The wharfies go into their 6th strike in a vain attempt to get the company to negotiate over it’s plans to outsource their jobs.
The company on the other hand continues with its plans for redundancies for all union members.
The management have made it clear, that this stoppage, will not deter them from their decision to contract out all the union jobs and crush the union.
Already a lot of the work on the Ports is done by contractors and casuals, and the Ports of Auckland have said that they will be running a near to normal service.
If an employer can provide a near to normal service during a strike, then a strike has lost all it’s impact and the end is near.
The wharfies can’t even impede the the entry of their own colleagues who have decided to keep working from entering.
Already a delegate has been sacked just because on hearsay evidence it was reported that in the last strike he called to a worker entering the gates “a scab”.
For this he was sacked, and will not be allowed to return to his place of work.
This delegate is one of the long stayers and would have got a big redundancy.
Three delegates have been gotten for similar and even lesser offences.
The Auckland Maritime Union is slowly bleeding to death in front of our eyes.
The Ports of Auckland Management are well within their three month schedule of removing the union from the wharves.
Without the support of the the Labour Party dominated trade union movement the end is sad and inevitable.
In Australia in similar circumstances and against all odds the Patricks Dispute was won when the wharfies got mass support from the rest of the union movement and wider community against plans to contract out their jobs.
If that doesn’t happen here, it won’t be hard to determine who is to blame, and working people won’t forget.
The workers who have left the union and continue to work are not the real scabs, they rightly sense the union is playing with an empty hand, and just want to be on the winning side.
The real scabs are those on the left and in the union movement who are trying to isolate the wharfies by with holding their support and also urging others to withhold their support.
Possibly that’s because I have faith in the workers, their union and the righteous nature of their dispute, CV! I always find workers determined to set their own agenda and claim their own future extremely uplifting. Sectarian point scoring and unwarranted abuse from individuals with other loony left agendas less so.
So I’ll check in with you in 6 months, when I hope to be able to say to you TVoR that you were 100% right and I was 100% wrong to be a doubting Thomas.
Thats what I mean, when push comes to shove, the unions fold up like a paper bag, just like in 1991, when a general strike could have killed the ECA (from what I understand, the National government was prepeared to soften the bill significantly). Its no different here, now MUNZ has essentially been broken at POA, it is essentially open season on the workforce.
The only thing a general strike in 1991 would have killed would have been organised labour. The tide had turned, the Nat’s had the country in their grip and a futile display of petulance would have been a reason for the dry right in the Nat caucus to push for the de-recognition of all unions, except yellow company ones.
If it the general stike had been called, most workers would have ignored it and the unions would have been smashed. Industrial disputes (and political ones) are all about timing and strength. Get either aspect wrong and its yet another noble defeat.
Thanks for that, VOR, that is the clearest exposition I have ever read from a Labour Party union official on why the struggle against the ECA was strangled.
I don’t often talk about these shameful events, because I feel that the Labour Party has moved on, and is not as right wing as it was during this period.
However since you have raised the issue, and in regards to present issue at hand of contracting out union jobs.
I fear we are about to witness a repeat of history.
If contracting out union jobs can be achieved on the wharves against one of the strongest unions in the country, this tactic will be used against the rest of the union movement. As in 1991, if no concerted organised fight back is led, every unionist will be in the gun.
In 1991 in what was described at the time as the biggest protests in New Zealand’s history, tens of thousands of workers spontaneously protested against the Employment Contracts Act in every city and town in the country.
The two main chants and slogans of these massed workers was “General Strike” and “Kill the Bill” which was painted on hundreds of hand made signs and banners. In response the Labour Party dominated union hierarchy paid to have thousands of placards preprinted and professionally made up and distributed with the lesser slogan “Oppose The Bill”.
“Oppose The Bill” was a call to protest against, but not defeat the ECA. Understandably in the mood of the time this call to just “Oppose The Bill” was not very popular. Though some workers did carry them as historic photos can attest, many were often left stacked on the footpath, most workers preferring their home made signs and chants “Kill The Bill”. (Which also had a better ring to it than the Labour Party imposed slogan).
Because of the controversy raised by the new ‘official slogan’ of the campaign. A public debate was called in the Auckland Trades Hall chaired by the head of the benificiaries union President on the subject on why this lesser demand was being imposed onto the movement by the union hierarchy. Joe Tonner a leading Labour Party figure of the time and head of the Labour Party dominated PSA argued for the lesser demand to be adopted.
However, the lesser demand never became popular amongst workers who in their tens of thousands, kept calling for a general strike. The call for a general strike was bitterly opposed from the top table of union officials at stopwork meetings all around the country. In at least two cases during this tumultuous period, worker delegates that tried to raise a motion for general strike from the floor of the meetings were phyisically assaulted by Labour Party union officials. In the most infamous incident, At the final big protest march and mass meeting in Auckland, Peter Hughes a shop floor delegate for the PSA, representing meat inspectors, following chanted demands from the crowd to put the motion for a general strike was assaulted by the Labour Party Union officials who had ringed the stage to prevent the motion being put.
These open and many more behind the scenes methods were taken by the Labour Party to prevent workers taking militant industrial action to defend themselves from National Government and employer attacks.
I had hoped that those days were over.
I am dissapointed to discover that the Labour Party and Labour Party affiliated union leaders are still acting in the same way for the same motives.
VOR you may argue that if a union fight back had been allowed this, “would have been a reason for the dry right in the Nat caucus to push for the de-recognition of all unions, except yellow company ones.”
I would argue the opposite, that by not fighting back the employers and the Nats were emboldened to increase their attacks on working people and their unions. (Which subsequent events actually show.)
I will repeat again:
If contracting out union jobs can be achieved on the wharves against one of the strongest unions in the country, this tactic will be used against the rest of the union movement.
As in 1991, if no concerted organised fight back is led, every unionist will be in the gun.
Good times, Jenny, good times! You’ve fingered the wrong party entirely there, and promoted Joe Tonner to a position he never held. And this should really make you really happy; I was among those union delegates doing security that day and I’m proud to say it was me that prevented Hughes from getting on stage. No assault at all, unless him trying to push past me counts. We had been told that the CP intended rushing the stage and indeed that is what happened. Or at least, that was what was attempted, but, happily prevented.
A lucky thing too, because if the maddies had won the day, the NZ union movement would have been smashed within a matter of weeks.
Jenny is substantially correct on the fact that rank and file unionists across NZ were calling for direct action on a national scale. Years later Bill Birch admitted that he had been prepared to make concessions on the EC Bill. It was the abject failure of CTU leader KG Douglas and Joe Tonner, and the Engineers heads at the time to provide positive leadership that lead to a narrow vote at the CTU executive not to proceed with a national stoppage. The engineers and PSA leaderships indulged in ‘technical’ democracy at a higher forum that went against the wishes of substantial numbers of their union members as expressed on the streets and at meetings.
