back.”
Of course, as anyone in politics knows, egos and conflicting interests can sink the best laid plans, and as I understand it the deal is nowhere near as certain as the Herald suggests. There’s also the issue of whether the new union retains the SFWU’s affiliation to the Labour Party.
The Servos played a major part in Labour’s get out the vote strategy in South Auckland last election and have supplied a good number of the party’s MPs, but with Laila Harre and Matt McCarten at the helm this issue is still far from settled. I’m sure Labour will be watching the situation closely.
Another video from TED:
“I don’t think we’re going to make it,” John Doerr proclaims, in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. Spurred on by his daughter, who demanded he fix the mess the world is heading for, he and his partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers embarked on a greentech world tour — surveying the state of the art, from the ethanol revolution in Brazil to Wal-mart’s (!) eco-concept store in Bentonville, Arkansas. KPCB is investing $200 million in green technologies to save the planet and make a profit to boot. But, Doerr fears, it may not be enough.
From the site:
“The only two universal truths. Death and Taxes.
Entitleme is an effort to deduce an individuals effective tax rate. The difficulty in calculating an effective tax rate stems from defining what is or is not a tax. My current thinking is, “if you don’t pay it you go to jail” it is a tax. A subsidy or rebate on the other hand is ‘if you can buy a bottle of wine with the proceeds’ its a subsidy. In this way, a Childcare/Housekeeper end of year rebate counts, but Under-5 free doctors visits aren’t.
The initial goal of this website is to calculate whether Australians pay more or less tax than Kiwis. Now that I’ve finally got most of the Inland Revenue and Work & Income calculations going - I can start on the Australian tax system. In the end I want to be able to compare most Western countries with each other.
As time goes by I’ll post interesting comparisons and peculiar anomalies in the New Zealand tax system. I’ll also finalise calculating the Rates burden for each individual city and region.”
Apparently we have Jon to thank for putting this together.
As he indicates, it’s a work in progress, but it’s great to finally have some sort of mechanism to help visualise these kinds of calculations.
Our site stats suggest that there’s a fair few people in government reading this - what about putting something similar together or paying Jon to do if for you… 
From The Dom:
A One News Colmar Brunton poll last night has National on 54 per cent, 19 points clear of Labour. A Three News TNS poll has National with a slimmer lead - 51 to 36 - but still well ahead.
Well I doubt they enjoy being behind but this can hardly be a surprise for Labour - with The Herald waging war over the EFB as well as continued fallout from a variety of issues. So National’s looking to govern alone but would anyone really want them to?
It seems to me that their leader, for all his style, is still a policy lightweight - having handed off all of the hard stuff stuff to Bill. Key’s job of late has seemed to consist mainly of tours around the country smiling for photo-ops, shaking hands, and kissing babies, broken up only by the demands of a staring role in a Hollywood-style promotional video, short on substance and unanimously panned by the media.
I suppose he’s thinking ’stick with what you’re good at’ but I’m not sure the electorate will fall for it forever - particularly as scrutiny is brought to bear as the election approaches.
Whenever the Nats have released policy this year it’s been a fiasco and the public has been left with the uneasy feeling that there may be more going on behind closed doors than Key is letting on. English has mused about cuts to super, Ryall accidently let the cat out of the bag on uncapping GPs’ fees, and Key has been evasive over his policy on asset sales.
Given National’s sustained series of policy gaffes so far I’m betting that Labour’s not writing off its chances just yet.
Today the hotly contested four horse race to become the candidate for Palmerston North (the position being left vacant by the tenth hottest man in NZ - Steve Maharey - can’t remember who ran that poll, a late night TV show no doubt) was won by Iain Lees-Galloway, the Campaigns and Media Advisor for the NZ Nurses Organisation.
Iain is another young Labourite who cut his political teeth as a President of a University Student Association (although we have to acknowledge that Massey is not an organization known as a prolific breeder of left-wing commies but I reckon Iain’s values are well and truly Labour solid).
He’s 29 years old, good looking and with a simply beautiful wife, Clare - forgive my sexism but it ain’t never a negative - plus they have a gorgeous child with another on the way. So as well as hot organisational skills, kissing babies may well be this man’s forte.
