PoAL’s illegal lockout adds to Auckland’s losses

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, March 23rd, 2012 - 178 comments
Categories: workers' rights - Tags: , ,

The Port of Auckland’s refusal to let the stevedores return to work now that they have lifted their strike notice is a lock-out. There are specific legal requirements around strikes and lock-outs at ports and other essential services – notice must be given in writing and with 14 days’ notice. The Port’s lock-out is illegal. And it’s costing Auckland millions.

I’ve collated the relevant provisions of the Employment Relations Act (82(1)(a)(iv), 91(1)(b)(i), 91(2)(a), 83(b)(i), 91(3)(a)(i), and Schedule 1 Part A 7) into a single passage

Lockout means an act that is the act of an employer in refusing or failing to engage employees for any work for which the employer usually employs employees. No employer engaged in an essential service may lock out any employees who are employed in the essential service the proposed lockout will affect the public interest, including (without limitation) public safety or health; and the proposed lockout relates to bargaining for a collective agreement that will bind each of the employees concerned without having given to the employees’ union or unions and to the chief executive, within 28 days before the date of commencement of the lockout, notice in writing of the employer’s intention to lock out; and before the date specified in the notice as the date on which the lockout will begin. The notice required must specify the period of notice, being a period that is no less than 14 days in the case of an essential service including the provision of all necessary services in connection with the arrival, berthing, loading, unloading, and departure of ships at a port.

So, clearly what the Port is doing now (“refusing or failing to engage employees for any work for which the employer usually employs employees”) is a lockout. And it has been done without 14 days’ notice as required for a port.

What’s the punishment? Well, the Employment Court has very broad powers. It can be expected to levy massive fines on the port for this action.

Add those fines to the $12.7 million in lost custom so far during the strikes plus $25 million a year to permanently lost Fonterra and Maersk business plus hundreds of thousands for the Port’s PR campaign and legal costs. All of this in an effort to transfer $6 million a year from the workers’ wages to the Port’s profit line.

The question now is why Auckland Council is paying Pearson $200,000 a year for two days’ work a week and Tony Gibson $590,000 a year to wreck its port and cost it tens of millions in lost custom and fines, not to mention the wider costs to Auckland economy.

Brown can’t stand by and let these two loose units damage his city any longer.

178 comments on “PoAL’s illegal lockout adds to Auckland’s losses ”

  1. Fisiani 1

    You fail to mention that it is not illegal if there is a safety risk to the staff. The intimidation, bullying and sabotage by certain Union members has clearly rendered it unsafe to allow them to work alongside honest workers. Safety trumps the clause above.

    IrishBill: Put up or shut up. Final warning.

    • Lanthanide 1.1

      It’s true, the post doesn’t mention this.

      That is what POAL is claiming is the reason behind it. Helen Kelly was on National Radio this morning saying that it’s just more bluster from POAL and they don’t have any actual proof or evidence that any such threatening or bullying behaviour has taken place.

      Someone else pointed out yesterday that even if this was the case, legally the port would be required to identify individuals to lock out because of this ‘unsafe’ behaviour, they can’t simply lock out all union workers unless they have proof that the union has been deliberately working together or instructing its members to behave that way. Which clearly they haven’t.

      • JH 1.1.1

        The port’s press release giving the lockout notice for 14 days time and also saying that the workers won’t be able to work for the intervening period – ie they will be locked out – does not cite health and safety as a reason for the immediate lock out without notice.

        Even if there was a health and safety issue (and no-one has presented any evidence of this) it doesn’t give them the power to lock out all the union workers without notice.

      • higherstandard 1.1.2

        Well if they do have such information or evidence pointing to it being unsafe to allow the striking workers back onto the port they will hardly be sharing it with the papers. From my understanding there will be meeting this morning between POAL and MUNZ wherein the previously striking workers will be allowed back into the ports to work as long as they agree to certain health and safety requirements.