Organised labour has been paying for that capitulation ever since. Tri partism can only operate in the environment of a social democratic government, Douglas was deluded or the SIS best plant ever to think a hostile tory government would buy into partnership and ‘compacts’.
Re the Auckland meeting at Aotea Sq. It was Socialist Unity Party members and supporters who provided ‘security’ that day that prevented people at the meeting from putting motions. In retrospect Bill Andersen, chair, should have accepted Hughes motion whatever party he may have represented. Particularly given that Bill Andersen and his union the NDU supported a national stoppage.
Good summary, TM. The crux of the issue, as I remember it, wasn’t the depth of feeling held by rank and filers, it was whether we could take the wider workforce with us. Given that we had just seen a right wing Government rejected in favour of an even more right wing one, I remain convinced that it would have been a failure and it would have been a green light for Birch et al to finish us off. I certainly wouldn’t trust anything Birch said after the event, by the way, that sounds more like him twisting the knife.
NZ has long been a nation divided, with the post colonial rural sector and SMEs as far as the eye can see, so with the rough composition of NZ–40% dark tending to tory kiwis, 40% ok folks and 20% swingers. “Uniting all who can be united” was not the priority in 91 imo. It was the survival of the union movements credibility and organisational capacity.
The majority of unions today despite their claims are servicing organisations. I would except FIRST, MUNZ and the education unions, with pockets here and there such as the EPMU telcos and airline members (e.g. Zeal), though workplaces can change quickly. There has only ever been a small number of workers and unions that one could call class conscious, which is why the 99% movement has such potential. Class issues can be dealt with without people having to belong to a union or be otherwise classified.
Am currently reading “Unions Common Cause, a history of the NZ Federation of Labour” edited by Peter Franks and it is interesting the stats on union membership nos. are surprisingly similar to today. Of course during the FOL years the poplulation was smaller and membership compulsory so it does not directly equate.
Long answer to your contention, but we should have gone for broke in 91.
Given that we had just seen a right wing Government rejected in favour of an even more right wing one, I remain convinced that it would have been a failure, I remain convinced that it would have been a failure and it would have been a green light for Birch et al to finish us off.
The Voice of Reason
What a smelly and old, load of self justifying rubbish.
I have heard this argument before from Labour Party union officials. That the workers had voted for a right wing government.
The truth is not that clear cut.
In 1990 the hated Mike Moore Labour Government was so right wing that they had stolen all National’s policies, leaving National nothing to campaign on.
So National campaigned on policies to the left of Labour.
And it was those policies that people voted for.
The top two policies* that National campaigned on in the 1990 election were:
1) Stop state asset sales
2) Remove the Superannuation Surcharge imposed by Labour.
Of course being tories, on gaining office National immediately broke these left commitments to the electorate and carried on where Labour had left off.
One of the remaining legacies of the Nats breaking all their (left) election promises was the birth of the New Zealand First Party. National Stalwart had Winston Peters had stormed into power in Tauranga with a campaign based largely on the National Party Promise of removing The Super Surcharge.
Tauranga being an acknowledged mecca for retirees, the electorate was livid!
It was clear that any National MP would be dumped by the electorate for the Nats treachery as soon as possible.
Already being a two time loser, if Peters had of stuck with National he would have been just a footnote in history. Peters though being a died in the wool tory had no choice if we wanted to continue having a career in politics, but to form a new tory offshoot.
Despite Labour’s right wing trajectory, And National’s apparent more left one, “normally left voters” repulsed by Labour and rightfully as it turned out distrustful of the Nats, as you yourself admit VoR , “stayed away from the polls (as they have done in the last two elections)”
The electorate had been betrayed, people were angry and ready to fight.
Of course this was not the judgement of the top Labour Party union officials who dominated the Trade union movement at the time. Like the Labour Party itself, they were demoralised and confused. Union officials at the time had told me that they faced open revolt at stopwork meetings if they tried to urge workers to vote Labour.
In your words VoR, you say; “The crux of the issue, as I remember it, wasn’t the depth of feeling held by rank and filers, it was whether we could take the wider workforce with us.”
This demoralisation and confusion and anger with workers, for rejecting Labour, led in my opinion for these loyal to Labour union leaders to misjudge the mood and make the wrong call. Confusing workers rejection with Labour as a rejection of the left. In fact I think the grass roots were more astute at the time than the leadership. Unfortunately VoR, this is an example of where “tribal”sectarianism can let you down.
Please VoR don’t let this sectarian blind spot get in your way again. And do all you can to support the wharfies. That is, if you don’t want a repeat of history.
*(From memory, National also promised something to tertiary students to get their vote. As students had been viciously savaged by Labour with user pays for tertiary education. What was particularly irking to student activists of the time was the people who were attacking them at the time like Goff had all had the benefit of free tertiary education. Never being a student or having gone to university I can’t remember exactly what the Nats. promised the students. But I do know they broke that promise)
If you were in the group that prevented a general strike.
All the unionists were ready for a general strike until the ECA was abandoned.
Then the sellouts in the Labour party and the union leadership calmed things down for the Neo-Liberal takeover.
Why Labour is still MIA. Now reverting to NACT light.
Which means they will keep losing votes.
Why vote for Labour unless they offer clear choices and difference from National.
After some signs of returning to being a Labour party under Goff for two months it likes like we have returned to “business as usual”. With the same old guard.
Just wanted to thank the contributers discussing what actually went on during this crucial point in the history of the Labour movement. It’s something I’ve always been interested in, and as you point out Jenny, so goddam relevent to the juncture we now find ourselves at.
Looking forward to reading the whole thead at a later date. Dashing off just now.
Cheers, just saying. There is probably a book to be written about 91, but it would need to take into account that the union movement, like society in general, was reeling under the most fundamental changes since the thirties.
In particular, the shift to voluntary unionism a few years ealier had an effect that had not been anticipated, which was to demote unions to an option in the workplace, not a permanent presence. Most union leaders at the time were rightly worried about the financial impact, but didn’t see that a huge cultural change had taken place.
The unions in 91 had to make the call to either put everything on the line or retreat and rebuild. Admittedly, the rebuilding hasn’t really happened and there is no way to know whether a general strike would have succeeded, but I come back to the confusion, fear and loss of political direction that was shackling the labour movement at the time. Everything we knew and took for granted, was gone or going, and the election was astonishing not because normally left voters stayed away from the polls (as they have done in the last two elections), they also voted National in their droves. And reconfirmed their decision a couple of years later, too.
Some think that Ken Douglas rolled over on proposals for a General Strike in ’91, which consigned the workers movement to ever increasing irrelevancy thereafter.
I was there alright laddie, including the NZCTU special affiliates meeting in Wellington on the matter and the Auckland rally. Perhaps you are trying to express genuine views but your scrambled writing style makes it rather hard to discern.
to CV 11:13
“Some think that Ken Douglas rolled over on proposals for a General Strike in ’91, ”
Understatement of the morning CV, Douglas thundered against any national action.
