Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, December 10th, 2008 - 55 comments
Categories: articles, national/act government, workers' rights -
Tags: 90 day bill, arrogant, fire at will, manawatu standard, out of touch
The Manawatu Standard has a good op-ed piece today on how National has squandered its honeymoon with its arrogant and out-of-touch behaviour on the fire at will bill.
The National party rose to power on the back of, among other things, scathing accusations that a supremely arrogant Labour party had “lost touch” with the people.
The criticisms were well-founded, or at least voters thought they were, and John Key rode a wave of disaffection to power.
How startlingly it is, then, for this new humble, inclusive government to decide to pass into law a 90-day probation period for new workers before Christmas, avoiding public hearings that would allow public discussion and debate.
Too true. Read the rest of the article here.
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Scoopit!
Oh yes – and there are plenty more ironic surprises in store including the transformation of Rodney Hide into the new Winston…
No matter how many posts the standard does about it, or no matter how many times you guys call it “THE FIRE AT WILL BILL”
The general public is not angry with this bill, they support it, and no one apart from the posters at the standard are calling it “the fire at will bill”
Brett if you don’t have to give a reason how is it not a “fire at will bill’?
Please explain fully.
BD: It just takes a while… After all we have up to 3 years to keep repeating it… Because of how it has been pushed through, there will also be exceptional interest in the abuses that it generates – and it will. There are a small but significant group of idiot employers.
I’d have to say that it was exceptionally stupid for the Nat’s to ram a bill like this through and hope that it would all be forgotten, like say 1990. They obviously don’t read the blogs enough.
Interesting how many posts are scheduled on this at present. It looks like every poster has gotten pissed off about some aspect of this sitting or another.
Aw poor wee brett – I see you’ve adopted the stick-fingers-in-ears-and-scream-I-can’t-hear-you approach. My advice? Suck it up wee man and hope your employer doesn’t sack you. I would. In an instant… your blue team are showing what a bunch of shits they are and people are paying attention…
You should take a leaf out of apologist Farrar’s book and just STFU until this passes…
Problem is, like Lynn, I don’t think it’s gonna…
Honeymoon? Over.
Audrey Young has stinging criticism for the Government’s decision to ditch democracy and ram these bills through without scrutiny. And for misleading everyone about Kiwisaver.
Comparisons drawn with US politics often risky, but given that our political milieu in some ways echoes trends from that nation with a 5-10 year delay; they are not always pointless. Therefore I cannot but help recall how the GOP spent much of the late 90′s and tens of millions impeaching Bill Clinton because he lied over a blowjob; while subsequently their own GW Bush lied his way into an illegal, immoral war of aggression that resulted in 100,000′s of deaths and frittered away trillions of dollars, with very little in the way of effective political challenge. (OK 5 or so years later the GOP is roundly defeated and Bush is the most despised man on the planet, but he still leaves office unstained by any legal consequences for his actions.)
Similarly I note that National spent much of the last decade making brazen noises over “Labour’s out of touch arrogance” and raking up emotional smokescreens like Paintergate and Speedergate out of trivial events…. yet literally within days of gaining power they are committing far grosser abuses of power and arrogance themselves… abuses that really will hurt many, many people.
It is always the way, those who make the most bellicose accusations are with time often revealed to be flagrantly guilty of far more egregious behaviour themselves.
[deleted]
[lprent: bye dad]
Audrey Young didn’t seem too interested in investigating Nationals Kiwisaver changes before the election and claiming today that it was fudged in misleading policy statements is a bit of a cop out on her part.
I am one of those who will be affected by the tax increase for those earning under $20,000. So will many people I know who are in part time work. I can’t believe it is going up from 12 % to 21%. Nice Mr Key never said that before the election.
The sight of that dwarf rodney the 3% man strutting about in winston’s pinstripe suit like he won the election is too much.
Ha the only way the polls can go now is down. By winter.
and what about that money they whisked out from under the families commission? Bet THAT goes to rodney the 3% man for his ‘extra’ parliamentary staff, and the ACT website Whaleoil…
worth a read (if in fact it hasn’t already been posted)…
http://national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleID=10866
….leaving aside preferences on the policy angle – this debate has already had too much focus on the “means”, and not enough on the “ends”….
….let it run its course and have the debate…
National (and the Maori Party) getting a thorough going-over in the House tonight. Seems like they can’t even sort out their own bills.
…oh, and does anyone have any sort of empirical data to back up any of what this legislation (supposedly) enables, or helps ameliorate ?
I can take s guess at where they’re trying to go with it, but not yet convinced of the cause/effect bit…if at all.
Yes National sure have hit the ground running in the race to stupid.
The arrogance frame – the Number One PR killer for a New Zealand audience – is settling in very nicely indeed. Once it’s hardened it won’t shift either.
