Another fine example of Bill English’s aspiration for young Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, December 22nd, 2017 - 78 comments
Categories: bill english, jobs, useless, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags: , , , , ,

The politician who told young Kiwi workers that they were a bunch of pretty damned hopeless druggies is back for round two:

Education instead of McJobs – Oh Noez!

78 comments on “Another fine example of Bill English’s aspiration for young Kiwis ”

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  1. Vaughn 1
    22 December 2017 at 11:57 am

    This is bullshit, right? Are those really his words being quoted? If so, I’m inclined to say wanker, but I remain willing to believe there’s some context that I’m missing that might help me understand the sentiment behind his message. Can anyone elaborate?

    • Carolyn_Nth 1.1
      22 December 2017 at 12:06 pm

      It’s in the video clip linked from the tweet in the post

      Basically, English is saying the free tertiary education policy (for 1st year of stydu) will gift families like his $6000.00 after taking away $1000 in the Nats’ proposed tax cuts. And also it will attract staff away from McDonalds, rather than help to promote NZ busineses.

      So, which is it, Mr Bling? Wealthy people getting extra money/subsides, which maybe will help them become successful business people (and maybe could pay a living wage), or taking (underpaid) staff from McDonalds……?

      edit: the article under the vid has a response from McDonalds:

      A spokesperson for McDonald’s New Zealand said “We don’t expect to see much impact as a result of the Government’s free fees policy.”

      They said McDonald’s have a number of staff members working part-time while studying, as the company offers flexible hours that can fit around school and university classes.

      “Our training is also NZQA accredited, so many of our staff are working towards a diploma in hospitality while they work.”

      So event hey don’t support Bling’s claims.

      • Pete 1.1.1
        22 December 2017 at 3:41 pm

        The opportunist who wanted to make as much as possible out of his housing situation (paid back $30,000+ ?) is worried that some kids will be opportunistic in exploiting something worth $6,000.

        The man is worried about the bad things kids will learn from this. The man who lied and lied about the Clutha/Barclay scandal?

        What did the young learn from that Bill?

        Get off your moral high horse Bill. Your horse was a miniature and as far as high goes, it’s actually dead and buried.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.2
      22 December 2017 at 12:19 pm

      I wouldn’t be surprised if those were his words. He’s an economist that belongs to the National Party and the National Party works to keep wages down.

      He will see young people going off to get an education as reducing the number of people available to work at McDs and other, similar low wage places and thus likely to push wages up in those places. If wages go up in low wages places then it’s likely that wages will go up across the board.

      Remember that John Key would have loved to see wages drop.

      • Tracey 1.2.1
        22 December 2017 at 5:08 pm

        Graduate in Commerce. Masters in English Literature I think.

        • Thinkerr 1.2.1.1
          22 December 2017 at 10:20 pm

          So why did Blinglish choose uni over the Golden Arches, if the latter is the better?

          He could have been a Shift Manager by now, or at least a Trainer instead of a uni graduate.

          Anyway, if Blinglish ate at McDonalds more often, like the bottom 50% or so, he’d know that they are starting to offset staff with self-service machines. Ditto KFC in Auckland, and supermarkets of course.

          What was National’s plan to deal with this trend?

        • D'Esterre 1.2.1.2
          24 December 2017 at 12:26 am

          Tracey: “Masters in English Literature I think.”
          BAHons in Eng Lit from Victoria. First class honours. It’s a graduate degree, a step below Masters at Vic.
          By a country mile the more pointful of his degrees, in my opinion. I believe he did Economics at Otago after his Vic degrees.

    • ropata 1.3
      22 December 2017 at 12:39 pm

      Yes it makes perfect sense for a privileged wanker to insult minimum waged workers, he assumes that young Kiwis are all slackers and all the skilled ones fuck off overseas for the OE and London job. He’s living in a world that no longer exists (never did, really).

      Go back to Planet Key or wherever you sprouted from Billy boy.

  2. Incognito 2
    22 December 2017 at 12:21 pm

    As if working at Maccas and doing a study or training are diametrically opposed.

    The Bill English/National recipe for a successful and productive life is:

    1. Attend a Decile-10 school that ranks highly in NS league tables, don’t do a paper round because you’ll be taxed, buy a house in-zone and take on much debt;

    2. Study a STEM subject at uni, don’t work at Maccas* because you’ll take away jobs mundane activities from those were naturally born to work at Maccas or from immigrants, take on student debt;

    3. Get a haircut and a real job at multinational company that is likely to pay too little tax in NZ;

    4. Get married, buy a house and continue a life-time of too much debt;

    5. Have children and raise them to follow your footsteps, organise at least one imprinting excursion with your children to Maccas to teach them what happens if they don’t follow your footsteps;

    6. Vote National.

    *This is a metaphor and not to be taken literally AKA dog-whistling.

