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Nats refuse to face their record on youth

Written By: - Date published: 6:46 am, August 17th, 2011 - 46 comments

Having decided to beat up on a few thousand of the most hard done by young people in the country, National is now refusing to acknowledge the problem of disconnected youth that has ballooned under their watch. There are enough young people who aren’t in education, training, or work to fill Eden Park, and Key is literally running from the issue.

Key fiddles while our youth burns

Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, August 14th, 2011 - 329 comments

Like the UK, we have a crisis in youth poverty. We don’t have riots, yet, because we lack the population density. There’s no jobs. Increasingly, no hope. Key’s solution? Tinkering. A bureaucratic, easily beatable system where young people on benefits get food stamps and basic costs paid directly. Where are the jobs, Key? Or have you given up?

End slavery in NZ, create 2,500 Kiwi jobs

Written By: - Date published: 2:53 pm, August 7th, 2011 - 25 comments

Next week, a report will reveal the abuse of 2,500 foreign workers used as virtual slaves on ships employed by kiwi fishing quota holders in our waters. By rights, we should have a world renowned fishing fleet. Instead, we let our potential go to waste and employ foreign slaveowners and human traffickers to do the work instead.

Graph of the day: 1 in 20 jobs gone in Chch

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, August 3rd, 2011 - 44 comments

120 jobs per weekday lost but nothing to worry about. The market will right itself.

Breeding for a business?

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, August 1st, 2011 - 76 comments

A typical shock horror headline on Stuff in the weekend – “Pre-teens dream of kids and dole”.  So what’s going on here, and is it an argument for “welfare reform”?

Flavell fails on suicide

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, July 28th, 2011 - 45 comments

Last week, Jim Anderton said that the tidal wave of youth unemployment we’re experiencing will lead to more suicides. He’s right. The best response from the Right: slash young people’s wages and that might create a few more jobs. But Te Ururoa Flavell’s suggestion to ostracise and condemn the dead is just as bad.

Goff launches procurement policy

Written By: - Date published: 7:08 am, July 21st, 2011 - 48 comments

While Key is monkeying around in LA achieving nothing, Labour is pushing ahead with policies that will take this country forward. Last night, Phil Goff announced the party’s procurement policy at a meeting of Kiwirail Hillside workers, who have just experienced the results of government contracting that ignores wider economic impacts on the country.

Job cuts at CYF

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, July 20th, 2011 - 51 comments

Guest poster David Clark at Red Alert has broken news on job cuts at Child Youth and Family.  Front line staff will go – yet another broken promise from National.

Protests in the North and South

Written By: - Date published: 6:57 am, July 10th, 2011 - 6 comments

Yesterday, hundreds of parents protested cuts to early childhood education on Queen St and gave Phil Goff a 60,000 signature petition to take to Wellington. 1000 people in the Octagon called on the government to consider Kiwi jobs when awarding contracts. What is wrong with the priorities of this government that puts tax cuts ahead of kids and job?

Salt in the wound

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, June 30th, 2011 - 81 comments

Two years ago, this government sparked the biggest protests in a generation when it tried to open up the most precious parts of our conservation estate to mining. The policy got canned but the agenda has continued below the surface. Now, 100 DoC staff have been sacked while the MED unit for oil drilling and mining will nearly double its staff.

Sexist dinosaur Nats

Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, June 27th, 2011 - 59 comments

Employers and Manufacturers Association head Alasdair Thompson’s sexist outbursts have drawn near universal condemnation, and are likely to cost him his job.  But while we’re about the business of punishing sexist dinosaurs, we should set our sights a little higher than Thompson.

The Magic Market

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, June 20th, 2011 - 64 comments

Low-paid, crappy job? It’s obviously your fault, according to the Right. You mustn’t have enough qualifications, or the correct ones. The good jobs are out there, they’re just hiding. Or, if they’re not, you can weave one from thin air. But, even if this free market magic were real, what’s the end point? The crap jobs still need to be filled.

Drip, drip, drip of job losses

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, June 18th, 2011 - 239 comments

We are hearing no end of job loss stories in the news and the government has no plan for New Zealand jobs. Their best idea is to cut the wages of the young, rather than to create jobs of real value. We need workers paid a Living Wage so all Kiwis can have fulfilling lives.

Jobs destroyed by indifferent Nats

Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, June 10th, 2011 - 36 comments

Joyce was told that building the new train cars at the Kiwirail workshop in Dunedin would bring half a billion into the economy. Joyce insisted Kiwirail go with the ‘cheapest’ option. China. Now, another 40 jobs have been axed. Not to mention other economic losses. Joyce is unrepentant. Blind to the cost of ‘cheap’. Aussie’s do it smarter than Joyce.