Think he sings too & another one for the Chris Knox choir, perhaps?
A few readers have written in complaining they’re getting a strange message in their browser when they visit the site.
Turns out that some versions of Internet Explorer don’t like the way one of our Google videos is embedded.
Apparently it’s nothing to worry about (despite the sometimes stern message!) - I’ll see if I can sort it out shortly.
UPDATE: Should be sorted now. I’ve swapped out the Google video for a YouTube version of the same thing. Let us know if you’re still having problems.
Yesterday two more bright young things were confirmed as Labour candidates for the 2008 general election: Kate Sutton in Epsom and Hamish McDouall in Whanganui.
Twenty six year old Kate Sutton is already a proven political player - she’s a two term Tamaki Community Board Chair, she’s on the University of Auckland’s ruling council and is the Women’s Vice President on Labour’s governing body NZ Council. And the cool thing about Kate is she’s got a smile as wide as the Waitamata Harbour and the brains and heart to match.
The other new kid (well he’s 39 and but by my ancient reckoning - Einstein was right, it is all relative - that makes him a kid) on the block is a guy who sounds like he should be a geek but is so not. Hamish McDouall won Sale of the Century and was Mastermind Champion a year later in 1990, due to his extensive knowledge of the Life and Works of David Bowie. That’s my kind of Labour guy.
And in a nice touch for Hamish, who’s planning to return home to Wanganui next March - at the very same time as his confirmation was taking place, the Labour led government announced a 10% funding boost to UCOL, bringing the polytech’s funding to almost $28m next year.
A mate of mine had a rather interesting run-in last night with a couple of drunken Tory backbenchers. Here’s what happened:
Last night I was at the Malthouse in Courtenay Place having a few beers with some mates when who should walk into the bar but a couple of National Party backbenchers. We struck up a conversation, and an enlightening one it was. Both Nats had clearly had a few and the rookie’s tongue was looser than I would have thought wise (I noticed his more experienced colleague was far more reserved).
He readily agreed that John Key comes across as ‘a bit smug but he’s a tough bugger and he works us like dogs, as he should’. We were assured that ’she’ (Clark, presumably) would ‘knock that smugness out of him in the campaign’.
We were then told that ‘John doesn’t really know what he wants to do if (when, hah!) he becomes Prime Minister and he certainly hasn’t told us!’ But, then ‘He’s new to politics; he shouldn’t know what he wants. He’s just got to hit the right notes with the public’. I gained a striking impression that power was being sought for its own sake, not to make a better New Zealand.
Searching for some glimmer of a vision, the Nats were asked about where they thought the country should head. ‘Singapore’ was the answer: we should be looking to a city-state on the world’s busiest shipping strait that is run as a mix of autocracy and plutocracy as the model. Every mention of vision or policy was solely limited to economics: people appeared in the frame merely as commodities and factors of production.
So, maintain and fortify privilege for those who have it, that’s name of the game, and do so by ‘hitting the right notes’.
‘John’, we were informed, ‘could hit the right notes about 85% of the time’ much better than ‘English, who only gets it right 65% of the time’ (note who gets first names, the faction this backbencher sat in was clear).
At this point the slightly nervous-looking, more experienced politician decided it was time they extracted themselves before his friend started telling us intimate details of caucus sessions. We were left amused but more than a little concerned that this is the true face of the National party behind Key’s grinning façade.
I imagine the rookie had more than his hangover to worry about this morning.
Some interesting observations from Steven Price on DomPost editor Tim Pankhurst’s keynote address at the Jeanz conference called “The Power of Print”.
His speech included this interpretation on the NZ Herald’s Electoral Finance Bill campaign: “He was a bit bemused. “Good on them,” was his attitude. But he thought it would be boring the Herald’s readers to tears.”
Btw I’d missed the NZ Herald editorial criticising National on their handling of the EFB including this of Mr Key’s handling: “His attempts have been too low-brow, too detailed and too open to argument.”
Local Nats don’t want David Carter as their candidate for Selwyn.