AND we all remember calling for a vote, at various meetings, only to have it blocked by the so called leaders, despite an obvious majority on the floor.
You are right. We were let down by Douglas and others.
The moment the ECA could have been resisted was lost.
After that, the victory of the Neo-Liberal right, including Labour party members, and the demise of workers rights was inevitable.
OK a spikey exchange, does your sarcasm top my alleged patronising, heh, but understand where you are coming from now. Workers rights can and must be regained is the main thing. Unionised workers are those that have actually got pay rises under Shonkey’s administration apart from CEOs of course whereas the majority of precarious and non union employees got zilch.
Footnote: Bill Andersen had formed SPA (Socialist Party of Aotearoa) by ’91 after Ken Douglas defected to social democracy which he (Douglas) had signalled back in 1988 by supporting the Aussie frigate build. SUP members were involved though in blocking the CPNZ members at the Auckland meeting along with SPA and supporters.
Veteran ’51er Jock Barnes savaged Douglas in person at Jim Knox Auckland memorial service and rightly so on his capitulation, the point of retracing all this is obvious-don’t do it again CTU, call on all unionised workers and the wider community to support MUNZ.
In the week set aside to remember the founding document of our country’s creation isn’t it ironic that the Government may lose almost all of its majority because of its insistence on selling our assets overseas in breach of that document’s principles.
Big picture has a series on coal: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/01/coal.html
I’ve long been of the view that unless coal,oil and mining companies act responsibly with the same safety procedures we would expect, in other countries then we should not let them here at all.
Diamond mining should just be banned – I can see no good reason for needing more diamonds.
I use diamond tips tools. Many industrial cutting applications require diamond edges. Don’t know but suspect most diamonds are used for industrial purposes.
I would not favour a ban on diamond mining (or any other mining). A better thing would be to ensure that miners of all types are made to pay the true human and environmental costs of their activities. They will of course pass on the costs, which is fine as the consumer will then make more informed choices before they buy.
Had not thought of synthetic, I stand corrected. Just thinking ahead couple of questions:
* in an energy depleted world will it be possible or economic to produce synthetic diamonds?
* will there still be the level of demand for diamond edged tools we have today?
Who knows? It just illustrates the total uncertainty we now face, and our inability to get our heads around it.
I remember reading once that something like 10% of the worlds energy resources are used in diamond mining – the use of very big drills and rock crushers, something like 1 carat of diamonds is extracted from every 10 tonnes of rock.
The point with diamonds was partly that you can make them synthetically and partly that there are massive stockpiles of diamonds anyway.
So apart from artificial value due to stockpiling keeping the price high and vanity what purpose does mining diamonds actually have?
Heard Pita Sharples give a rousing speech at some rally last night on te reo or maori tv. It seems he still thinks that maori have a special place apart from the rest. As has been seen throughout history this sort of mindset usually leads to trouble.
Damn. They did some maintenance on the server box last night after sending this middday yesterday.
The following upcoming scheduled event affects one or more of your
services with us. Please read below for more information.
Outage Time: 0000 – 0600 hours
Outage Date: Wednesday 1st February 2012
Expected Duration: 3 hours
Possible Duration: 6 hour
Impact: All services on 120.138.23.x IPv4 address space.
As part of a number of upgrades to the service we offer you we are migrating some hardware into a new cabinet. Chirpy engineers will be onsite and will power off and move servers one logical network at a time to minimize downtime, but there is the possibility of extended downtime.
Following this maintenance window, we recommend you test your servers
Yeah. It has problems damnit. Trying to talk to them now as it doesn’t seem to be anything wrong as far as I can see
John Banks says Catherine Odgers is perfectly suited to implementing charter schools because she was once on a Board of Trustees and is a successful business woman. Lucky children.
I am really entertained by the way John Banks speaks, a stream of overused cliches and phrases that are intended to come across as assertive and in control, yet in reality express very little. His desperation to support and be supported by John Key was really quite pathetic and now his party has been given the responsibility of introducing Charter Schools (probably a surprise to him as it was definitely not high on ACT’s agenda during their campaign) he is yapping around excitedly like a Jack Russell on speed.
Anne Tolley was bad enough when forced to answer questions about her National Standards (she once responded to a question about the meaning of one particular standard by saying she didn’t have to understand them, just implement them), but imagine Banks explaining his way through the professional merits of Charter Schools. Things could become very entertaining.
Charter Schools failed big time in the “land of the free”….(you know, the place where the total incarcerated exceeds that of the Gulag at the height of Stalins terror).
Now we have some ACT goons whose prescribed medicine has failed abysmally (since it’s introduction 30 years prior) insisting that the patient might recover if we give the same prescription to him harder and harder. I have to ask why?
Two possible answers.:
1. Ideologues and RWNJs acting more akin to Trotskyites and Born Agains in expressing faith in their apocalyptic creeds.
2. Money, money, money….NACT types who think they might turn a bob or two on this (and fekk the rest of us…just pay pay pay).
Bored, the real reason for introducing Charter Schools is to break teacher collective agreements and diminish the power of the Union. NZEI is now the largest and more effective unions in the country (50,000 members) and National has long had the goal of cutting our power. http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/government-attacks-new-zealands-highest.html
All the supposed benefits of autonomous school management that was the selling point for Charter Schools overseas already exist in Tomorrows Schools and the only real differences are being able to employ teachers on individual contracts and set their own employment terms and not having to link learning to our National Curriculum or National Standards (bizarre). Obviously National haven’t learned their lessons from Pike River and still feel self regulation and commercial interests will provide safety and good results.
We’re doomed!
Thanks for the precise answer Dave, its not very pretty is it. Which in effect means both my reasons were correct, ideological theological idiocy aimed at Unions, and money from breaking Unions…..bastards.
Yeah its great to listen to Banks (not). Every second word is “Key”.
If he still has a wife I bet she gets woken throughout the night with Banks saying “I love you John Key” over and over and over……
Moerewa was mentioned on 9 to noon in the last couple of days, but it doesn’t seem to have been picked up by other media. The only news reference I have seen is from a while ago:
It seems National want to stop a success because it conflicts with their simplistic ideological preconceptions – and challenges micro management from “party central” in the ministers office – but are considering a “charter school’ initiative that at best will have a trial start towards the end of their term of office. This government is more concerned with compliance than with education success.
It is sad that I am absolutely not surprised that something that works is not accepted by Anne Tolley. Unfortunately, I doubt that the school would get a better hearing from Hekia Parata.
just finished reading “The Victorians” by A.N. Wilson and I was lead to the co-operative movement in Wikipedia.
why no co-operative movement in NZ. in the UK they have 4,500 shops and going strong.
time to rethink how we create community in new zealand perhaps?
The agriculture industry is heavily dominated by co-operatives, Fonterra, Ravensdown, Allied Farmers, Ballance, etc, however has been eroded in recent years. IMO probably the reason the meat and wool sector is falling behind, because most of the co-ops there have been privatised.
