Written By:
Bunji - Date published:
12:34 pm, July 5th, 2012 - 28 comments
Categories: dpf, Media, national -
Tags:
The angle of this DomPost article (“Police pay may be next on political hit list”) is very interesting.
Instead of just running with David Farrar’s latest lines (“Unionist Scum Police paid too much!“), they are seeing through a ploy National have been using with great effect since before the 2005 election.
I don’t know if the furore over the illegal leaking of private details of Ports of Auckland union members at National’s other attack poodle blog finally triggered journos to be a bit less credulous, or the teapot tapes or just a boredom with National.
So instead we have a journo going: David Farrar obsessed with police pay? He’s been obsessed with working people’s earning’s before, but usually anything he’s trailing means the government is looking at doing something / trialing an attack line…
The media’s failing to take the line, and even the lack of supportive comments on kiwiblog will no doubt tell them they don’t have a strong hand on screwing the police down. Now I guess we have to wait and see whether they back off, or just try to do it out of the limelight…
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I must say i wish papers wld lose the hydes, mccartens, farrars masquerading as news worthy. Its giving them a soapbox
Same goes for the Bradfords, Minto’s, Harawera’s, Kelly’s, Bradbury’s, David Shearer…….. (whoops, this one has already happened)
If you go back to KiwiBog and never come back, you’ll have your dream come true.
Don’t read Kiwiblog, when I tried there never seemed to be any interesting topics.
Even if I did, I would still have listen to Bradford, Minto, Harawera, Kelly and Bradbury talking garbage in MSM.
I prefer to come here to see if people actually believe some of the bullshit they spin, turns out they do, even when it against public opinion! Would be a lot of referendums going on if Labour was in power by the looks of things (raising alcohol prices, CGT, ETS etc).
yeah, well spotted Bunji.
When Farrar’s post came up yesterday, you just knew it was the start of another ‘greedy, overpaid workers’ attack by the party of the elite against people just trying to get a little pay rise.
Nice to see the media seeing and reporting the National Party tactic for once, not just repeating the line.
The media have had a couple of carpet burns from Farrar and Whale (e.g. POA and Meatworkers Union financial structures) so who knows.
Correct me if I am wrong any unionists with good memories out there, but there are not many if any instances of Police Association members publicly standing with other NZ unionists on anything of consequence. They are more adept at undermining other workers struggles. The coppers did a fine old job at Waihi in 1912 and the “Cullen line” repeated recently by Operation 8. Astley tanneries in New Lynn in the ECA 90s was a good workout for the batons too and many pickets since up to the defence of the GI housing removals where Mana’s John Minto was assaulted in a most cowardly manner. So good job if the razor gang now come for them too.
If they redeem themselves in the future and become more like state servants then so be it, but not in my lifetime I expect.
ACT and National usually exempt the coppers and the military from direct cuts seeing such state forces as vital to protecting property ‘rights’ for the 1%ers, but not in the UK recently so maybe they are going to have a nibble here too.
Maybe for the police, but they tend to run down the military. The Anzac frigates were ordered by the fourth Labour government. National and NZF did not go ahead and order the third and fourth frigates that were planned. Admittedly this was in the environment of the “peace dividend” after the end of the Cold War. National did order some F-16s for the air force, which Labour put the kibosh on when it returned to government (eliminating the combat wing entirely), but they’re not so great at protecting property from a marauding mob.Labour also ordered the LAV IIIs, carried out Project Protector to patrol our EEZ and ordered the NH-90 helicopters for the RNZAF. But John Key has had some photo ops with the SAS, so I guess it all evens out in the end.
I was playing squash against a bunch of Air Force guys last year – and they were saying about how Labour gives them all their pay rises, but they still vote National…
Yes, Bunji, just as many oppose asset sales but still vote National!
Weird, but on balance, not really surprising..
Yep, National has always run down the military except for exotic but useless toys and kissing imperial arse (the f16s). Even if we had got the f16s you can be sure that they would hardly have flown under National.