  3. Barfly 3
    22 December 2017 at 12:27 pm

    If my local pizza hut and wendys are any guide New Zealanders would already be a minority in those employed there

    • ropata 3.1
      22 December 2017 at 12:34 pm

      Agreed, in Auckland at least 95% of the hospo jobs are occupied by immigrants or foreign students. Employers loved the Nat policy of cheap labour from overseas to keep wages down.

  4. Cinny 4
    22 December 2017 at 12:48 pm

    Heaven forbid we had an educated society, that would cost national even more votes, no bloody wonder they are against any kind of free tertiary education.

    And the best bill can come up with is McD’s could lose staff as a result.. LMFAO !!!!!!!!

    • greg 4.1
      23 December 2017 at 7:06 am

      for bill one word comes to mind twat

    • Descendant Of Sssmith 4.2
      23 December 2017 at 9:40 pm

      You’re forgetting the context behind this.

      Jobs at McDonalds was a strategic response by National to cutting tertiary training. Bill should be upset at one of their cornerstone policies being put at risk!

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2532990/Govt-strikes-deal-with-McDonalds

      “Under the deal with McDonald’s, Work and Income would help with the recruitment and training of 7000 staff in service roles and “positions which provide a career path”, Work and Income deputy chief executive Patricia Reade said.

      “We’re very pleased that we will be able to offer unemployed people over the next five years opportunities in the food and hospitality trade,” she said.

      McDonald’s intends to open 30 new restaurants over the next five years.

      Labour employment spokeswoman Ruth Dyson said that while jobs at McDonald’s were better than being on the dole, the plan was “not the best example” of the Government’s commitment to “upskilling the economy”.

      The deal followed the Government’s decision to cut a tertiary education training allowance for beneficiaries, she said.”

  5. Reality 5
    22 December 2017 at 1:29 pm

    There is a new very excellent and insightful Spinoff article on the new government and PM, which is well worth reading.

    • patricia bremner 5.1
      22 December 2017 at 2:30 pm

      Thank you Reality. What a shame this forum is losing Simon Wilson. Indeed a very insightful article on the things Jacinda has and continues to face. She is honest!!

      Does anyone know where Simon Wilson is going next?

      • OnceWasTim 5.1.1
        22 December 2017 at 5:16 pm

        Ummm, faux inhale, errr, ummm, considered look, Burma Road perhaps?

        Sorry patricia b., he does do some good work from time to time, but if ever there was the definition of a Chardonnay Socialist, there it goes.
        It’s good that the likes of David Russell and Rinny Ryan acted as his enablers so that we can appreciate his insights – it’s just a shame he ain’t a little more honest and humble.
        But …. Gorgeous Darling! and we can’t afford to lose him – because you know, some of those other people really are such philistines.

        Pardon the cynicism, and hopefully he’ll be getting his own horse to ride into town

    • Mark 5.2
      22 December 2017 at 2:50 pm

      I read it; sycophantic fawning to the point of being post-coital rubbish. Believe me, Cindy won’t last she’s a naïve socialist leading a bunch of trade union trailer-trash who will bugger the economy and only last one term. Words cannot express my contempt for winnie the pooh, who lied to the public when he said he chose labour in the best interests of NZ. Bullshit, it was petty personal payback for the supposed leaking of his benefit “oversight”.

  6. SPC 6
    22 December 2017 at 1:50 pm

    Ambitious for New Zealand, remember that promise back in 2008 to close the wage gap with Oz, something that National no longer talks about.

    By 2020 the choice will be $20 an hour in a McJob or two years free study (and able to get a higher rate allowance or living costs loan). The future looks brighter than it was in the past under National.

    • srylands 6.1
      22 December 2017 at 9:01 pm

      There will not be many Mc jobs at $20 per hour. FFS. I have family members in this target group. The chances of them getting $20 “per hour are exactly zero. They might get $10.

      • Draco T Bastard 6.1.1
        22 December 2017 at 9:08 pm

        That just means that those jobs aren’t worth it. Are, as a matter of fact, uneconomical.

        You’ve just proved, again, that you have NFI what economics is about.

      • SPC 6.1.2
        22 December 2017 at 9:30 pm

        If they can pay that to Oz workers in McJobs they can do the same here.

        • srylands 6.1.2.1
          22 December 2017 at 9:32 pm

          Get fucked. Idiot. It is a more productive country.

          • ropata 6.1.2.1.1
            22 December 2017 at 9:41 pm

            Wages in Aussie are better than here because they have stronger unions and didn’t elect dipshits like John Key who would love to see wages drop.