Looks like the threats, intimidation and bullying tactics used to get him the candidacy have backfired for him. Carter (himself a three time loser to Labour’s Ruth Dyson in Banks Peninsula) has a history of bagging other candidates within his party.
He said of Brian Connell, when selected for Rakaia in 2002, that National “didn’t get a hell of a good line-up of candidates… they weren’t bad but there was nobody who was a stunner” (Chch Press, 3 Oct 2006).
Well the local party people didn’t toss Brian Connell back quite as fast as they’re trying to bin David Carter - they’re right to of course because in his own words - he isn’t a stunner either.
My bet is that John Key will still want him to win the selection and that Carter will be forced on the electorate against the wishes of the local Nats. Democracy - National style.
From the Press this morning:
National reopens Selwyn race
National MP David Carter will battle up to 12 rival candidates for the Selwyn seat after the party’s board agreed to an embarrassing selection rerun.
Nominations for electorates across the country have closed, but National president Judy Kirk said yesterday the board had decided to reopen the Selwyn contest in February after 35 party members lodged a formal complaint…
It is understood the candidates were warned several front-bench National MPs would publicly campaign for Carter to get the nod if they put their names forward.
Carter’s colleagues felt such a senior MP should not have to face a selection battle against newcomers…
In its complaint to the board, the disgruntled group of party members said Carter should have known the selection process was flawed. “His future as a Cabinet minister will often put him under the spotlight and, if this is a sign of his true judgment, then we may be headed for turbulent times with him as a minister of the Crown,” the letter says…
From The Herald:
The Auckland City Council has scrapped its plan to build affordable housing.
The last council signed a contract with the New Zealand housing Trust to build 100 homes for lower income families.
The contract was worth $9 million.
Mayor John Banks says it was a pet-project with the last council and one he did not agree with.
Here’s a clip that aired last night on TV3.
It shows NZ leading the world in our response to climate change in Bali. To quote the reporter, New Zealand is “…putting words into action… [announcing] ambitious plans to go carbon neutral”.
National on the other hand has no credibility on climate change. They don’t have any real answers. Many of them, including John Key, are climate-change deniers.
As Phil Goff put it in this YouTube clip four months ago, “There are two big issues facing the world. In terms of conflict - Iraq. In terms of wider issues it’s about global warming. In both cases, John Key has got it wrong.”
Evidently Key’s personal ambition doesn’t stretch as far as helping to save the planet.
“[Climate change] is a complete and utter hoax.”
(Hansard, 10 May 2005)
“[I'm] quite worried that policies are going to be driven by this Armageddon mentality that the world has far too much carbon.”
(Investigate, Feb 2007)
“I am a climate change sceptic. There I’ve said it.”
(Ashburton Guardian, 10 Nov 2006 )
“I am not inclined to agree with the Government”s view that there is a scientific consensus on climate change.”
(Wairarapa News, 16 Aug 2006)
“As a politician I am not sure about this climate change story.”
(Hansard, 17 Feb 2004)
John Key is the epitome of “style over substance” and his DVD showed us just how desperately he wants to be everything to everyone.
This Production Shed.TV user-submitted video explores the man behind the mask.
Colin Espiner has a story in yesterday’s Press saying that the heads of three National Party branches in the Canterbury district supported by 35 other party members have made a formal complaint to National President Judy Kirk alleging breaches of rules by the selection committee for the Selwyn candidate for National. List MP David Carter’s was the only name placed before the pre-selection committee. One other candidate is reported as saying that he had been “notified by the preselection committee that he would not be going further in the process”.
Regina Christey, a former electorate secretary, in a letter in the paper on the same day, said the process was “disgusting”; with “not one meet-the-candidates meeting of party members, no confirmation of who sat on the selection panel, attempts to bully candidates into withdrawing, no open delegate selection.’
She raises some important points in her letter, published on page A19 - “Did any meeting waive the right of members in the electorate to select the candidate, or was it a case of the National Party board assuming the right to choose for the people of this district? Why did the selection process differ from that in the party’s rules?”