The region has about 4 million people and 15,000 of Italy’s 43,000 cooperatives. But it also has a lot of small, entrepreneurial firms that link together in collective ways to produce a flourishing export economy.
All part of NActs plan to introduce publicly funded private schools (government guaranteed profit vehicles) and competition. It’s got nothing to do with improving education but with increasing profits for the private sector.
everything binky and co. does has an extraneous third party injected into the mix and solely to take a rake off.
instead of a straight line there is a dogleg.
i.e. they are bent.
and the taxpayer has to fork out for some high faluting principle that on closer inspection just turns out to be another device for looting the public purse.
no wonder they talk about paring expenditure.
they just want to take it all for themselves.
they are just greedy bastards.
Great to see the impact Michael Cullen has had as chairman of NZ Post their poor performance has now put Kiwi Bank on a negative watch by Standard & Poors. Just goes to show Labour People and Business just dont mix. Should never of been made a member of the board no room for his style of economics there.
I’d say that such a watch could be more attributed to the GFC that was caused by the RWNJs in Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros. and other failed and bailed banks.
Standard & Poor? You mean the ratbag rating agency the too big to fail banks use as a weapon in the finance wars if they want to kill of economies or banks that are not under their control? That rating agency?
So that’s where you tories get it wrong!
You and key think the objective in government and life is to suck! Cullen knows the true objective is to (and I’ll put it into terms that you and Derek Zoolander can understand) not–suck.
Unfortunately the Herald buried it rather quickly. Possibly because it was attracting a lot of unsavoury comments from greedy property speculators and landlords. (some of whom have been spotted trolling this site)
I love how most of the top comments confuse a capital tax with a capital gains tax even though Gareth Morgan clearly explains the difference it in the article. Guess the speculators and landlords never learnt to read.
Generation Zero, Rangatahi get active against climate change.
What’s cooking for Generation Zero in Auckland in 2012
Generation Zero, we are a mass movement taking the country by storm. Inspired by youth climate organisations in other countries, Generation Zero was founded in 2011 to represent a youth voice calling for a zero carbon future for New Zealand. To date, Generation Zero is supported by a number of organisations, including 350 Aotearoa, P3, Engineers Without Borders NZ, Medical Students for Global Awareness, the New Zealand Youth Delegation, and Gecko.
In recent weeks, we’ve been busy – travelling the country for the various meetings and festivals that have been going on within the climate movement – and it’s making us extremely excited for the months ahead. Key to our success in building a mass movement this year will be to engage meaningfully with university students in Auckland. To achieve this, we need your help.
We’ll be hosting a planning meeting at the University of Auckland on Saturday 11 February, from 2pm-4pm, in Room 3.401 in the School of Engineering. Here, we hope to finalise our plans for O-Week, and form the beginnings of a core team of energised campus-based volunteers.
During this meeting, we will also hold our first AGM. We’ll be electing a new Treasurer, Secretary and President for our campus group!
If you are passionate about climate change and youth, meeting amazing people, and finding real solutions to the challenges ahead, come along and have a chat! We’d love to have you on board. It would be awesome if you could RSVP here, on Facebook. Feel free to share our invitation to you with others.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Not a Uni student? We’ll be running a ‘Welcome to 2012’ catch-up for all Aucklanders who are interested in Generation Zero soon. And you’re more than welcome to come along to our Generation Zero on Campus planning meeting too if you have ideas and energy to contribute.
the only thing that the reagan adminsistration in the 1980’s never tried to privatise was the national aviation transport security board.
think about that.
what about the building in chch that wasn’t pulled down because it had a heritage sticker and collapsed killing eight people?
it seems that many of those heritage churches and other victorian symbols of mancunian mercantilism were really jerry built in the first place.
and.
they wont have a mid term election in chch because the tory noo noo heads know that Jim Anderton would shit in carrying a pig as they say.
it seems that many of those heritage churches and other victorian symbols of mancunian mercantilism were really jerry built in the first place.
Come now. Some of those buildings lasted 120 or more years before suffering critical structural failures. That’s bloody robust compared to some of our “modern” buildings which were built 30-40 years ago that fell over.
Gisborne Council officials have already granted exploration consents to Canadian oil companies without seeking public approval – or consulting their own mayor.
It’s interesting that the $25 price per tonne of CO2 projected by the Ministry of Economic Development has halved since their $50 per tonne projection in 2010. But what’s even more indicative of the government’s incompetence is that the just released MED 2011 forecast is already 68% off the mark…
Charter Schools and Catherine Issac appointed by Banks to overseeing state funded private schools. Isaac says she is ‘not an ideologue’ but is ‘interested in policies that work’. Ok, so evidence based decisions then.
She then goes on to state that Charter Schools ‘do work’.
Ok, evidence based assessment goes out the window. So much for not being an ideologue. Mind already made up it seems.
Her claim that Charter Schools ‘do work’ is, at best, highly contestable. But shes ‘not an ideologue’.
John Banks meanwhile is well beyond any evidence based assessment. They will simply ‘happen’, he says, whether a good idea or not.
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So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Kiwis planning a swim or heading out on a boat this summer should remember to stop and think about water safety, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop and ACC and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand’s beaches, lakes and rivers are some of the most beautiful in the ...
The Government is urging Kiwis to drive safely this summer and reminding motorists that Police will be out in force to enforce the road rules, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This time of year can be stressful and result in poor decision-making on our roads. Whether you are travelling to see ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
By Emma Andrews, Henare te Ua Māori journalism intern at RNZ News From being the headline to creating them, Moana Maniapoto has walked a rather rocky road of swinging between both sides of the media. Known for her award-winning current affairs show Te Ao with Moana on Whakaata Māori, and ...
Kick Back has growing concerns about the impact that denying young people access to shelter is having on the mental health and physical safety of the young people we serve. ...
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The smell of death is in the air.
The wharfies go into their 6th strike in a vain attempt to get the company to negotiate over it’s plans to outsource their jobs.
The company on the other hand continues with its plans for redundancies for all union members.
The management have made it clear, that this stoppage, will not deter them from their decision to contract out all the union jobs and crush the union.
Already a lot of the work on the Ports is done by contractors and casuals, and the Ports of Auckland have said that they will be running a near to normal service.
If an employer can provide a near to normal service during a strike, then a strike has lost all it’s impact and the end is near.
The wharfies can’t even impede the the entry of their own colleagues who have decided to keep working from entering.
Already a delegate has been sacked just because on hearsay evidence it was reported that in the last strike he called to a worker entering the gates “a scab”.
For this he was sacked, and will not be allowed to return to his place of work.
This delegate is one of the long stayers and would have got a big redundancy.
Three delegates have been gotten for similar and even lesser offences.
The Auckland Maritime Union is slowly bleeding to death in front of our eyes.
The Ports of Auckland Management are well within their three month schedule of removing the union from the wharves.
