Good coverage for Labour’s conference

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 am, November 7th, 2016 - 21 comments
Categories: Andrew Little, jobs, labour - Tags: , ,

Vernon Small on Stuff:

Labour puts storms behind it as Little navigates into calmer waters
…
This year, though, Little deserves some of the credit for the preternatural sense of order and relative serenity.

James Shaw described him as “unflappable” during the Green co-leader’s symbolic cameo. Little’s deputy Annette King went for “no frills”, though what to make of her revelation Little knows all the words to Bob Marley’s Redemption Song? (“Old pirates, yes, they rob I”, is the first line in case you need reminding.)

Neither that, nor the triumphant music that normally attends a leader’s entry for a keynote speech, was on offer on Sunday. Instead it was a short Labour “values” video that hammered out the theme ‘”time to change the Government”, a standing ovation and Little was on deck. His policy gambit was a plan to pay long term unemployed young people the minimum wage for six months to do community and conservation work.

It drove home the conference’s emphasis on Labour’s core message; jobs; which included the release of the substantial investigation into the Future of Work. …

I’m glad that Small recognises and draws attention to the “substantial investigation”, the report is here, website here.

Claire Trevett in The Herald:

Labour’s $60m plan for 6 months’ paid work for youth on dole

Labour leader Andrew Little says a proposal to give unemployed young people six months of full-time community work at the minimum wage will not be compulsory but there will be an expectation they take part – and possible sanctions if they don’t.

Little released the policy at the party’s annual conference in Auckland, where the focus is on jobs.

Expected to cost $60 million a year, it will provide unemployed people under the age of 24 with “jobs” in the community and environment, such as pest control work or riparian planting with the Department of Conservation, local councils or charities such as City Missions and food banks.

Dubbed “Ready for Work” it will be for those who have been on the dole for at least six months – but will pay the minimum wage of $15.25 an hour rather than the dole.
…
Little said 74,000 young people were not in work or training and there were now more than 10,000 unemployed people aged under 24 than a decade ago and Labour believed all young New Zealanders should be in work or training.

And again:

Andrew Little revs up party faithful: ‘It’s neck and neck’

Labour leader Andrew Little has used his speech at the party’s annual conference to rev up the party faithful, saying the next election would be “a straight fight and I’m up for it”.

Delivering his second speech as leader to the Labour Party annual conference, Little said the last two years under his leadership been about getting Labour ready to win.

“The results of the local elections show we can campaign to win. The polls show it’s a neck and neck race between the centre-left and centre-right blocs. “This is a straight fight and I’m up for it, we’re up for it.”

The centre-piece of Little’s speech was policy of a jobs scheme to put unemployed people aged under 24 into jobs in the community on the minimum wage.
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He said National was in denial about the housing crisis. … He also pledged to end homelessness, saying people were living in cars.

“How the hell does that happen in a country like ours? When did we decide that was the kind of place we wanted to be.?”

Little also paid a tribute to former Council of Trade Unions’ head Helen Kelly, who died from cancer three weeks ago.

Toby Manhire at The Spinoff:

Andrew Little rolls out the rug for a Labour tilt at power in 2017

The Labour Party conference concluded with a fire-in-belly speech from Andrew Little.
…
The centrepiece policy announcement was “Ready for Work”, a programme to provide temporary employment for young people not in education, training or employment; and while parts of it seemed kind of woolly – the costings, the degree of compulsion, the vague models of similar success that Little cited – in the scheme of things it’s not a huge policy plank: ticking the right symbolic boxes without attempting to any almighty game-changing status.

I thought it was a solid speech. There were no wild rhetorical flourishes, but Little recognises that’s not his metier – just as John Key recognises it isn’t his – and registered a respectable fire-in-belly score, without lapsing into anything that might excite the National Party’s “Angry Andrew” monitoring corps. The declamation that “polls show it’s a neck and neck race between the centre-left and centre-right blocs” is debatable, but it’s not an outrageous thing to say, and the floor wanted to hear it. “You look like a party ready to win an election,” Little told them. I don’t know about that, but they were at least paying attention.
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On the Sunday evening television news… One, or TVNZ 1 or whatever it’s called, and TV3 or Newshub, or whatever it’s called … On 1, the thrust of the story was the policy, and questions over whether or not the costings were overly optimistic, with Steven Joyce, who was reliably tweeting his rebuttal to the policy even before it had emerged from Little’s mouth, shaking his head in disappointed delight.

Over on 3, the coverage was comparatively effusive, especially the sign-off: “With Andrew Little, it seems Labour has finally found a leader who can rally the troops to take on Brand Key.” …

Andrea Vance on 1 News Now:

Labour proposing to offer unemployed young Kiwis paid volunteer work for six months

The $60 million a year scheme would give community and Department of Conservation jobs to those claiming Job Seekers allowance. They would get minimum wage and gain work experience and new skills.

Leader Andrew Little said: “Think of the talent we are wasting. Young people with 40 years of their working lives still ahead of them, but who aren’t getting any skills, who aren’t getting any experience.”

