Maori Party proposes immigrant slave labour!

Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, July 20th, 2017 - 36 comments
Categories: im/migration, maori party, workers' rights - Tags: , , , ,

There’s a certain kind of employer that just loves migrant workers – Kiwifruit worker exploitation only the tip of the iceberg, and see 2016 – Uncovered: Exploitation of migrant workers rife in NZ.

They’ll probably be pretty pleased at this gem from the Maori Party – Maori Party sets out scheme to send immigrants to regions

The Community Internship Scheme would see migrants work for two years as builders, doctors, beekeepers, plumbers or in other skilled work, depending on their qualifications or the needs of regions. The regions targeted would be identified as “Economic Hotspots” – areas experiencing an economic, population or income decline.

The internship would be unpaid, but the migrant would receive Government help getting the licensing and training necessary to work in New Zealand. The local community would provide accommodation and meals. It would also contribute to the current visa points system for residency.

Party Proposes Slave Labour for Immigrants!!

That’s how it would be reported if it was a Labour Party policy.

In any case it seems like a daft policy. On top of Flavell’s admission that he doesn’t have a clue the Maori Party is looking a bit like a light blue train wreck at the moment.

https://twitter.com/five15design/status/887140472833032192

36 comments on “Maori Party proposes immigrant slave labour! ”

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  1. Draco T Bastard 1
    20 July 2017 at 12:46 pm

    Jeezus H Bloody Christ.

    It seems that National is the natural coalition partner for the mP.

    • DS 1.1
      20 July 2017 at 9:30 pm

      Well, yes.

      The Maori Party are the brown wing of the National Party, and need to be treated as such.

  2. weka 2
    20 July 2017 at 12:49 pm

    I don’t get it. Migrants would have to have enough savings to live off (other than meals and accommodation)? Why wouldn’t they just start taking cash jobs locally? Or are they expected to work full time for board?

    Getting sick of parties releasing policy only via the media and not putting them on their website or social media (looking at you too Labour). Fuck ’em then if they get burned by spin.

    • Sigh 2.1
      20 July 2017 at 1:04 pm

      What are you talking about? Labour’s policies are all on their website.

      • weka 2.1.1
        20 July 2017 at 1:29 pm

        They don’t put their policies on their website when they release them. There’s often a delay, sometimes for days. I’ve given up going there on the day policies are released.

        What that means is that we are forced to go off what the MSM are saying about the policy. This Mp policy is a classic example. It’s beyond stupid, it’s anti-democratic and it’s utterly unnecessary.

        • Jenny Kirk 2.1.1.1
          20 July 2017 at 9:01 pm

          You’re getting a bit mixed up Weka – Labour is putting their policies on both website and facebook and twitter – maybe not quick enough for you, but they’re going up within a reasonable time span.
          But then relating what the MSM is saying about the Maori Party policy to how soon Labour puts up its policies on social media is a bit strange.

          • weka 2.1.1.1.1
            20 July 2017 at 9:08 pm

            I’m not mixed up Jenny. I said that Labour and any party that don’t put their policies online when they release them are a problem. It means that we *have to rely on MSM interpretations. By the time Labour get them available to the public many have moved on. The political news cycle atm is a few days at most, and shrinking.

            “But then relating what the MSM is saying about the Maori Party policy to how soon Labour puts up its policies on social media is a bit strange.”

            Not really. The Mp policy doesn’t make sense. I want to read the policy to see if I can understand what they are doing. I can’t find it on their website. This reminds me of Labour. It’s a problem for this election and democracy. Not hard to understand.

  3. Bill 3
    20 July 2017 at 1:18 pm

    I’m all for skill sharing and what have you. But seriously!?

    If these are ideas from people seeking to be representatives, all I can say is that I hope they aren’t actually what the ideas are, and the media has done a death spiral spin on whatever the actual idea is.

    Otherwise….yeah, we know it’s a democratic circus. But please, spare us such obvious clowns.

    • WILD KATIPO 3.1
      20 July 2017 at 6:45 pm

      Oh please, give them a break,… as Mr Flavell said , ” he doesn’t have a clue how homelessness got so bad ”…

      And that’s what you get for supporting a govt with ulterior motives that keeps everyone in the dark and fed on bullshit like mushrooms , – including the Maori party.