Without the support of the the Labour Party dominated trade union movement the end is sad and inevitable.
In Australia in similar circumstances and against all odds the Patricks Dispute was won when the wharfies got mass support from the rest of the union movement and wider community against plans to contract out their jobs.
If that doesn’t happen here, it won’t be hard to determine who is to blame, and working people won’t forget.
The workers who have left the union and continue to work are not the real scabs, they rightly sense the union is playing with an empty hand, and just want to be on the winning side.
The real scabs are those on the left and in the union movement who are trying to isolate the wharfies by with holding their support and also urging others to withhold their support.
No worries, Jenny, I’m sure your relentless positivity will win the day for the wharfies.
Oddly, it seems to me that your attitude is the one of relentless positivity and sunny optimisim.
Possibly that’s because I have faith in the workers, their union and the righteous nature of their dispute, CV! I always find workers determined to set their own agenda and claim their own future extremely uplifting. Sectarian point scoring and unwarranted abuse from individuals with other loony left agendas less so.
Righteous faith is very good, but where’s the winning strategy which will force POAL to capitulate?
That’s not my place to say. It’s up to MUNZ to choose the strategy and tactics that best suit them. It’s their blue, after all.
Well, you have expressed explicit faith in them.
So I’ll check in with you in 6 months, when I hope to be able to say to you TVoR that you were 100% right and I was 100% wrong to be a doubting Thomas.
Good call, comrade. Hope it doesn’t take twelve months though!
Voice of Reason, as I am sure you are cynically aware. Without wider union support, they will beaten in less than three.
VOR, I call it as I see it.
Twice I have asked you, “as a Labour Party supporter and a union official, both. Will you be calling on your members to support the wharfies, or not?”
Both times you have refused to answer the question.
So I will ask you a third time.
As a Labour Party supporter and a union official, both. Will you be calling on your members to support the wharfies, or not?
Let our readers draw their own conclusion from the nature of your response, or lack there of.
Ooooh, stalker alert! My response is the same as before, Jenny. You can take a flying one, because my identity is none of your beeswax.
As in 1991, the union movement essentially turns out to be a paper tiger.
As in 1991 people are scared of losing their jobs and so are giving power to the capitalists (who want to pay them less) by not standing up to them.
Thats what I mean, when push comes to shove, the unions fold up like a paper bag, just like in 1991, when a general strike could have killed the ECA (from what I understand, the National government was prepeared to soften the bill significantly). Its no different here, now MUNZ has essentially been broken at POA, it is essentially open season on the workforce.
The only thing a general strike in 1991 would have killed would have been organised labour. The tide had turned, the Nat’s had the country in their grip and a futile display of petulance would have been a reason for the dry right in the Nat caucus to push for the de-recognition of all unions, except yellow company ones.
If it the general stike had been called, most workers would have ignored it and the unions would have been smashed. Industrial disputes (and political ones) are all about timing and strength. Get either aspect wrong and its yet another noble defeat.
Thanks for that, VOR, that is the clearest exposition I have ever read from a Labour Party union official on why the struggle against the ECA was strangled.
I don’t often talk about these shameful events, because I feel that the Labour Party has moved on, and is not as right wing as it was during this period.
However since you have raised the issue, and in regards to present issue at hand of contracting out union jobs.
I fear we are about to witness a repeat of history.
If contracting out union jobs can be achieved on the wharves against one of the strongest unions in the country, this tactic will be used against the rest of the union movement. As in 1991, if no concerted organised fight back is led, every unionist will be in the gun.
In 1991 in what was described at the time as the biggest protests in New Zealand’s history, tens of thousands of workers spontaneously protested against the Employment Contracts Act in every city and town in the country.
The two main chants and slogans of these massed workers was “General Strike” and “Kill the Bill” which was painted on hundreds of hand made signs and banners. In response the Labour Party dominated union hierarchy paid to have thousands of placards preprinted and professionally made up and distributed with the lesser slogan “Oppose The Bill”.
“Oppose The Bill” was a call to protest against, but not defeat the ECA. Understandably in the mood of the time this call to just “Oppose The Bill” was not very popular. Though some workers did carry them as historic photos can attest, many were often left stacked on the footpath, most workers preferring their home made signs and chants “Kill The Bill”. (Which also had a better ring to it than the Labour Party imposed slogan).
Because of the controversy raised by the new ‘official slogan’ of the campaign. A public debate was called in the Auckland Trades Hall chaired by the head of the benificiaries union President on the subject on why this lesser demand was being imposed onto the movement by the union hierarchy. Joe Tonner a leading Labour Party figure of the time and head of the Labour Party dominated PSA argued for the lesser demand to be adopted.
However, the lesser demand never became popular amongst workers who in their tens of thousands, kept calling for a general strike. The call for a general strike was bitterly opposed from the top table of union officials at stopwork meetings all around the country. In at least two cases during this tumultuous period, worker delegates that tried to raise a motion for general strike from the floor of the meetings were phyisically assaulted by Labour Party union officials. In the most infamous incident, At the final big protest march and mass meeting in Auckland, Peter Hughes a shop floor delegate for the PSA, representing meat inspectors, following chanted demands from the crowd to put the motion for a general strike was assaulted by the Labour Party Union officials who had ringed the stage to prevent the motion being put.
These open and many more behind the scenes methods were taken by the Labour Party to prevent workers taking militant industrial action to defend themselves from National Government and employer attacks.
I had hoped that those days were over.
I am dissapointed to discover that the Labour Party and Labour Party affiliated union leaders are still acting in the same way for the same motives.
VOR you may argue that if a union fight back had been allowed this, “would have been a reason for the dry right in the Nat caucus to push for the de-recognition of all unions, except yellow company ones.”
I would argue the opposite, that by not fighting back the employers and the Nats were emboldened to increase their attacks on working people and their unions. (Which subsequent events actually show.)
I will repeat again:
Good times, Jenny, good times! You’ve fingered the wrong party entirely there, and promoted Joe Tonner to a position he never held. And this should really make you really happy; I was among those union delegates doing security that day and I’m proud to say it was me that prevented Hughes from getting on stage. No assault at all, unless him trying to push past me counts. We had been told that the CP intended rushing the stage and indeed that is what happened. Or at least, that was what was attempted, but, happily prevented.
A lucky thing too, because if the maddies had won the day, the NZ union movement would have been smashed within a matter of weeks.
Jenny is substantially correct on the fact that rank and file unionists across NZ were calling for direct action on a national scale. Years later Bill Birch admitted that he had been prepared to make concessions on the EC Bill. It was the abject failure of CTU leader KG Douglas and Joe Tonner, and the Engineers heads at the time to provide positive leadership that lead to a narrow vote at the CTU executive not to proceed with a national stoppage. The engineers and PSA leaderships indulged in ‘technical’ democracy at a higher forum that went against the wishes of substantial numbers of their union members as expressed on the streets and at meetings.