Anyone noticed how many media interviews lately have started or ended with “We asked the National Minister for [you name it] to appear but they declined to be interviewed”? Good way to very quickly piss off both the public and the media in one fell swoop. Do National not understand that while the Crosby|Textor tactic of “keep your mouth shut no matter what” just doesn’t work when you’re in Government?
Then again considering the breathtaking depths of incompetence this National government has already exhibited in the House, maybe it’s the lesser of two evils for them.
Anyone else pick up on one news item tonight about downsizing the Army to just a SAS role? I got the impression that in order to attract more recruits they had to sex up the Army and get involved in more warzones ? Maybe attract some spotty Halo gamers to sign up…
The arrogance tag will not stick. Key looks much more like a big-arsed black lab. And that arse is waggling all over the place and he’s panting with excitement.
And no-one is buying this 90 day probation thing as the end of the world. ’cause it won’t be.
Like those you ape, you miss the point entirely Billy.
Oh, Sprout. Enlighten me. What is the point? Truthfully, I am beginning to wonder.
Sprout
“Anyone noticed how many media interviews lately have started or ended with “We asked the National Minister…”
no, how many? numbers please.
IP
“BD: It just takes a while After all we have up to 3 years to keep repeating it ”
It will be forgotten in 3 months. after christmas, holidays, more tax cuts coming this won’t be remembered. Why do you think it is first up?
If this is so bad, why is it that every other oecd country but us and denmark have a form of this bill?
The point dearest Billy, is that even if Key is, as you say “like a big-arsed black lab”, he and his Cabinet look a lot more interested in playing ministers than actually connecting with the public. So far there has been a consistent contempt for journalists who dare to do anything more than fawn upon them, and a palpable sense of “we don’t have to care what the public think now”.
Before long there will be fewer and fewer fawners, and more and more voters turned against Key – then National will try to change their image, but then it’ll be too late.
But that’s fine, it suits me down to the ground. Long may they persist as they are.
sd: gee I don’t have an empirical analysis at my finger-tips, guess that makes your refutation rock-solid. Perhaps you might like to look at media other than just Talkback or the Herald and you might start to get an idea of what I’m talking about.
But that’s fine too, long may they persist as they are. About 35 months should do it.
Sweet/Sprout
One example springs to mind immediately: tonight and last night (or Mon?) on Checkpoint.
Audio on Radio NZ website will confirm, for any doubters.
The last thing we’d want to do is be like Denmark with their fancy employment rights and world-leading happiness.
I hear the human rights commission is not happy with this shoddy piece of legislation and National’s tactics to avoid any public debate. John Key and National hate democracy.
I’m going to indulge in taking my post above to the next step. I concluded:
It is always the way, those who make the most bellicose accusations are with time often revealed to be flagrantly guilty of far more egregious behaviour themselves.
Here is why. The steady diet of Crosby Textor inspired, cynically false attacks that the NACTs have been immersed in for the last three electoral cycles have been built entirely on distortions, deceits and outright lies. This was not a minor superficial association, or some transient indulgences in Oppositional exuberance; attack and destroy has been the Nats/ACT’s principle occupation and prime mode of operation for years. As has been observed over and over in left wing blogs, there has been almost nothing of real policy substance to what the right has been saying for years; it was almost all emotive distractions, distortions, and disinformation.
The problem with lies, is not just that they are misleading, damaging and insulting to those who hear them, it is that they also damage the person who tells them. This is because in order to lie successfully you have to be able to convince yourself to believe the lie at a sufficiently deep level, that your conscience is coaxed into submission. (The rational mind knows it is cynical bollocks, but a person’s character is founded elsewhere.)
But after years of suppressing their consciences’, these Nats/ACT leaders are now critically unable to evaluate themselves honestly. They remain masters at looking like they are being truthful, and in the short-term that will deceive others as well…but inevitably the massive disconnect between their words and their actions will be apparent to all.
So what’s your point, Mike? Have you checked out Denmark’s tax rates? They are Exhibit A for social democracy, and utterly demolish the Right’s TINA propaganda.
And on top:
National in April 2009 will not only be increasing low paid workers taxes, but WFF will also be decreased by 50% for families earning under $75,000.
It was all there in the policy outline – MSM didn’t read any of it obviously.
The funnest part is: It’s no longer on Nationals site. My cache isn’t bringing it up either.
I for one, picked up the change, notified the MSM, and was told – yeah right.
How the tide changes.
Mike, if we got unemployment benefits that paid around 80% of the previous wage for over a year, and state-supported wage supplements for low-skill jobs, then yeah, I’d consider losing my work rights a fair trade off.
Hi dad.
[deleted]
[lprent bye dad]
Oh you are so a performance art project dad – I saw you’re name-checking gumby in a recent post. You seem to be tiring nowadays though…
“A dad a day keeps the fembots at bay.”
Thus retaining your precious bodily fluids.
[deleted]
[lprent bye dad]
“Fluid Druid” – Fuckin gold!
lolz