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6:00 am, May 7th, 2021 - 37 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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There will probably be lots more articles like this one. Three years pay freeze is quite a long time, and with inflation and things continuing to rise, will mean you are going backwards even if you are earning a decent wage like this lady (her last increase was 2019 so she effectively will have a five year wage freeze). I guess the way people will get increases will be by changing jobs more (assuming positions are available).
I wonder if it would have been better to announce a wage freeze for one year (possibly two?) instead as I feel more people would be willing to accept that.
Do people really earn more in the public sector? | Stuff.co.nz
Hopefully this is just a precursor for going after all the beneficiaries of 2020 lockdowns
I honestly don't get the wage freeze. It's about as tone deaf as it comes. Who is Robertson channelling? David Cameron, George Osborne and the rest of the UK Tory party ? Just who are they listening to?
Talk about dropping on a likely bunch of your own voters from a great height when they can't even be bothered issuing a complete list of "who took the wage subsidy" and we "won't raise the trust tax rates and the rates on other high incomes."
Perhaps it is to keep jobs, and to have the ability to help the needy rather than the greedy.
Those on $100000+ per year who have money problems are possibly poor managers?
Those who need food shelter and education and probably medical help, should be the priority for our society. So I don't cry for the safe fortunate.
Perhaps those people earning more than $100,000 per year have
some might be poor money mangers
+1
PB
I am, at this moment, crying unsafe fortunate who are left to endure until they can't carry on (so forgive any typos). Military boot camps worldwide know that exhausted people are more compliant, this lesson has apparently been learned well by our public health executives!
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/doctor-burnout-worst-southern-dhb
Austerity is false economy.
'mortgages in Auckland or Wellington"
Mortgage rates have been dropping over last 5 years. I have read that something like 1/3 of home owners own them outright, must be others who have residual mortgage left.
Climbing the property ladder to better and bigger houses shouldnt be a reason for pay rise
Good points westeykev.
Under 40 and trying to save a house deposit rather than pay rent.
I was under the impression that already negotiated multi year pay agreements such as for nurses, teachers and police etc are not affected by this slowdown. There are also provisions for wage increases in those vocations that we need more to move into such as health and education rather than HR, PR, advertising, accountancy, there are far to many in these waste of spaces.
People have such short memories, less than a year ago most Kiwis had a rather extended downtime on almost full pay, albeit under the fairly omnious threat of global pandemic something that few in the rest of the world were fortunate enough to be the recipients of. We have come out of this far, far better than any other country in the world, yet still the shrill, entitled serial complainers are screaming their lungs out over every imagined slight and ill-perceived threat to any-fucking-thing they can.
The classic complaint is the vaccination roll-out, "Its too slow " they howl, "we should have had it yesterday or even the day before", why havent we got the XYZ one or the Russian or the Chinese One, we could have had it the day before the day before that.
There is a bloody good reason why not, this Labour Government has been guided by the very best science available, supplied by a huge number of unsung, ( with the exception of a few desperate self promoters ), NZ scientists and clinicians. They advised the RNA one, the Phizer Ntech, the Russian and Chinese ones are shit, needing 3 inocculations to even get to 60% efficacy according to reports on todays news.
I can't recall any other NZ government that has been guided by science quite like this one. Thank you.
The public sector pay rate will generally condition the private sectors own pay conditions. In small part this drives NZ pay rates lower. For some (who have alternatives) they will see where their prospects are improving and take their skills and experience elsewhere or out of the public sector. It is also entirely pointless, it has no benefits what-so-ever, the only decent path to low public expenditure percentages (which is unimportant anyway but it a govt goal for ideologically motivated reasons) is via growth of the overall economy including wages. Most first world economies have large public sectors and outperform NZ on an individual economic level.
As you mentioned being in NZ has some benefits however.
NZers going to Australia may get higher wages but accessibility to free education healthcare and super may make it less attractive over all.
Don't need a jab (or jabs) if "the Tasman". Just a thought….
Existing pay rates cant compete with Australia at all. A few % rise isnt going make a difference
eg Starting pay for primary teachers in Victoria is $72,000. While NZ is about $55,000
If the tasman wot?
Physical isolation, unlike vaccines, is a 100% guarantee of safety. Those fucking borders should remain all but shuttered.
Pretty well agree with you Adrian , but could you send a link as to the much reduced efficacy and need for 3 rather than 2 injections for the Russian (Sputnik )and Chinese vaccines..of which there are several .Is it all of the Chinese vaccines or Sinovac only?