Organised labour has been paying for that capitulation ever since. Tri partism can only operate in the environment of a social democratic government, Douglas was deluded or the SIS best plant ever to think a hostile tory government would buy into partnership and ‘compacts’.
Re the Auckland meeting at Aotea Sq. It was Socialist Unity Party members and supporters who provided ‘security’ that day that prevented people at the meeting from putting motions. In retrospect Bill Andersen, chair, should have accepted Hughes motion whatever party he may have represented. Particularly given that Bill Andersen and his union the NDU supported a national stoppage.
Good summary, TM. The crux of the issue, as I remember it, wasn’t the depth of feeling held by rank and filers, it was whether we could take the wider workforce with us. Given that we had just seen a right wing Government rejected in favour of an even more right wing one, I remain convinced that it would have been a failure and it would have been a green light for Birch et al to finish us off. I certainly wouldn’t trust anything Birch said after the event, by the way, that sounds more like him twisting the knife.
NZ has long been a nation divided, with the post colonial rural sector and SMEs as far as the eye can see, so with the rough composition of NZ–40% dark tending to tory kiwis, 40% ok folks and 20% swingers. “Uniting all who can be united” was not the priority in 91 imo. It was the survival of the union movements credibility and organisational capacity.
The majority of unions today despite their claims are servicing organisations. I would except FIRST, MUNZ and the education unions, with pockets here and there such as the EPMU telcos and airline members (e.g. Zeal), though workplaces can change quickly. There has only ever been a small number of workers and unions that one could call class conscious, which is why the 99% movement has such potential. Class issues can be dealt with without people having to belong to a union or be otherwise classified.
Am currently reading “Unions Common Cause, a history of the NZ Federation of Labour” edited by Peter Franks and it is interesting the stats on union membership nos. are surprisingly similar to today. Of course during the FOL years the poplulation was smaller and membership compulsory so it does not directly equate.
Long answer to your contention, but we should have gone for broke in 91.
What a smelly and old, load of self justifying rubbish.
I have heard this argument before from Labour Party union officials. That the workers had voted for a right wing government.
The truth is not that clear cut.
In 1990 the hated Mike Moore Labour Government was so right wing that they had stolen all National’s policies, leaving National nothing to campaign on.
So National campaigned on policies to the left of Labour.
And it was those policies that people voted for.
The top two policies* that National campaigned on in the 1990 election were:
1) Stop state asset sales
2) Remove the Superannuation Surcharge imposed by Labour.
Of course being tories, on gaining office National immediately broke these left commitments to the electorate and carried on where Labour had left off.
One of the remaining legacies of the Nats breaking all their (left) election promises was the birth of the New Zealand First Party. National Stalwart had Winston Peters had stormed into power in Tauranga with a campaign based largely on the National Party Promise of removing The Super Surcharge.
Tauranga being an acknowledged mecca for retirees, the electorate was livid!
It was clear that any National MP would be dumped by the electorate for the Nats treachery as soon as possible.
Already being a two time loser, if Peters had of stuck with National he would have been just a footnote in history. Peters though being a died in the wool tory had no choice if we wanted to continue having a career in politics, but to form a new tory offshoot.
Despite Labour’s right wing trajectory, And National’s apparent more left one, “normally left voters” repulsed by Labour and rightfully as it turned out distrustful of the Nats, as you yourself admit VoR , “stayed away from the polls (as they have done in the last two elections)”
The electorate had been betrayed, people were angry and ready to fight.
Of course this was not the judgement of the top Labour Party union officials who dominated the Trade union movement at the time. Like the Labour Party itself, they were demoralised and confused. Union officials at the time had told me that they faced open revolt at stopwork meetings if they tried to urge workers to vote Labour.
In your words VoR, you say; “The crux of the issue, as I remember it, wasn’t the depth of feeling held by rank and filers, it was whether we could take the wider workforce with us.”
This demoralisation and confusion and anger with workers, for rejecting Labour, led in my opinion for these loyal to Labour union leaders to misjudge the mood and make the wrong call. Confusing workers rejection with Labour as a rejection of the left. In fact I think the grass roots were more astute at the time than the leadership. Unfortunately VoR, this is an example of where “tribal”sectarianism can let you down.
Please VoR don’t let this sectarian blind spot get in your way again. And do all you can to support the wharfies. That is, if you don’t want a repeat of history.
*(From memory, National also promised something to tertiary students to get their vote. As students had been viciously savaged by Labour with user pays for tertiary education. What was particularly irking to student activists of the time was the people who were attacking them at the time like Goff had all had the benefit of free tertiary education. Never being a student or having gone to university I can’t remember exactly what the Nats. promised the students. But I do know they broke that promise)
You should be ashamed of yourself.
If you were in the group that prevented a general strike.
All the unionists were ready for a general strike until the ECA was abandoned.
Then the sellouts in the Labour party and the union leadership calmed things down for the Neo-Liberal takeover.
Why Labour is still MIA. Now reverting to NACT light.
Which means they will keep losing votes.
Why vote for Labour unless they offer clear choices and difference from National.
After some signs of returning to being a Labour party under Goff for two months it likes like we have returned to “business as usual”. With the same old guard.
Your comments are lightweight and totally off beam -“ECA abandoned”? “Neo-Liberal takeover”?, make no sense, and have no basis in reality KJT.
Really. I was there. Were you?
I’m coming in the middle here.
Just wanted to thank the contributers discussing what actually went on during this crucial point in the history of the Labour movement. It’s something I’ve always been interested in, and as you point out Jenny, so goddam relevent to the juncture we now find ourselves at.
Looking forward to reading the whole thead at a later date. Dashing off just now.
Cheers, just saying. There is probably a book to be written about 91, but it would need to take into account that the union movement, like society in general, was reeling under the most fundamental changes since the thirties.
In particular, the shift to voluntary unionism a few years ealier had an effect that had not been anticipated, which was to demote unions to an option in the workplace, not a permanent presence. Most union leaders at the time were rightly worried about the financial impact, but didn’t see that a huge cultural change had taken place.
The unions in 91 had to make the call to either put everything on the line or retreat and rebuild. Admittedly, the rebuilding hasn’t really happened and there is no way to know whether a general strike would have succeeded, but I come back to the confusion, fear and loss of political direction that was shackling the labour movement at the time. Everything we knew and took for granted, was gone or going, and the election was astonishing not because normally left voters stayed away from the polls (as they have done in the last two elections), they also voted National in their droves. And reconfirmed their decision a couple of years later, too.
The removal of the right to strike, except in very limited circumstances, embodied in the ECA, was going to take away any Union power.
The only option was a general strike before the ECA made it illegal.
Fight or face the inevitable slow death.
The end of unionism, and ordinary NZ working people getting their fair share, was an entirely predictable result.
Some think that Ken Douglas rolled over on proposals for a General Strike in ’91, which consigned the workers movement to ever increasing irrelevancy thereafter.
to KJT 10:59 “Really. I was there. Were you?”