NZ deserves better than budget lies

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, June 10th, 2011 - 80 comments

The Budget is unravelling at a startling rate of knots. Bill English is floundering to explain his dodgy asset sales numbers that count the benefits but not the costs. Now, a senior minister has admitted that John Key’s claim that “there are 170,000 new jobs being created as a result of this Budget” is a lie. We actually really do deserve better than this.

Chart o’ the day: fire at will

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, June 9th, 2011 - 40 comments

Fire at will was meant to help young people into work, wasn’t it?

Simplest way to get 100K off the benefit

Written By: - Date published: 6:35 am, May 31st, 2011 - 87 comments

Elect a Labour-led government. Create 100K jobs.

Key’s dodgy scheming

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 25th, 2011 - 22 comments

*Key says that we will get to vote on his Kiwisaver cuts in the election. Truth is, they passed the law last week and the tax credits are cut from July 1. *What’s up with the dodgy Kiwibank numbers? Plans for sale? *The govt is importing World Cup workers while 270K are jobless. *Key’s jokes falling flat with pissed off voters.

CTU research on minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, May 25th, 2011 - 24 comments

The response to two recent posts here at The Standard have shown what a contentious topic the minimum wage is.  So it’s timely that yesterday saw the release of the CTU’s summary of research on Minimum Wage and Jobs.

Choosing to be poor

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, May 24th, 2011 - 24 comments

Prominent  scientist Sir Paul Callaghan thinks Kiwis are choosing to be poor.  I reckon he’s right too, but we probably disagree about the reasons.

Key clueless on Chch rebuild

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, May 23rd, 2011 - 11 comments

John Key thinks he can smile and wave his way through the worst natural disaster this country has faced. He acts like all he has to do is cheer-lead and the city will rebuild itself. It’s a stunning dereliction of duty. The contrast with the vision and leadership the Left is showing is marked.

The lazy unemployed

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, May 23rd, 2011 - 22 comments

John Key reckons the unemployed need “a kick in the pants”.  Paula Bennett reckons the Nats’ harsh reforms mean that “the dream is over” for beneficiaries.  Meanwhile, back in the real world…

Canterbury rebuild

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, May 13th, 2011 - 24 comments

MrSmith argues that the government’s announcement of $42 million over four years for trades training for the Canterbury rebuild is mis-directed. He says it takes too long to train a tradesperson and the money would be better spent getting building workers back from Aussie, or keeping the ones that are still leaving.

This brighter future

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, May 9th, 2011 - 6 comments

Easy passports for the rich

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 pm, May 7th, 2011 - 26 comments

The National Government has relaxed the rules for so-called business migrants, those who can get easy access to a passport by investing in New Zealand. The Minister is proud that the scheme has now raised $562 million. He says it is part of the government’s economic growth programme.

Youth jobs scheme

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 5th, 2011 - 14 comments

It’s not often that the Nats do anything praiseworthy, so I like to take note when they get it right.  Their new youth jobs scheme, even though it only partially reverses their previous cuts, is at least a step in the right direction.

Choices: Tax cuts or teachers

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, May 2nd, 2011 - 65 comments

You’re the ruling government.  Which do you choose, tax cuts for 47 millionaires or salaries for 121 new teachers?  It’s not a hypothetical question…

Evidence-based policy

Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, April 11th, 2011 - 64 comments

From the Dunedin Study, to The Spirit Level, to the IPCC – there is a lot of evidence out there that our government should be basing their policy on. Let’s champion that aim.

No plan, no worries?

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, April 5th, 2011 - 9 comments

A unemployment disaster is slowly unfolding in Christchurch. For now, the tide of job losses is being partially held back by wage subsidies supporting nearly 70,000 workers, but those will be phased out by June. Then, all hell will break loose. The Government has no plan for this and, according to Key, hasn’t even bothered to understand the scope of the crisis.

Key’s kiss of death for Chch workers

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, March 29th, 2011 - 60 comments

The $6.8 million package for businesses offered last week by the government was an insult: business mentors and export junkets – just what people who aren’t allowed to access their businesses need. Now, Key and Bennett have announced they are slashing wage support and and the job loss payment. It will hammer the Christchurch economy.

30% of Chch workers jobless by quake

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, March 24th, 2011 - 14 comments

62,000 Christchurch workers are now receiving special earthquake payments. Most of these workers’ businesses have been closed by the earthquake and plan to re-open at some point by 6,300 jobs are gone for good That’s about 30% of Christchurch workers out of action and 3% without the hope that their workplace will re-open.