If the process was different from the rules the National Party is in breach of the Electoral Act. Clause 71 of the Act sets out a legal requirement for registered parties to follow democratic procedures in candidate selection. Provision must be made for participation in the selection of candidates by current financial members of the party who are entitled to vote, or by delegates who have been elected by current financial members. The party’s rules governing the selection of candidates must be filed with the Electoral Commission.
Judy Kirk said she was looking into the concerns and would deal with them “in the appropriate way.” It will be interesting to see if that does provide for a more democratic process; or perhaps the National Party this time around wants to hang on to its dead wood?
I see National’s complaining about the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia again. As usual they have no answers on what to do about it other than to blindly hope that tax cuts for the rich will lead to economic growth and somehow it’ll all trickle down into the ordinary worker’s pay packet. Ever feel like someone’s trying to sell you a dud for a second time?
Because as anyone who lived through the 90s can tell you, National has a shameful record on wages, as this graph of median wage growth shows:
The reason for this is simple. When National and its allied employer groups introduced the Employment Contracts Act in 1991 it was deliberately designed to reduce the ability of workers to bargain for better wages through their unions. This was done in a number of ways, but one of the most effective was its restrictions on the ability of unions to negotiate collective agreements across an entire industry.
This meant each collective agreement had to be negotiated on an enterprise (site by site) level, which both moved the balance of power firmly towards the employer and encouraged companies to compete against each other on labour costs. The result was a race to the bottom. Workers lost conditions, wages stagnated or fell for the majority of workers and collective bargaining was largely replaced by the market. Productivity suffered as the low cost of labour made capital investment uneconomical.
So when National talks about the need to lift wages and improve productivity, just remember who it was that slashed Kiwis’ take home pay in the 90s and put us in the position we’re in today. And don’t for a second think they wouldn’t go back there if given half a chance.
The challenge now for Labour is to finish the job they started in 2000 and strengthen the Employment Relations Act to restore effective industry bargaining. Wage growth has improved under the ERA, but it’s not nearly enough if we want to catch up with Australia.
As Council of Trade Unions economist Peter Conway points out, leaving it to the market alone hasn’t worked:
“New Zealand now has a structural problem of low wages, and the 30% wage gap with Australia will only be closed through more widespread industry wide collective bargaining, supported by ongoing improvements in productivity.
“Wages were broadly comparable with Australia until the late 1980s, but then fell to 60% by 2002, according to Treasury analysis.
“Similarly, in 1978 New Zealand and Australian workers had about the same amount of capital per hour worked but by 2002, capital intensity in Australia was over 50 percent greater than in New Zealand.
The CTU agrees that lifting productivity is essential to lift incomes on a sustainable basis. However this must be accompanied by effective measures to ensure the benefits are shared, with a strong minimum code and effective industry bargaining.
The next election may well be fought on the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia. It’s up to Labour to show the electorate which party’s really looking out for the interests of working New Zealanders.
Listen up guys and campers, there are some disturbing bits of info coming back from our ‘plants’ in the media world, including David F.
I realise that the Labour govt are stuffing up to such big-time that I understand a little over-confidence is creeping in to our ranks. We don’t want anyone thinking that we are arrogant and making unnecessary assumptions about becoming the next government.do we? So here are some instructions:
1. Do not talk to David Farrar in public. All meetings need to be at party headquarters or in the leader’s office.
2. The office plan of the Beehive currently circulating between English’s and McCully’s office needs to be binned in case it gets into the wrong hands. By the way, Kevin Taylor is not getting the deputy leader’s office!
3. The Friday night office parties in Brownlee’s office must not include pouring wine down the office walls on the basis that the place won’t be needed after 2008. Seriously guys, we don’t need to explain to Parliamentary Services the need for repair work before Labour can come back to opposition.
4. Could we please stop spreading the rumour that John is practicing his acceptance speech. I know that Mike Moore has sent him a copy of his one from 1993 but the leader now understands that he’s got a few other speeches to make before November 2008.
5. We have scrapped the new slogan; “we are the world, we are the champions.” Bill thinks it might piss off the farmers after Henry lost the World Cup.
6. Finally, unity is going to be important. Stick together and what happens on the field, stays on the field. Please, please deny any rumours about Gerry’s office goings-ons.
Cheers, Chuck