        It would be prudent for POAL and MUNZ and the CTU and various bloggers to STFU do what they are going to do and expedite any mediation which to my mind will be a waste of time as both sides have specific items which they will not back down on.

        If anyone on either side thinks that POAL or MUNZ are covering themselves in anything apart from disdain and derision of the majority of the NZ public then IMO they are delusional

        • Well if they do have such information or evidence pointing to it being unsafe to allow the striking workers back onto the port they will hardly be sharing it with the papers.

          Uh, why exactly wouldn’t they be sharing that? They don’t seem particularly concerned with good faith or workers’ rights, so I don’t really see anything stopping them from doing a whispers game.

          No, the reason we haven’t heard from them is because they’re lying, they’re out of options, and this lockout is essentially them backing themselves into a corner.

      • Fortran 1.1.3

        Are you aware that serious threat have been made on Social media, in particularly Facebook.
        And that over recent days these have been professionally downloaded and collected, in order that they may be used in court, should it be necessary to use them to show threats.
        MUNZ should check their social listings, but it may be too late.

        • McFlock 1.1.3.1

          Personally, I certainly would expect a bad faith employer to trawl its employees’ social networking pages in order to find anything it can beat up or take offense at in court. Even “professionally”. 
                 
          Threatening is a criminal offence, regardless of employment proceedings. How many arrests have been made as a result of these “professional” investigations?

    • Fisiani 1.2

      Certainly IB . http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/
      There is a menacing air hanging over the Ports of Auckland today. Not without some justification, the Ports of Auckland is refusing to let union heavies back onto the wharf. All they need to do is look through the Facebook pages of union strikers and see the threats, both overt and implied about what they are going to do the “scabs” when they get back on the wharf.

      IrishBill: I said put up, not puke up. Take a week off – I’ll not allow this site to be used to spread poal/slater smear lines.

      [lprent: Increased to 8 weeks. His comments over the last month have been pure idiot statement trolling – frequently duplicated from week to week and day to day.

      When he comes back if I see any trace of similar idiot level trolling then I’ll ban him permanently.

      I’ve been meaning to go back and point out the comments that are just copies of each other. But I’m a bit busy. ]

      • Hateatea 1.2.1

        Are you serious? You are quoting Slater as a reliable source? What, apart from coffee, have you taken this morning?

        • higherstandard 1.2.1.1

          No sillier than quoting The Standard as a reliable source which is done here with remarkable frequency – between the POAL and the Nick Smith debacle there’s between an incessant stench on the blogs along with some of the vilest comments I’ve seen on NZ blogs for quite awhile.

          I can understand peoples interest in these issues and their wish to comment but perhaps if everyone backed off for 48 hours and let things cool down a bit a more sensible discourse could take place.

          [lprent: “…done here with remarkable frequency…”. Good search makes it easy to find. The reason that many link to our posts is because they’re usually full of links to other articles and posts. That is why the authors write them like that. We tend to be a bit like The Economist; you may disagree with our opinion biases, but the bias is known, and there is a lot of backing information in the posts and comments for you to read to make up your own mind. ]

          • Lanthanide 1.2.1.1.1

            Although actually The Standard very rarely posts what it claims to be factual / new information, which Slater does all the time.

            The Standard is generally gathering up things of interest and then writing an opinion on them.

            [lprent: The authors do. Otherwise correct. There are occasional OIA’s (like the ones that I posted this morning) and SP stuck his nose into the companies office. But generally we express our views rather than act a news gathering organisation. We’re a voluntary outfit so are not resources for news gathering. ]

    • Rob 1.3

      Yeah, because locked out and striking union members have never intimidated other workers before…..

      [lprent: Point to charges being laid and at least one successfully persecuted court case by tomorrow. Otherwise I’ll treat you as a idiot troll and give you a 2 month ban. In the meantime you’re on auto-moderation. ]

      • IrishBill 1.3.1

        Again, put up or shut up.

