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Reserve army of labour

Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, September 1st, 2010 - 34 comments

Bill English came pretty close to admitting that the Nats are “relaxed” about our current high unemployment. Phil Goff came out swinging…

A relentless focus on jobs

Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, August 31st, 2010 - 13 comments

The government is canning it’s already too-small and ill-directed Community Max programme. $40 million was a pathetic amount that created, at best, just 3,000 temporary jobs when quarter of a million Kiwis are jobless. And, due to lazy policy-making all the Key government probably ended up doing was subsidising jobs that would have been created anyway.

Job queues longer

Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 17 comments

Contrary to the sunny prognostications of Nice Mr Key, job queues are getting longer. How much more great economic management from John and Bill can the country stand?

Jobless, Homeless, Clueless

Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, August 17th, 2010 - 25 comments

In the last seven days a triple-conjunction of political portents has publicly demonstrated just how bankrupt of imagination and policy this current government truly is. The lack of direction and paucity of creative ideas is breath-taking. A “caretaker-government” would be a polite euphemism in this context.

Unions launch name and shame

Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, August 13th, 2010 - 144 comments

John Key challenged the unions to “put up or shut up”. So they’re going to put up. The CTU has launched a campaign to name and shame businesses that are abusing the fire at will (90 day probation) bill. It’s a campaign based around personal stories. Heather Smith tells the first of many…

Empty promises on employment law

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, July 22nd, 2010 - 29 comments

National’s promises aren’t worth the paper that they’re printed on. They’ve broken plenty and downgraded most of the rest to “aspirational goals”. Now John Key’s current anti-worker employment policies add a whole new chapter to the list of broken election promises.

The ETS is a price signal

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, June 25th, 2010 - 44 comments

The point of an ETS isn’t to just blindly pay more, it is to change our behaviour so that we don’t have to. National don’t get it, so they have brought us the worst of all possible ETS schemes. Badly designed and devoid of vision. An ETS with all of the costs and none of the benefits.

Goff speech on Labour’s vision

Written By: - Date published: 1:47 pm, May 12th, 2010 - 72 comments

Phil Goff has delivered his speech on Labour’s economic vision ahead of the Budget. It’s a good one, filled with core Labour values and ideas that will get New Zealand moving ahead. Goff talks about fairer tax rather than tax cuts for the rich, better monetary policy, and investing in New Zealand’s future.

What’s the Govt’s economic vision?

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, May 10th, 2010 - 6 comments

To build a brighter future for New Zealand we need to invest in it. We need to build up our national savings, invest in R&D, and build a sustainable, more self-sufficient economy. National has cut savings and R&D investment, and talked down New Zealand’s potential for hi-tech manufacture. Seems they’re only interested in short term pay offs for the rich.

Tide turns, a long way to go

Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, May 6th, 2010 - 28 comments

The unexpectedly large fall in unemployment is to be celebrated. It’s great that unemployment has fallen so much but 6% is an appallingly high rate of unemployment. It is not natural or normal – it only became normal under National in the 1990s and in the last year of the current government. We still have a long way to go to the sub-4% unemployment we so recently enjoyed.

Aussies build trains “for a living” – that’s why their standard is better than ours

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 pm, May 4th, 2010 - 33 comments

Steven Joyce has virtually ruled out Kiwirail building its new trains here in New Zealand. The Aussies have a completely different view about government purchasing, as I learnt from my years on the Industrial Supplies Office management committee in the 1990’s. They believe in Australian jobs for Australian money.

From bad to worse for workers

Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, May 4th, 2010 - 11 comments

While John’s off playing soldiers, things are getting worse and worse for Kiwi workers. Wages are falling for the first time in a decade. The average hourly wage was $25.80 when National came to power. Now, it’s $25.30. I had hoped unemployment would start falling about now but the signs are discouraging. Only unionised workers able to protect themselves from the storm.

So much for ‘ambitious for New Zealand’

Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, May 3rd, 2010 - 161 comments

A new report says that building the half a billion worth of new rail rolling stock for Auckland in New Zealand would boost GDP by $250 million, improve our current account deficit by over $100 million, add $70 million to government revenue, and create 1200 skilled jobs. But the Government just want the cheapest price for the rail cars, and that means going overseas.