“Think of the thousands of young people with no prospects, with no hope, who feel like everyone’s given up on them. Well I’m telling you this: we are not going to give up”…

Dan Satherley and Lloyd Burr on Newshub:

Labour promises jobs for the unemployed Updated

Young and struggling to find a job? Labour’s promising to give you one.

Under Labour’s Ready for Work proposal, announced today at the party’s annual conference in Auckland, anyone under 24 who’s been on the Jobseeker’s Allowance for six months will be offered a job by the Government.

“We will give these young Kiwis the kick-start they need to get back on the right track,” said leader Andrew Little. “This job experience will help them develop strong work ethics and make them more attractive to employers. We will get them ready for work.
…
Yesterday Labour also said it was considering a levy on businesses that don’t train and upskill their employees.

That last point is the one that some of the usual shills have run with of course, and naturally business isn’t keen, but other than that, some pretty decent coverage for Labour, for Little, and for a successful conference.

21 comments on “Good coverage for Labour’s conference ”

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  1. Ad 1
    7 November 2016 at 7:57 am

    Good stuff thanks Rob.

  2. Garibaldi 2
    7 November 2016 at 8:13 am

    Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship is going down is futile. There is no sign yet of anything game changing from Little.
    At this stage I see no change from what happened last election occurring. Remember the countryside being blue, the huge money backing National in all the media, the very successful Crosby-Textor ridiculing of the Left, the outright bias of the media themselves….. the whole narrative was National, National, National.
    The Left is going to have to show total unity ( something I doubt Labour is capable of because of their arrogance) and have several game changing policies to present coherently and plainly to Mr/Mrs Bloggs.
    Consequently I rate this latest talk fest a failure. Sending (and supervising ) groups of youths out to dig weeds is not a winner !

    • Sigh 2.1
      7 November 2016 at 8:32 am

      I doubt anything would make you happy.

      – Build 100,000 affordable homes for first home buyers
      – Ban offshore speculators and tax domestic speculators.
      – Build thousands more state houses and decorporatise Housing NZ
      – Three years’ free post-school education
      – Dole for apprenticeships
      – A job and a mentor for all long-term unemployed aged under 24.
      – Restore our health system
      – A just transition for workers is industries affected by climate change and technological change

      What cracks me up is you say we need total unity, then you engage in the same Trotteresque doom and gloom anti-Labour crap that’s been dragging us down for years. Watch Little’s speech, read up on the policy that’s been announced already, and then get back to us.

      • Garibaldi 2.1.1
        7 November 2016 at 9:24 am

        Sigh. You just don’t get it do you. Strikes me you’re another Neolib that thinks trying a softer touch to free markets will make everything honky dory. It won’t, and it won’t win you any election against John Key. It’s getting past boring pointing out the elephant in the room to you.

      • Leftie 2.1.2
        7 November 2016 at 8:50 pm

        +1 Sigh

  3. fisiani 3
    7 November 2016 at 9:03 am

    I love the optimism of the Left. Given the so called spectacular success of the conference how much of a lift in the polls do you think Labour will get at the next poll? Let’s ignore the RM poll. Surely Labour will get at least 35%.
    A make work scheme that costs not $60M but more like $150M to compete with existing businesses or to do work that no one else thinks worthwhile enough.
    If the next poll shows 25% support keep up the optimism. At least that would be more than the Greens or NZF.

    • Richard Rawshark 3.1
      7 November 2016 at 9:21 am

      Slow as the days old Fisi.. like 2 hours behind getting your acusation, thrown back right at you.

      specially your arithmetic.., please repeat often your adding up of labours policy.. it’s wrong oh so wrong fisi, tell us all how you worked it out.

      and to all our regular readers, here’s a grand example of why the fantasy that the right portray of being the better fiscally is , well so FUBAR, it’s a country wide joke.

      Now that we recognize your massive superiority in arithmetic Fisi do you have any idea, where that 120 billion dollars and the asset sales money went?

  4. Richard Rawshark 4
    7 November 2016 at 9:28 am

    We got a good report from Clare yesterday and a fair one again today. I am hoping MSM are going to play this one straight and let us the people decide.

    Some mumblings about costing but I worked it out and seemed there was ample if not some spare to spot on.. so if they cannot work the policy figures out and make accusations, I know your about to spring the see, they have no fiscal ability.

    Trevett’s comments on unity within the party and it’s members is amazing and so greatful to her for relating that.

    Good initial policies and I suppose we are ready for the obvious tax bribe to come, looking forward to a fair and honest election. Thanks Labour.

    • Garibaldi 4.1
      7 November 2016 at 11:24 am

      Richard, the ‘ markets ‘ I was referring to is the free market dogma that Labour is still tied to, as brought in back in ’84.
      Referring to your last comment I would suggest there is no way we will ever have a fair and honest election after how the Right behaved with Dirty Politics, which, by the way, are still alive and kicking.