        • Pete George 1.3.1.1

          POAL themselves have claimed it.

          “We are obviously concerned about our staff that are already working at the port, they have been subjected to much intimidation and threats of physical violence,” he told Radio New Zealand.

          “That’s our first priority … to make sure that they’re looked after, because the last thing we want is a situation down at that port which would just be a huge health and safety risk.”

          Mr Pearson said lifting the lockout would depend on assurances from the union.

          http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10794025

          Obviously that’s unsubstantiated, but if the unions made an assurance they won’t tolerate any possible violence or intimidation it would make it clear if anything does happen it would be rogue and not sanctioned.

          • IrishBill 1.3.1.1.1

            How about you make an assurance you’ll not murder any more kittens before I let you comment here again?

            • Pete George 1.3.1.1.1.1

              I promise not to murder any more kittens, and not to feed my cat red herrings.

              • McFlock

                IB, I feel intimidated about being here with a self-confessed kitten-murderer. It’s not just rumour, he admitted it himself!
                   
                I am, after all, merely a defenseless scab. Oh who will protect me from the kitten-crusher? The stress his continued presence causes me is a clear health and safety issue…

                   
                 

            • chaz 1.3.1.1.1.2

              Your example is inaccurate.

              Port management statements (and evidence – e.g. trespass notices and sackings) that cases of intimidation and threats have already occurred is not linked to their demand for future assurances.

              Port management has asked for assurances that there will no intimidation or threats of violence. Why wouldn’t the union simply agree to that assurance?

              Your example would be accurate if you had said:

              “How about you make an assurance you’ll not murder any kittens before I let you comment here again?”

              I’m happy to make that assurance. I’m also happy to assure you that I will not seek to initimate, threaten, or jeopardise the safety of any worker at the auckland port or anywhere else.

              Now why won’t your union pals do the same?

              • KJT

                LOL. MUNZ have been constantly reminding members that physical violence and damage to property is not on.

                I am not surprised though that feelings get a bit high considering the sheer volume of BS from POAL.

              • McFlock

                So they’re brutish thugs who will threaten lives, but their honour will not let them tell even a tiny fib or even not threaten anyone so they can get back to work?

                     
                Maybe the fact is that the request is a pretty massive insult?
                   
                PoAL have only one of two reasons to even make the request: firstly, every single one of the 300 union members has been making threats, so asking for a collective promise is appropriate (rather than just dealing with individuals concerned), or simply to throw more PR smoke because making such a “promise” would be spun as a tacit admission that this is how unionists behaved previously.
                   
                One is less likely than the other. 

                • chaz

                  I would have thought that someone posting on this site would understand that the whole point of having a union is that negotiations are carried out as a collective?

                  On the other hand if you think management should be negotiating separately with each and every worker I’m sure they would be glad to – wait….doesn’t that make them individual contractors??

                  • Te Reo Putake

                    No, it doesn’t make them individual contractors. And you don’t get to decide what the point of unions is, fool. The union members decide that for themselves.

                    • McFlock

                      Chaz obviously is victim of the impression that unions are a borg-style collective into which everyone is assimilated and follows instructions from the networked hivemind core.
                         
                      Shame when they start believing their own bullshit. 

                    • Chaz

                      If McFlock is calling for management to negotiate directly with workers, that’s exactly what they are, it doesn’t matter how you dress it up.

                      The point of a union is that it acts on behalf of a collective. If you deny that then we might as well agree that black is white and water runs uphill.

                    • McFlock

                      My collective contract is up for renegotiation shortly. That is a union matter.
                            
                      In the meantime, my boss is still entitled to expect me to fulfil my job description and current contract, work professionally with staff, and comply with health and safety policies. Should I fail to live up to those reasonable expectations, my boss can work through the performance management process. Should I choose to involve the union in that process, fine, but (and this is the subtlety you seem unable to comprehend) it is a seperate issue to the contract negotiation. Two issues, two processes. If I were in the wrong, I could be fired. That is a different issue from the larger contract negotiation.
                           