      I think it really is a case of associative illness if such a thing exists.

      You start spouting bullshit and sprouting mushrooms.

  4. red-blooded 4
    20 July 2017 at 1:55 pm

    Jeez – what an appalling policy! It’s almost Trumpian in its simplistic, one-dimensional thinking and casual disregard for the humanity of immigrants. I really hope (but don’t necessarily expect) that this will be splashed all over the media. What have their friends the Nats got to say about it? Toxic stuff…

  5. tc 5
    20 July 2017 at 2:05 pm

    Maori need to wake up and boot these throughers out as they serve elite iwi not everday common folk.

    Marama fox would show up in national, where she belongs and carry on being Parara v2.0

    • cardassian 5.1
      20 July 2017 at 6:24 pm

      I think most of us Maori have, considering we are 14.6% of the population and The Maori Party are polling at 1.5%.

      That means they have roughly 10% support from Maori.

      Interestingly I know iwi elite that don’t trust them either.

  6. Siobhan 6
    20 July 2017 at 2:13 pm

    There’s a certain kind of employer that just loves migrant workers?…well, there’s a certain type of politician who like migrant workers, and sees it as a great model for other industries.

    Take Labours Anna Lorck in the Hawkes Bay….
    “The rest of New Zealand could learn a lot from the success of Labour’s world-class Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme in Hawke’s Bay.

    The great results we are achieving in the region through growing more long-term better paying jobs for locals, underpinned by the RSEs, should be heralded as a shining example for other industries to follow………This is how we can form the basis of delivering better and practical steps towards fixing the increasing mismatch in migration across other industries, so that more New Zealanders have a chance of getting a job.”

    As a very minor player in the Party, this might just be Anna trying some positive spin, but it would be interesting to see if this love of the RSE is seen by Labour as being ‘The Answer’ to creating, apparently(Ha!), jobs and better wages for NZ workers.

    • Jenny Kirk 6.1
      20 July 2017 at 9:06 pm

      Not sure why you’re attacking this Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme, Siobhan but perhaps you don’t realise those RSEs have to have good workers conditions, look after their workers and house them properly and pay their workers current market rates.

      • Stuart Munro 6.1.1
        20 July 2017 at 9:22 pm

        Might be because ‘current market rates’ may be contract based, so that they can serve to cement depressed wages in place, which in an economy with surging cost of living (chiefly housing & electricity) should not be possible. If this is the case, as it is in some industries, Labour’s involvement is at odds with it’s traditional raison d’etre, of protecting the interests of working people.

      • Philj 6.1.2
        21 July 2017 at 7:25 am

        Jenny, Not to mention rip off costs deducted from RSE workers, by the employers. Oh, and transporting then to the orchard costs. The employers are unreasonably profiting directly from these RSE workers. Clever and exploitative.

  7. Brigid 7
    20 July 2017 at 2:17 pm

    It just shows how much Marama Fox understands the situation in the provinces.

    There’s no work in the provinces, not a shortage of skilled people. They have all left BECAUSE there’s no work

    Idiot. She’s a complete idiot.

    “The local community would provide meals and accommodation”
    Would they? How exactly?
    How nice of her to offer that on their behalf.

    • s y d 7.1
      20 July 2017 at 2:34 pm

      maybe they just want a doctor in patea?

    • weka 7.2
      20 July 2017 at 3:48 pm


      “The local community would provide meals and accommodation”
      Would they? How exactly?
      How nice of her to offer that on their behalf.

      I’m going to guess they talked to Māori about this and found that in those communities where were people willing to help in this way. Funny that.

    • Draco T Bastard 7.3
      20 July 2017 at 4:09 pm

      There’s no work in the provinces, not a shortage of skilled people. They have all left BECAUSE there’s no work

      Yep. If we want to develop the areas outside of the cities then we need to develop their industry, i.e, we have to turn them into cities.