            Key promised NZ would narrow the gap with Australia, but productivity in real terms (per capita GDP per hour worked) has gone backwards.

            • srylands 6.1.2.1.1.1
              22 December 2017 at 9:45 pm

              Five years from now New Zealand supermarkets will have three employees.

              A manager.

              A big Tongan to head off the thieves.

              A tech guy to fix the automated checkouts.

          • SPC 6.1.2.1.2
            22 December 2017 at 9:43 pm

            I doubt there is any difference between the productivity of a worker in an Oz McJob and one here.

            • srylands 6.1.2.1.2.1
              22 December 2017 at 9:49 pm

              You are mistaken then. Mcdonalds in Australia is aggressively employing auto ordering systems because the higher minimum wage makes that a sensible decision.

              • SPC …
                22 December 2017 at 10:01 pm

                So they are not more productive in Oz after all …

              • greg …
                23 December 2017 at 4:45 pm

                thats exactly why workers have to be unskilled and why you nacts had to go 9 years of doing nothing is something we can no longer afford

              • Descendant Of Sssmith …
                23 December 2017 at 9:57 pm

                Robots will come anyway unless legislated against.

                Your posturing over minimum wage is a red herring.

                Low wages such as in Thailand won’t prevent the growth so why would they anywhere else?

                “The Thai cabinet on November 22, 2016 approved the recommendations of the Central Wage Committee to increase the daily minimum wage rates by an additional five to 10 Thai Baht (THB) for 69 provinces with effect from January 1, 2017.

                This will be the first adjustment in the country’s minimum wage rates since January 1, 2013. Currently, the minimum wage is THB 300 (US$8.39) per day across the country. The current minimum wage rate will be maintained in the eight provinces of Sing Buri, Chumphon, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Trang, Ranong, Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala.”

                https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/article/2016/08/growth-of-the-robotics-industry-in-thailand/8669/

          • patricia bremner 6.1.2.1.3
            23 December 2017 at 9:37 pm

            Actually Australia’s wealth almost all came out of the ground. Now China has stopped buying, they have had a credit downgrade. Wash your mouth out.

      • McFlock 6.1.3
        22 December 2017 at 10:51 pm

        You have family members who you consider lucky to work for less than the minimum wage? Will you report these exploitative employers to the govt labour inspectors? Your family members would be due quite a bit of back pay.

      • greg 6.1.4
        23 December 2017 at 8:04 am

        macs are on the list to be automated so its vital workers are up skilled bonzo bill and key in 9 years stuffed the future and in a place far from the bright future they promised

      • One Anonymous Bloke 6.1.5
        23 December 2017 at 8:09 am

        Are you still peddling the flaccid old myth that minimum wage rises cost jobs, S Rylands? If NZ followed Seattle’s example the minimum wage would be going up to ~$25.

        You lot tried this same flaccid lie on Cullen in the early 2000s, eh. So he had to school you.

        Wise up.

  7. Philg 7
    22 December 2017 at 3:29 pm

    I thought NZ was bringing in migrants to work at Maccas. Lol.

  8. Tracey 8
    22 December 2017 at 5:04 pm

    Hmmm. So English rails against the end of life Bill cos life is sacred but presided over years of turning sections of our society into subsistence survivors. Why wont people start calling him on his appalling hypocrisy.

    • greg 8.1
      23 December 2017 at 8:13 am

      +100 tracey

    • ropata 8.2
      23 December 2017 at 9:23 am

      National made life unbearable for thousands of Kiwi families and wrecked the social safety net, driving a lot of people to acts of desperation and suicide.

      Hard to believe they really think life is sacred.

    • SPC 8.3
      23 December 2017 at 11:20 am

      There was a post on kiwiblog, where someone claimed that if re-elected National was going to do another charter schools, that is bring in a new ACT policy – term limit welfare. This would fit in with the social investment direction where government support was replaced with that of outside “social” providers (subsidiarity) – in the USA this is faith based. It enables intensive management (nanny’ing) of the underclass. Though there, there is a more covert companion programme involving “community” policing of those without faith group association.

  9. Tanz 9
    22 December 2017 at 6:54 pm

    And exactly when is the new govt cutting our mass immigration back? That has been backtracked on already, along with many other promises, especially the NZ First ones.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 9.1
      22 December 2017 at 6:58 pm

      You voted National: they wanted to keep up mass immigration.

      Do you think about the stuff they give to eat before passing it out here?

    • ropata 9.2
      22 December 2017 at 8:47 pm

      did you get that “fact” from “LetsUndoThis”?