      • Richard Rawshark 4.1.1
        7 November 2016 at 11:34 am

        G, I see no mention of free market dogma in the sense you describe, and thanks I was lost when you mentioned markets.

        Yes it’s a concern for me that, Nothing against free markets if they are

        A not done so the party in power has a gloat, and waves it as an election tool.
        B It properly studied, and the effects of the agreement including jobs, loss of, industry effects etc are properly weighed up.

        When we get multilateral FTA’s that’s ..not going to happen. They should be individual not packaged.

        I suppose what I am saying is trade between nations is essential, how we negotiate between nations is a clusterfuck of conflicting interest, from political to poor analysis.

        At present the current labour caucus have said little about FTA’s except the TPPA and they don’t support it..good news.

  5. save nz 5
    7 November 2016 at 10:00 am

    The policy of getting the unemployed into voluntary work was good, but I’m not sure that this is a good one to pick to try and win an election and gather up voters. If anything the long term unemployed probably don’t vote, and those who are employed feel neglected by Labour policy.

    What about having something for young people/redundant people to start their own business on the dole for example and just pay them the dole but they can get help to start a business. They did this about 20 years ago and it was successful. You had a mentor who gave tax and business advice – this could appeal to a lot more people and more hope of someone developing business skills than getting a waged job under the current system. Rather than giving people a grant to upskill their education, it’s more useful in a lot of industries (art, music, IT, film) to actually just be able to start the business.

    Personally think Labour should stay off the homeless as a main policy. Otherwise Labour look like they are mostly concerned with unemployed homeless people which although valid is not really a strong voting block.

    I think Labour should concentrate on families the most to take National votes. In particular women and the next generation, children. There are many families, grandparents and young people wanting children. This is a block of voters that are neglected. National hates children, their policy is anti child friendly.

    Also think it is important not to alienate the 67% homeowners – by concentrating on the homeless, while ignoring immigration or not linking the connection is looking out of touch.

    I don’t think Labour need to explain better the link and quickly i.e. why you would charge for employees to have migrant workers – i.e. there is plenty of scams out there with employeers being paid to give someone residency for example or wages are being kept down.

    Labour need to try not to make everything sound like a tax, while wanting to throw money at disadvantaged groups. They still can’t find the sweet spot between that and Nat Lite. There is middle ground (just not a third way).

  6. The Chairman 6
    7 November 2016 at 10:01 am

    After speaking to a number of people that viewed One News, the consensus was Labour looked incompetent.

    Albeit people thought their intentions were well placed. However, their proposal (the centre-piece of Little’s speech) was deemed weak and insufficient.

    With the election getting closer coupled with the amount of work and hoopla put into the Future of Work, people were expecting far more.

  7. Enough is Enough 7
    7 November 2016 at 10:54 am

    I agree there has been good coverage.

    We can now stop blaming the media and get on with delivering our message and winning in 10 months time

  8. save nz 8
    7 November 2016 at 10:55 am

    On a positive note, just had a look at http://www.labour.org.nz/
    and the website is looking really good. Has a good vibe.

    My only thought is that it might be more appealing to have a wider mix of gender and ethnicity there not just asian youth and middle aged white politicians on the first page.

    There is also a lot of really nice pics of Andrew but need to see some of the other MP’s there too.

    And maybe some pic of NZ having a good time fishing, walking or what have you…. Is it just me or don’t we want to spend all our lives working…. most people want to spend less time working and more time on their families and hobbies… if we earn more and NZ was more prosperous and more fairly distributed, maybe we could have a better quality of life…

  9. save nz 9
    7 November 2016 at 1:55 pm

    In terms of press, “The delusion of Aucklanders” in North and South magazine, by Graham Adams points out that the John Key linking Auckland with other high wealth cities in the world is just crazy, because apart from the huge property prices dumping an extra million people here as some master plan is not working at all and has the figures to prove it. Surprisingly he does not blame Little for all the problems unlike the Auckland press…

  10. Wainwright 10
    7 November 2016 at 6:15 pm

    Hardly the kind of thunderbolt we need going into an election year. Exactly the kind of scheme the Gnats would roll out with a side order of bootcamps. Where’s the democratic socialist government in waiting we need?

  11. fisiani 11
    7 November 2016 at 7:48 pm

    If the Labour conference was such a success one would assume that the Labour candidate in Mt Roskill, aided by the Green cowardice will romp home in the by-election. Given that no Government has ever won an Oposition seat in any by-election in NZ history has much will the winning margin be?
    Goff’s was a massive 8,091 and the green candidate 1682 . So simple arithmetic Labour +Greens + conference boost should be over 10,000 majority. Anything less is surely a failure given how unpopular the government apparently is.

    • Leftie 11.1
      7 November 2016 at 9:00 pm

      Preparing to suck some sour grapes Fisiani? So…. you are already putting up the prepared excuses along with a prepared dig at what a failure it will be for Labour to win the Roskill by election, in advance now?