  8. McFlock 8
    20 July 2017 at 4:13 pm

    The bit I liked was that doctors will apparently be training up their replacements in the two years they work for free:

    […] migrants work for two years as builders, doctors, […]

    cf:

    “They will go to a region, live there with a family, and work for two years,” he said. “In those two years they will transfer their skills to local people, and then when they leave, those people they’ve trained will carry on that job.”

    • Gabby 8.1
      20 July 2017 at 4:56 pm

      Will those people they’ve trained carry on that job for free as well?

      • savenz 8.1.1
        20 July 2017 at 5:01 pm

        Maybe they should try that on politicians first. They can go to Wellington, live and work there for 2 years and transfer their skills to the next candidate…

  9. savenz 9
    20 July 2017 at 4:48 pm

    Surely The Maori Party would want to offer free board, meals and free training to iwi first? Plenty of homeless and close to it, around.

    So locals, have to pay back WINZ loans to dodgy hotels when homeless, go to various food banks for meals and will have to take out a student loan to get training….

    However so many plans for migrants to come here while locals who need help are denied help or have to pay for every step they take.

    What’s wrong with this picture?????

  10. McFlock 10
    20 July 2017 at 5:11 pm

    And what about the doctors, builders and plumbers already working in the area? How are the MP going to balance those skilled workers with tight overheads and their new will-work-for-food competitor?

    There are shortages of skilled professionals and tradies in the economically-depressed regions because there aren’t enough customers to give them reasonable amounts of work. In some areas the migrant interns will drive existing workers out of the area.

    In NZ we train hundreds of doctors a year. Many of them go overseas in order to pay off their large student debt with the higher incomes that are offered overseas. We need those few doctors who become GPs to stay in the regions – cutting their business will just increase their incentive to leave. Same goes for builders.

  11. Foreign waka 11
    20 July 2017 at 5:52 pm

    OK, I haven’t laughed as much for a long time! A Medical doctor to settle in the province, training staff and hoping that the population will provide shelter and food? Really? Was this not the model of missionaries settling on the African Continent except they got some money from the Church?
    I mean really? It is not April 1 is it?

  12. Gabby 12
    20 July 2017 at 9:27 pm

    It’s embarrassing. They’re basically begging for foreign aid.

  13. Keepcalmcarryon 13
    20 July 2017 at 9:42 pm

    This is genius. Send immigrants to areas in economic decline to do for free what others were being payed for! It’s win/win, we get more migrants in the country to burden infrastructure and instead of driving wages lower slowly they can do locals straight out of a job!
    The stupidity of this policy is truly breathtaking.
    You would not believe the percentage of immigrant labour on dairy farms in rural nz already and it is increasing.

  14. Philj 14
    21 July 2017 at 7:30 am

    The Maori party need to offer some policies that will benefit us all. Duh. Will the MP cease to be relevant come September?

    • Korero Pono 14.1
      23 July 2017 at 6:26 am

      I hope so, I hope they sink into oblivion for their betrayal of Maori and for supporting the current government’s agenda.

  15. bruce Leckie 15
    22 July 2017 at 4:23 pm

    Let us not forget that the Maori party wanted exemption from NZ law prohibiting slave labour wages and conditions for fishing vessels working for IWI owned enterprises but not others. Then again I am getting older with a withering affection for the Labour party.
    There are aspects of the policies of Don Brash that I like, five years ago he advocated legalisation of cannabis and an end to the race based divide that Maori exploit at every opportunity. Currently there are four political parties calling for at least the de-criminalisation of cannabis who present an alternative to the archaic attitude of the likes of Helen Clark who was fond of acquiescence to the American war on drugs and the likewise United Nations single convention which in the face reality has now been dis-avowed.
    But hey Helen was good at building prisons and of course hiring out the SAS to the Americans to garner support for her ambitions with the United Nations while taking in Australian rejects from the Tampa to be seen as humanitarian.
    The Labour party and the electorate in general were duped by Helen Clark for her own broader ambitions/

    • Korero Pono 15.1
      23 July 2017 at 6:37 am

      I’d be curious to know how Maori use this “race based divide” to ‘exploit’ anything. And how Maori are any better off as a result of this exploitation?

      I know it may be shameful for you to admit but I assume you’re a Hobson’s Pledge supporter?