Latest I heard of the Russians was a new Sputnik, cheap and requiring only one jab
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/russia-authorises-one-shot-sputnik-light-covid-vaccine-for-use-11620303390962.html
lower efficacy (around 80% ) but could be good for countries as first step in reducing the fatalities
The story is about the Seychelles in Stuff or Herald today. They had it under control but opened to tourism, ( I think they used Judith Collins as an advisor ) and now they have a greater rate than even India, albeit with a vastly lower daily number. They used Sinovac and Sputnik I think but they are a bit shit. Vaccines aren't easy, the reason why the French are sort of being arseholes in Europe is because even with their huge resources and knowledge their Sanofi one just didn't work so they sulked in the corner and hurled snipey little epithets at those whose worked.
I am shit beyond words at IT, four generations behind the tech, so linking is Rocket Science to me. Ironicly, I have a son who is one, who reminds me to not worry Dad, competency jumps a few generations. I do have a Masters in Computer Rage though.
The Seychelles used Sinopharm and Astrozeneca and are only 50 per cent vaccinated
+1 Adrian.
Adrian – what a voice of reason and balance! NZ has a pretty good lifestyle compared with many countries. Not perfect maybe. But we have become a nation of moaners and complainers. Now I read the trucking groups and National are complaining money should be spent on roads, not rail. Talk about self-serving.
Nick Leggit wants safer roads but I doubt if he'd admit that truckless roads were safer.
A heads-up for any chills fans out there…they are doing a live-to-air on rnz @ 2.20pm..
Wow!!We are getting Unions with teeth Lol Now watch the entitled come out screaming.
Cat….meet pigeons.
Noone here is arguing over the importance of culture or welfare. The question is how is it accommodated in an economic system. This requires surplus production. Productivity increases means more can be used for both Welfare and Culture. It is a simple fact of reality.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Gosman your logic driven brain overlooks the economic benefits of culture or welfare.
Without welfare or culture civilization would be stuck in pre Egyptian times.a Dog eat Dog survival battle.
Your thinking is stuck in a bean brained bean counter's mentality people aren't productive if they are miserable and starving.
Your balancing the books ideology of productivity doesn't happen in isolation people aren't logic driven robots like yourself Gosman.
Infact those who are logic driven have serious mental health issues not unlike hoarders who don't recognize their predicament.
We have a housing crisis because government (both local and national) have placed artificial restrictions on housing supply.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Gosman your simplistic blame shifting mansplain is pure BS.
It is the capitalist system of speculation and monopolies that is causing housing shortages low taxes mean no money for social housing little or no tax on speculation risk adverse banking,nimbyism ,etc.lack of planning laissez faire free market !
Rubbish – we have a housing crisis because governments relaxed immigration rules, inundating us with cheap unskilled labour and unproductive property speculators. NZ has exceptionally expensive housing now, and yet it is poorly designed and made, well short of northern hemisphere insulation standards for example.
The market was let off the leash, and they made their signature fubar.
Every circus has a merry-go-round.
Stew Hamilton has been with the smelter's majority owner Rio Tinto for 22 years, and took over as chief executive of NZ Aluminium Smelters in 2018.
He will leave in July to become general manager of generation at Mercury Energy.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/442043/tiwai-point-aluminium-smelter-chief-executive-stew-hamilton-resigns
A well rewarded circus for sure our monopoly utilities sector.
May Fools: These hypocrites, scoundrels and criminals have no sense of irony.
A presentation from the Museum of Very Bad Ideas
Exhibit No. 1: In 2014 the New York Police Department asked its followers to tweet images of the NYPD in a gambit to foster goodwill. Instead, users uploaded pictures of cop-inflicted violence.
Exhibit No. 2: Shortly after that self-administered truncheoning, more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram. This naturally caused worldwide anger and disgust. One of those announcing their support for the girls was one Michelle Obama, who tweeted a picture of herself holding a #BringBackOurGirls sign, and intoned in a five-minute video:
The image, and her message, were swiftly turned against her. A torrent of tweets followed, under a new hashtag: #WeCantBringBackOurDead. Many people dispatched photographs of men, women and children holding signs imploring Michelle Obama's husband to cease his drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia.
https://twitter.com/sereen_saeed/status/465096174194937856
Exhibit No. 3: In May 2019, just weeks after the dissenting journalist and free speech hero Julian Assange was forcefully dragged out of his place of asylum by British police, World Press Freedom Day was "celebrated" in Wellington with a farcical event organized by….(and this is NOT a joke)…. the British High Commission.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19-05-2019/#comment-1618504
Exhibit No. 4: Yesterday Kamala Harris pretended that she cared about press freedom. That was just too much for one American hero to remain silent….
The Museum of Very Bad Ideas is a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Biden as President cant interfere in active prosecution cases anymore than Ardern can do so in NZ.
Thats why the case is continuing.
Of course he can. But, considering his record of implacable support for the crimes exposed by Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, I would not expect him to lift a finger to help any of them, any more than I would expect a witty or honest remark from his Vice President.