                      Get it?

          • Eddie 1.3.1.1.2

            You righties are having trouble reading this morning, eh? This is a lockout at an essential service that relates to collective bargaining – even if they claim health and safety it’s still in the context of collective bargaining. Therefore a fourteen day notice period is required. That hasn’t happened. That’s illegal.

            • higherstandard 1.3.1.1.2.1

              And the court will rule as such on that today if necessary.

            • Pete George 1.3.1.1.2.2

              That may be the case, I’m not arguing with that.

              What sort of time frame is allowed between ending a strike and restarting work? There must be some practical allowance for getting the workplace ready? Odd if there isn’t.

              • Lanthanide

                They would then have to prove that the workspace isn’t ready. Which would be difficult.

              • Hayden

                What do you think they’ve done to the workplace in the meantime? Taken away the comfy cushions?

                • They might have to try and rustle up one or two ships to work on.

                  • Lanthanide

                    So they fall back under their existing contracts where they are employed and paid by the port whether there are ships to unload/load or not.

                    Any lack of ships is entirely the POALs fault at this point.

          • grumpy 1.3.1.1.3

            With the loss of Fonterra and others, will there be enough work for all the MUNZ members, and, if not, how will the jobs be prioritised?

            Will the existing non-union labour be preferred?

            I can see how there could be scope for heated feelings.

            • Blighty 1.3.1.1.3.1

              it would be illegal to ‘prefer’ non-union Labour.

              Bill of Rights, freedom of association. Explicitly referenced in the ERA

      • queenstfarmer 1.3.2

        [lprent: Point to charges being laid and at least one successfully persecuted court case by tomorrow.

        Hmm, so this site runs numerous stories labelling the POAL’s current actions as “illegal” – despite no prosecution – but now another commentator is not allowed to suggest illegal tactics by union members without pointing to a successful prosecution… Perhaps a double-Standard?

        • McFlock 1.3.2.1

          As far as I know the actions of PoAL are not in dispute, just their ethics and legality.
               
          On the other hand, allegations of union threats and sabotage attempts seem to be very much disputed. Oh, if someone really did try to tip over a crane with a clamp, then that would be illegal and I’d expect criminal charges to be laid. But you seem to confuse making supportable claims about the legal basis or consequences of acts with making unsupported allegations and vague innuendo about what acts have and have not been committed.

        • IrishBill 1.3.2.2

          If you’ve got a problem with how this blog is run then start your own blog and take our tens of thousands of readers off us by producing a better product. The blogosphere is a free market with extremely low entry costs, after all.

        • Chaz 1.3.2.3

          Lprent, it’s a fair point isn’t it? You have banned posters because you say they have alleged that threats, intimidation and bullying behavior have occurred, you say without evidence being presented, which is unacceptable to you.

          The only evidence you seem to be prepared to accept is a prosecution, in spite of numerous threats and intimidating remarks made in this very thread, and actual evidence in the form of trespass notices, sackings and eyewitness testimony. The episode of the female worker being bullied and having her car assaulted by a gang of strikers has not been denied in this thread, it’s simply been passed off as not very important, no one was killed, and c’est la guerre. Follow up language including calls for the drowning of so-called scabs has followed.

          Well I think that most New Zealanders would hold the view that a gang of burly men, in semi darkness, assaulting a lone female in her car was intimidating, bullying, and thuggish; as is much of the language and threats outlined in this thread. Whether or not the posters ever intend to carry through on their calls for action is irrelevant to the charge of intimidatory behaviour, which is all too evident.

          If you don’t agree that’s perhaps the root of the problem here. In the eyes of many people posting here a level of violence and intimidation seems to be acceptable and part of the ‘game’. Hardly the family-friendly face the union has been trying to portray, is it?

          But returning to the question of what constitutes evidence, and repetitive postings.