Red Alerts got this post up about the present military cuts. Saw something else that had a good breakdown of the BS that National are peddling in regards to the cuts that they’re forcing on the military but can’t remember where.
This Gordon Campbell piece might be what you were thinking of, DTB.
“On National’s neglect of the armed forces”:
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2011/07/01/gordon-campbell-national%e2%80%99s-neglect-of-the-armed-forces/
Yes, but I used the term “direct cuts” ie so many GI Joes sent packing forthwith. Which is different from deferred spending and equipment upgrades, delayed pay rises, attrition and ‘sinking lids’.
They ran down the police in the 90s by simply not increasing it with the population growth and their great crime producing economy of Ruth Richardson.
I noticed it in our apartment block. By 1999 it was literally impossible to get the police to turn up to burglaries because they didn’t have the staff. Around 2002 the staff increases and direction shifts meant that they started trying to catch thieves…
It surprises me that the police seem to be in National’s hit list.
The majority of their policies seem geared towards increasing the crime rate.
Perhaps privately run police are on the cards?
yeah and in 1999 it was Labour who gave soldiers a wage increase after nine years of National government neglect.This was also a time when they couldn’t get people to join the army so their was a demand for people national just wouldn’t increase the wages.
And now, having seen Watkins’ column, Farrar is denying that his original post linked to above was a tester – http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/07/more_on_police_pay.html
Good God, I never thought my post yesterday would be seen as anything to do with the Government and the Police pay negotiations. It is all rather innocent. I blogged a couple of weeks ago on how the Police have a binding arbitration mechanism in their salary negotiations – a panel of three choose between the Commissioner’s offer and the union’s offer, if they can’t agree by themselves. This means that any stand off can be resolved.
Innocent????? Don’t think so.
mehmehmeh Batman, this is just an innocent umbrella putting forth innocent purple smoke, nothing to see here…
Farrar said that?
Unbelievable…!
I notice the poice-pay issue died down very quickly.
Am I cynical to believe that a senior officer contacted one J. Key & reminded him that if he felt they were overpaid they could just arrest one J. Banks to prove they were doing their jobs properly?
Now that is cynical… It does have this ring of unsightly plausibility about it.
Diversion time. Drug testing perhaps.
[i] The numbers are interesting, but for one I think they are appropriate. Police officers have to put up with a lot of crap. Note the figures are base salary only. [/i]
from his piece yesterday….
The police on the very high salaries are NOT putting up with crap. Thats for fairly junior staff.
And this is after a 3 month training course !
If you check the US many starting police salaries are around the $30k level.
Army starting pay is around 20k, and they are more likely to killed off than police if in a war zone
Ghost force that will be our police force if we don’t keep up with Australia.
The army get fed and accommodated as well.They also get working for families .
But they never get any funding increases under the right wing.
So no pay rises for the defence force in five years so our defence force are leaving in droves.
“I don’t know if the furore over the illegal leaking of private details of Ports of Auckland union members at National’s other attack poodle blog finally triggered journos to be a bit less credulous, or the teapot tapes or just a boredom with National.”
I think that is PRECISELY why the media and the public are now wary of right wing blogs. Only a fool would deny that those two blogs are anything but pawns in some fairly nasty games being played out by employers and National.
Further still, after private detals of a POAL port worker were soplashed all over one particularly slimy right-wing blog – I doubt if most people/organisations want to be associated by what Biomber Bradbury refers to as “attack blogs”.
The POAL dispute was so incredibly destructive that the role played by right wing blogs left a nasty taste in peoples’ mouths.
To be on the fair side of things, let’s have a look at the incomes of both Farrar and Slater? It would be fun to see how much they are paid; by whom; and for what…
Wasn’t one of them on the sickness benefit.
You just have to have a listen to Farrar speaking to know how lightweight he really is. He tries to deliver what he says in a way that sounds like he knows what he’s talking about but the fact is he just doesn’t. Like Slater, if you really listen to what he says closely you begin to realise he’s actually really thick.