Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, July 4th, 2008 - 44 comments
Categories: slippery, transport -
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As a piece of political theatre it’s good and people who walk to work, including myself, enjoyed the unusual sight and gave them a wave (some people stuck in traffic didn’t find it so fun, though). But just remember, this was a set-up – truck companies did not waste a whole morning and all that fuel protesting that they didn’t get a chance to game the RUC increases by buying up credits ahead of time (the smart companies brought up credits in June anyway). The RUC increase is a minute part of truck companies’ costs.
The Right needed a big show of ‘popular’ discontent with the Government and the Right has the problem that it’s not a mass movement so can’t get together decent sized marches. The truck companies were a good substitute, and the RUC increases just provided the excuse. If not for the RUC, they would have used fuel prices (which is what most people think it’s about anyway) or the regional fuel tax law or some other justification. The important thing was to have the protest.
[congrats to the people who put up some of the 'let me on' posters around Parliament, you've made the news (1) (2). Not bad for a cheeky idea conceived at 4:30 yesterday and posted at 5:00]
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Looks like we will have to employ the Indian truckers Union, at least they work for their members. Unlike union officials in little old New Zealand, who work for the Government?
Good to see you’re alive ‘sod, and yep, they’re mostly the same old trolls with new names.
The new one’s aren’t very different either:
Of course you are dear.
Oh Kevyn, you have so much to learn.
Wow Felix, that was a good find, I doubt many made it that far!
I think THIS cartoon summed up yesterday a bit more succinctly than the one on your post – enjoy!
http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2008/07/emmerson-squashes-clark.html
Interesting thesis – that a group that are typically regarded as Labour voters put on a show of force at their own cost because the right need to have some sort of show of force against the government.
Have I missed anything?
Perhaps if you folks broadened your interests you might have known what Friedlander’s ultimate objective is. The RTF’s mag is sold in supermarkets and its the only media outlet that has reported on Friedlander’s real objections to RUCs. If you’re all as smart as you think you are you can work out the consequences for the railways and average motorists without any more of my help.
Kevyn,
I’ve been totally offline since last weekend. Been tramping slowly and very coldly in the Tararua’s this last week… my real love … and I’ve only been home a few hours, so I’ve missed all the fun. But not having immediate access to the RTF mag you mention above… let me guess. This protest was organised by the big trucking company OWNERS because they are worried that Labour will make rail competitive again.
Nothing to do with their publically stated motives at all I should imagine.
No Reddo,
They are rightly concerned that Labour wants to muscle in on another sector of the economy and muscle the private sector out of it. Thereby reducing choice and increasing costs in the marketplace.
Rail being in competition with roads has led us to the situation of now, which the government thinks they can “solve” by forcing the private company that runs it to come to the bargaining table and agree to sell at a very generous price, funded by the taxpayer, and now that the government has got a bit more muscle by doing this, they can then turn on the privately owned trucking companies and corner them the same way.
There’s still a hard core of the Labour movement who believe in socialism and who believe that rail is part of a core Government function, and should be restored to the monopoly long-distance-freight common carrier status it historically held in NZ for many years. As well as the freight carriage, there was also a monopoly on long distance passenger bus travel in favour of the Road Services division of the Railways department. All those shuttles that run up and down the Island wouldn’t have been allowed back in the 1970s in this country.
There’s also a lot of waffle about sustainability, and climate change, and a whole lot of other stuff that the government is not going to slit their political throats on, yet they still milk it for all it is worth. The only sustainability most of the government cares about is sustaining their time in office.