Paula Bennett prematurely opens the champagne, again

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, April 20th, 2010 - 8 comments

Paula Bennett is celebrating the fact that job ads are on the rise. The bad news is the numbers indicate like we are still, a year after the official end of the recession, not at the point where the economy is creating enough jobs to keep unemployment in check, let alone bring it down. Time to put away to bubbly, Paula, and get to work getting Kiwis back into jobs.

Nats: economically illiterate

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, April 15th, 2010 - 22 comments

How economically illiterate do the Nats have to be to send the government’s research vessel Tangaroa to Singapore for a $20 million refit when VT Fitzroy at Devonport was ready and willing to do the work here? Sure the bid was a bit lower but did they consider the tax the government would gain, the fewer unemployed and the other benefits from keeping the work here in New Zealand?

Kiwis report future less bright under National

Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 58 comments

In 2008, John Key was promising us a brighter future. 18 months on, we’re in that future he was talking about and Kiwis are reporting their lives are worse than they were before he came to power. 83% of Kiwis surveyed by ShapeNZ rated their quality of life as ‘good’ or better, down from 89% in 2008 and 92% in 2007. Key has a responsibility to live up to his promises

Does mining meet Key’s tests?

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, March 30th, 2010 - 22 comments

John Key have given three tests that mining on protected land would have to meet to satisfy him that it ought to be permitted- creates jobs and benefits the local economy, economically viable, and environmentally sensitive. Mining on Schedule 4 land fails to meet Key’s own tests but that’s not going to be enough to stop National. Only determined pubic opposition will stop them.

The numbers on mining don’t stack up

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, March 24th, 2010 - 38 comments

There’s a hell of a lot of mis-information and confusing numbers about the economic potential of mining around, and that suits Gerry Brownlee and National because it lets them exaggerate the case for opening up the National Parks. Remember, more mining is the government’s one big plan for the economy but they can’t even give a ballpark figure on how much they expect the country to gain.

Have your say on unfair dismissal laws

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, March 2nd, 2010 - 9 comments

Kate Wilkinson (Minister of Labour) has opened public submissions on a review on personal grievances, with the release of a discussion paper today. Details are here on the Dept of Labour website and submissions close on 31 March.

Aussie pay gap widening, Key does nothing

Written By: - Date published: 12:32 am, March 2nd, 2010 - 28 comments

The total pay packet fell for Kiwi workers last year and it will get worse in coming years. Aussie wages continue to rise, their unemployment is falling. If Key is serious about catching Australia he needs a full employment policy. Instead, he will keep doing nothing.

Re:Cycle (re-run)

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, February 27th, 2010 - 18 comments

We received this guest post about half an hour after John Key announced his cycleway. At the time, the very sensible criticisms it raises were ignored by an enamoured media.

How prescient it looks now, on the anniversary of the Prime Minister’s Jobs Summit.

Copying Iceland & Ireland bad idea for NZ

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, February 16th, 2010 - 53 comments

You know how the world has been through the worst financial crisis in decades? You know how countries like Ireland and Iceland who had made themselves into financial hubs via tax breaks for banks are now deep in the crap with burgeoning debt and unemployment? Why don’t we do what they did?

No help for the invisible

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, February 12th, 2010 - 5 comments

Relating to what I wrote yesterday about the Right and much of the media being largely blind to the existence of those of us on low and middle incomes, here’s an interesting piece from the New York Times: The folks in the upper-income group are not suffering much, if at all, from the profound reversals […]

No plan to get Kiwis into work

Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, February 10th, 2010 - 64 comments

Number of jobless Kiwis = 276,000 Number of jobs plans from Key Government = 0 Key can make all the vague references to faster growth and better economic performance that he likes but while the potential and skill of over a quarter of a million Kiwis is being wasted it will never happen. Getting people […]

Welcome to the 1990s

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, February 4th, 2010 - 28 comments

Unemployment is now 7.3%. The highest since the 90s. What, you don’t remember that decade? Well, you’re in a for a treat. Govt says population rise behind high unemployment Social Development Minister Paula Bennett pointed to an increase of 14,500 people in the working age population. “There are simply more people joining the workforce, which […]

Jam tomorrow

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, July 1st, 2009 - 24 comments

I see John Key is promising new ideas to stop job-losses: We’ve got an economic strategy … and I intend over the next few weeks to spell out my thinking in that area It strikes me as another one of his vague PR-driven promises. Like the promise he made in March about the initiatives that […]