    • Brian Tregaskin 9.3
      22 December 2017 at 8:47 pm

      Tanz remember this “a king that is kind to his people will rule forever”
      Nationals King was not kind to over 50% of of his people thats why their reign is over.
      Bills comments today reinforces that:)
      Its going to take a generational change for any chance of National getting back into power at all from now on.
      Right now the mountain may be too high to climb for the National Party to reinvent itself.

      • Tanz 9.3.1
        23 December 2017 at 10:42 pm

        As NZ First will not be a factor come the next election, and possibly even the Greens (both polling dangerously low), it will be a FPP type two horse race election, and as this new govt is performing so badly so far, National could well get a single party majority. Right now National lead in the polls, the govt is having no true honeymoon (as they were selected, not elected). National won the last election (Winston then saved Labour), and they will win the next one too, but without Winston there to stuff it up for them. Labour believes there will be no backlash to this MMP govt. however, the polls show that there already is. Kiwis prefer their govts to be freely elected, rather than foisted upon them/chosen by one low ranking party.

        • Incognito 9.3.1.1
          23 December 2017 at 11:01 pm

          You have proven beyond reasonable doubt Brian’s point that “[R]ight now the mountain may be too high to climb for the National Party to reinvent itself.”

          • fender 9.3.1.1.1
            23 December 2017 at 11:09 pm

            Tanz won’t hear that, she’s well and truly wedged at the bottom of a very deep crevasse.

            • Incognito 9.3.1.1.1.1
              23 December 2017 at 11:21 pm

              As they say, it’s darkest before dawn. Most people who face an existential crisis recover and change their ways or they will repeat it (or go insane). However, people can live (in) an illusion all their life.

              • fender …
                23 December 2017 at 11:33 pm

                Sadly I don’t believe Tanz will ever see the light. She’s essentially saying the same thing ad nauseam.

                • Incognito …
                  24 December 2017 at 12:07 am

                  Indeed, we’re not in control of as much as we think we control; we only control the tip of the iceberg (bad metaphor), the stuff we can truly see. Most of what influences our thinking & behaviour (and emotions) happens under the surface, out of sight and out of control of (our) intellect. Thus we have individual and collective neuroses and when the two coincide they enforce each other.

  10. Stuart Munro 10
    23 December 2017 at 3:18 pm

    “This is the worst trait of minds rendered arrogant by prosperity, they hate those whom they have injured. ” Seneca

    • Philg 10.1
      23 December 2017 at 6:34 pm

      Or as Hillary would call them – ” The deplorables”. That’s us. Thanks Stuart for the quote.

      • Stuart Munro 10.1.1
        23 December 2017 at 7:22 pm

        I was referring to Bill English in fact – who New Zealand workers have good cause to resent bitterly. One cannot buy a house or raise a family on the negative real wage growth this false economist and his fellow travelers achieved.

        Hillary, for all her faults, was not chiefly to blame for the impoverishment of the US working class – if we were to select single culprits (which is a fatal oversimplification) Greenspan or the Kochs would loom large I imagine. The deplorables, according to Hillary, were the unevolved Trump supporters who embraced racism and outright lies in the only partially forgivable hope that anyone – anyone! – would make their lives better. One would have to be unbalanced to imagine that a ne’er-do-well like Trump had any capacity for governance – and so his tax bill proves.

        While their desperation and frustration with top down progressive concepts like identity politics has some parallels in NZ, we are in fact a very different polity. I’m not in the market for a faux populist myself, for all that fashionable bully pulpits like intersectional feminism leave me cold. An unevolved chump like Jami-Lee Ross could not secure my vote even if he miraculously acquired Solonian principles of good governance. He’s just not up to scratch.

        So perhaps deplorable is not the right label. I think that mugwumps was once used for independent thinkers who would not readily buy ill-conceived party lines, certainly in my case Trump lies at the polar opposite of the political values I respect.

  11. eco maori 11
    23 December 2017 at 9:09 pm

    I will try and abstain from radicaling bill english I have my reason that I will keep to my self. I new I should not have brought attention to the comical way he was being present as the prime minister I new if someone highlighted this they would charge that but I could not help myself everyone was laughing Ana to kai

  12. patricia bremner 12
    23 December 2017 at 9:46 pm

    The abusive anger expressed here by some is telling. They are losing the argument so they start yelling abuse. They do not talk to the issue, but attack the person.

  13. Descendant Of Sssmith 13
    23 December 2017 at 9:50 pm

    Nice to see Labour getting rid of the horrible approaches national had of putting homeless in motels instead of state houses

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Florida_Project

    and paying for them to leave town

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/20/bussed-out-america-moves-homeless-people-country-study.

    Labour still suck for not increasing benefit rates. Make them the same as NZS (as they used to be) and stop discriminating on the grounds of age.