I was there alright laddie, including the NZCTU special affiliates meeting in Wellington on the matter and the Auckland rally. Perhaps you are trying to express genuine views but your scrambled writing style makes it rather hard to discern.
to CV 11:13
“Some think that Ken Douglas rolled over on proposals for a General Strike in ’91, ”
Understatement of the morning CV, Douglas thundered against any national action.
Don’t be so bloody patronising.
AND we all remember calling for a vote, at various meetings, only to have it blocked by the so called leaders, despite an obvious majority on the floor.
You are right. We were let down by Douglas and others.
The moment the ECA could have been resisted was lost.
After that, the victory of the Neo-Liberal right, including Labour party members, and the demise of workers rights was inevitable.
OK a spikey exchange, does your sarcasm top my alleged patronising, heh, but understand where you are coming from now. Workers rights can and must be regained is the main thing. Unionised workers are those that have actually got pay rises under Shonkey’s administration apart from CEOs of course whereas the majority of precarious and non union employees got zilch.
Footnote: Bill Andersen had formed SPA (Socialist Party of Aotearoa) by ’91 after Ken Douglas defected to social democracy which he (Douglas) had signalled back in 1988 by supporting the Aussie frigate build. SUP members were involved though in blocking the CPNZ members at the Auckland meeting along with SPA and supporters.
Veteran ’51er Jock Barnes savaged Douglas in person at Jim Knox Auckland memorial service and rightly so on his capitulation, the point of retracing all this is obvious-don’t do it again CTU, call on all unionised workers and the wider community to support MUNZ.
In the week set aside to remember the founding document of our country’s creation isn’t it ironic that the Government may lose almost all of its majority because of its insistence on selling our assets overseas in breach of that document’s principles.
Big picture has a series on coal:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/01/coal.html
I’ve long been of the view that unless coal,oil and mining companies act responsibly with the same safety procedures we would expect, in other countries then we should not let them here at all.
Diamond mining should just be banned – I can see no good reason for needing more diamonds.
I use diamond tips tools. Many industrial cutting applications require diamond edges. Don’t know but suspect most diamonds are used for industrial purposes.
I would not favour a ban on diamond mining (or any other mining). A better thing would be to ensure that miners of all types are made to pay the true human and environmental costs of their activities. They will of course pass on the costs, which is fine as the consumer will then make more informed choices before they buy.
Yeah diamond is also used in a lot of cleaning and abrasive applications.
Don’t they use man-made diamonds for commercial applications?
I hadn’t realised the proportion of synthetics was quite so high. DTB beat me to the punch.
And 90% of the diamonds used for that are synthetic.
As you say though, if the costs are properly realised then we shouldn’t need to ban mining.
Had not thought of synthetic, I stand corrected. Just thinking ahead couple of questions:
* in an energy depleted world will it be possible or economic to produce synthetic diamonds?
* will there still be the level of demand for diamond edged tools we have today?
Who knows? It just illustrates the total uncertainty we now face, and our inability to get our heads around it.
Probably
No but there will still be some.
The history and methods of creating synthetic diamonds is quite interesting.
I remember reading once that something like 10% of the worlds energy resources are used in diamond mining – the use of very big drills and rock crushers, something like 1 carat of diamonds is extracted from every 10 tonnes of rock.
The point with diamonds was partly that you can make them synthetically and partly that there are massive stockpiles of diamonds anyway.
So apart from artificial value due to stockpiling keeping the price high and vanity what purpose does mining diamonds actually have?
Heard Pita Sharples give a rousing speech at some rally last night on te reo or maori tv. It seems he still thinks that maori have a special place apart from the rest. As has been seen throughout history this sort of mindset usually leads to trouble.
Pita sharpies is trouble, once those limos are gone watch him go.
do you have to start this shit again?
boring vto, just as boring as gossy
That’s a bit harsh, Mars… 😀
vto and i have a love/hate relationship when it comes to this stuff but yes comparing him to gossy was unfair and harsh 🙂 thanks macskasy
Heh heh heh… 😉
Damn. They did some maintenance on the server box last night after sending this middday yesterday.
Yeah. It has problems damnit. Trying to talk to them now as it doesn’t seem to be anything wrong as far as I can see
“Chirpy engineers will be onsite”
Presumably that’s the name of the company, or these guys just love being up early in the morning.
National is determined to destroy our quality public education system and place more stress on Christchurch communities through rushing through yet another flawed system.
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/charter-schools-channel-flawed-ideology.html
John Banks says Catherine Odgers is perfectly suited to implementing charter schools because she was once on a Board of Trustees and is a successful business woman. Lucky children.
Cathrine Issacs (nee Judd), not Odgers. The last thing we need is that prickly bitch running anything in this country.
I guess we now have a fair idea about what type of charter schools will be implemented in this country.
Ah sorry, thanks for the correction.
It seems as if Banksy may have spouted prematurely
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6346182/Charter-schools-job-not-confirmed
I am really entertained by the way John Banks speaks, a stream of overused cliches and phrases that are intended to come across as assertive and in control, yet in reality express very little. His desperation to support and be supported by John Key was really quite pathetic and now his party has been given the responsibility of introducing Charter Schools (probably a surprise to him as it was definitely not high on ACT’s agenda during their campaign) he is yapping around excitedly like a Jack Russell on speed.
Anne Tolley was bad enough when forced to answer questions about her National Standards (she once responded to a question about the meaning of one particular standard by saying she didn’t have to understand them, just implement them), but imagine Banks explaining his way through the professional merits of Charter Schools. Things could become very entertaining.
Charter Schools failed big time in the “land of the free”….(you know, the place where the total incarcerated exceeds that of the Gulag at the height of Stalins terror).
Now we have some ACT goons whose prescribed medicine has failed abysmally (since it’s introduction 30 years prior) insisting that the patient might recover if we give the same prescription to him harder and harder. I have to ask why?
Two possible answers.:
1. Ideologues and RWNJs acting more akin to Trotskyites and Born Agains in expressing faith in their apocalyptic creeds.
2. Money, money, money….NACT types who think they might turn a bob or two on this (and fekk the rest of us…just pay pay pay).
Bored, the real reason for introducing Charter Schools is to break teacher collective agreements and diminish the power of the Union. NZEI is now the largest and more effective unions in the country (50,000 members) and National has long had the goal of cutting our power. http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2011/12/government-attacks-new-zealands-highest.html
All the supposed benefits of autonomous school management that was the selling point for Charter Schools overseas already exist in Tomorrows Schools and the only real differences are being able to employ teachers on individual contracts and set their own employment terms and not having to link learning to our National Curriculum or National Standards (bizarre). Obviously National haven’t learned their lessons from Pike River and still feel self regulation and commercial interests will provide safety and good results.
We’re doomed!
Thanks for the precise answer Dave, its not very pretty is it. Which in effect means both my reasons were correct, ideological theological idiocy aimed at Unions, and money from breaking Unions…..bastards.
Yeah its great to listen to Banks (not). Every second word is “Key”.
If he still has a wife I bet she gets woken throughout the night with Banks saying “I love you John Key” over and over and over……
ipredict that soemone has given them some money to put a chunk in the works?
Moerewa was mentioned on 9 to noon in the last couple of days, but it doesn’t seem to have been picked up by other media. The only news reference I have seen is from a while ago:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/secondary-education/news/article.cfm?c_id=315&objectid=10767478
It seems National want to stop a success because it conflicts with their simplistic ideological preconceptions – and challenges micro management from “party central” in the ministers office – but are considering a “charter school’ initiative that at best will have a trial start towards the end of their term of office. This government is more concerned with compliance than with education success.
We already knew that from their threats to fire boards and teachers if they didn’t implement National(s) Standards.
It is sad that I am absolutely not surprised that something that works is not accepted by Anne Tolley. Unfortunately, I doubt that the school would get a better hearing from Hekia Parata.
Hekia Parata is at least a damn sight smarter than Tolley.
She’s in the National Party so I doubt that the difference is that much 😈
In appearance or common sense? On what basis do you make that call? I think both would struggle with a part in the Muppets.
😛
Also it’s in Hone Harawira’s electorate and therefore must be crushed
just finished reading “The Victorians” by A.N. Wilson and I was lead to the co-operative movement in Wikipedia.
why no co-operative movement in NZ. in the UK they have 4,500 shops and going strong.
time to rethink how we create community in new zealand perhaps?
The agriculture industry is heavily dominated by co-operatives, Fonterra, Ravensdown, Allied Farmers, Ballance, etc, however has been eroded in recent years. IMO probably the reason the meat and wool sector is falling behind, because most of the co-ops there have been privatised.
Tory rural folk have always realised the power of collective enterprise.
While telling us how great competition is.
A good suggestion. We could do worse than having a detailed look at the co-operative economy in Emilia Romagna in Italy (Bologna is the capital).
The region has about 4 million people and 15,000 of Italy’s 43,000 cooperatives. But it also has a lot of small, entrepreneurial firms that link together in collective ways to produce a flourishing export economy.
Here’s another link about the economy in Emilia Romagna.
And now we are to have secondary schools league tables if Hekia gets her way
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6348290/Govt-eyes-secondary-school-comparison-site
All part of NActs plan to introduce publicly funded private schools (government guaranteed profit vehicles) and competition. It’s got nothing to do with improving education but with increasing profits for the private sector.
This wonderful, intelligent passionate woman born of an American Jewish mother and an Iraqi Muslim father tells it like it is.
Meet Dr Dahlia S. Wasfi and hear her speak:
everything binky and co. does has an extraneous third party injected into the mix and solely to take a rake off.
instead of a straight line there is a dogleg.
i.e. they are bent.
and the taxpayer has to fork out for some high faluting principle that on closer inspection just turns out to be another device for looting the public purse.
no wonder they talk about paring expenditure.
they just want to take it all for themselves.
they are just greedy bastards.
A bunch of conniving, thieving traitors!
Great to see the impact Michael Cullen has had as chairman of NZ Post their poor performance has now put Kiwi Bank on a negative watch by Standard & Poors. Just goes to show Labour People and Business just dont mix. Should never of been made a member of the board no room for his style of economics there.
http://nz.finance.yahoo.com/news/NZ-Post-drags-Kiwibank-credit-businessdesk-
Ask your parents to explain the difference between governance and management, James. And how to spell ‘have’ while you’re at it.
And when Lehman Brothers failed those investment bankers were Labour people too, weren’t they?
I’d say that such a watch could be more attributed to the GFC that was caused by the RWNJs in Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros. and other failed and bailed banks.
Standard & Poor? You mean the ratbag rating agency the too big to fail banks use as a weapon in the finance wars if they want to kill of economies or banks that are not under their control? That rating agency?
Seriously?
NZpost is doing better than USMail.
Great something for Michael Cullen to aim down towards.
So that’s where you tories get it wrong!
You and key think the objective in government and life is to suck! Cullen knows the true objective is to (and I’ll put it into terms that you and Derek Zoolander can understand) not–suck.
Gareth Morgan wrote a doozy the other day …
Capital tax the best option for economy.
Unfortunately the Herald buried it rather quickly. Possibly because it was attracting a lot of unsavoury comments from greedy property speculators and landlords. (some of whom have been spotted trolling this site)
I love how most of the top comments confuse a capital tax with a capital gains tax even though Gareth Morgan clearly explains the difference it in the article. Guess the speculators and landlords never learnt to read.
Generation Zero, Rangatahi get active against climate change.
And their funding comes from where, and your association to this group, or its funders, is what exactly?
the only thing that the reagan adminsistration in the 1980’s never tried to privatise was the national aviation transport security board.
think about that.
50 jobs to go at Te Puni Kokiri.
Fortunately, Pita Sharples is feeling a lot of aroha for those to be made redundant and those suffering the uncertainty.
Here’s Hone’s take on it.
what about the building in chch that wasn’t pulled down because it had a heritage sticker and collapsed killing eight people?
it seems that many of those heritage churches and other victorian symbols of mancunian mercantilism were really jerry built in the first place.
and.
they wont have a mid term election in chch because the tory noo noo heads know that Jim Anderton would shit in carrying a pig as they say.
Come now. Some of those buildings lasted 120 or more years before suffering critical structural failures. That’s bloody robust compared to some of our “modern” buildings which were built 30-40 years ago that fell over.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6330473/Fast-tracked-oil-consents-bypass-mayor-public
Anyone see this, and have a comment!
That council needs to be fired now.
The people need to demand it – By that I mean publically get down to your council buidling and take it over!
Too many councils have unelected officials and CEOs who think that they are lords onto themselves.
So where does this leave the Local Government Act, in terms of potential breach?
And that needs to be changed to – they’re accountable to the elected representatives who are accountable to the people.
A universal aberration
It’s interesting that the $25 price per tonne of CO2 projected by the Ministry of Economic Development has halved since their $50 per tonne projection in 2010. But what’s even more indicative of the government’s incompetence is that the just released MED 2011 forecast is already 68% off the mark…
lol nats http://johnkeylooksatthings.tumblr.com/
5 pm news on National Radio today. 5.17 pm.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint
Charter Schools and Catherine Issac appointed by Banks to overseeing state funded private schools. Isaac says she is ‘not an ideologue’ but is ‘interested in policies that work’. Ok, so evidence based decisions then.
She then goes on to state that Charter Schools ‘do work’.
Ok, evidence based assessment goes out the window. So much for not being an ideologue. Mind already made up it seems.
Her claim that Charter Schools ‘do work’ is, at best, highly contestable. But shes ‘not an ideologue’.
John Banks meanwhile is well beyond any evidence based assessment. They will simply ‘happen’, he says, whether a good idea or not.
Looks like an ideologue appointed an ideologue.