          Since only a prosecution counts as evidence will you be issuing banning notices to the people repetitively posting here about a so-called illegal lockout? Or is there a different set of rule for opinions that you might happen to agree with?

          [lprent: Nope. I haven’t banned any for anything like those reasons. However Irish has banned one, and I increased their ban because they’d been trolling after the past weeks and I increased it to double their last ban – as I usually do if people pick up a ban too close to their last one. I find it helps to reduce the probability of people trying to game the bans system.

          There is one person on a stop commenting notice unless they provide something backing their allegations of illegal deeds in the past.

          Since those alleged deeds are completely illegal, then I’d expect that there will be charges and convictions to backup their claims. They are merely been told that they have to backup their claims with some evidence. Since I don’t know of any myself (and I keep an eye on the courts), I rather suspect that he is simply lying. I’m expecting that Rob will have a holiday from posting comments here tomorrow.

          And again. You have made a specific allegation. Unlike Rob, you don’t have a track record here. You haven’t offered any evidence for your allegation. So you are banned unless you posts some links to complaints and charges. I don’t expect it to be anything more than bullshit.. ]

          • xtasy 1.3.2.3.1

            Chaz: When management declare war to the port workers, they resorting then to employ scab labour to do the job that legally the POA worker should be doing, then that is a state of war, my dear!

            How would you feel if your boss suddenly decides, well I do not want to pay you anymore, do want to change our employment terms and tells you to sign at the dotted line, without any consultation and consideration for reasonable advice? I get from your post, you would abide and sign the dotted line.

            That makes you a mercenary or even slave minded worker.

            It is common legal understanding that agreements between parties must be made fairly and reasonably, without undue influence and intimidation and so forth.

            What we have here is unreasonableness and thus the workers at the port have every right to raise their issues, take a stand and not agree to such unfair, unreasonable and dictating terms.

            If other workers come in and sign unreasonable deals, then they are scabs!

            Would you agree to your rights being infringed on? Would you agree to your home being burgled for questionable reasons? Would you agree to be raped, to be disowned, to be treated like a slave who has to agree to what you are dictated to?

            I disagree with violence, with threats and the likes. But you are here operating as a person subverting the honest agenda that is followed by workers with reasonable expectations. YOU are a SABOTEUR or sorts and better take this advice and rethink!

    • Corundell 1.4

      Get it right Fisiani!!!…The only safety risk will be to the wharfies, they would have to watch there backs due to intimidation, bully and sabotage by scabs and POA management…Who shit on them…So you are saying scabs are HONEST!!!…Get off the green when you scab on your mates you will do the same to anyone…

    • Georgecom 1.5

      Gees Fisiani, you must be really strong to be pulling that really long bow of yours.

      If you are claiming intimidation and sabotage whilst the workers have been denied work or been on strike, then it must stand to reason the antidote is for them to actually be back at work. Allow them back to work whilst POA negotiate in good faith and the bullying, sabotage etc won’t occur.

      I have no doubt MUNZ will be informing their members not to do anything silly. Any worker than getting up to silliness is then able to be identified, a proper complaint laid against them, the matter can be investigated and the necessary corrective action applied.

      So having dealt with that matter, nothing to stop POA allowing their workers back in eh.

      Rob

    • xtasy 1.6

      Fisiani: What about the constant “intimidation” that POA workers have suffered from the management, threatening them repeatedly with loss of jobs, of income, of decent living, and yes, a right to exist and survive?

      You come across unconvincing, because if such behaviour took place, it would be a matter for the police. So how many complaints were laid, taken seriously and pursued then?

      What you claim and write is full of mischief. The workers have now been treated like crap so many times, by a management, who has clearly only one goal, to break the worker’s representative (the union), to divide workers, to manipulate workers and the wider public, to disown workers, to cheat them and treat them with utter contempt.

      If there has been any bullying, sabotage, intimidation and more, it was committed by the board and management of POA, their newly created agencies offering scab labour, and the divisions that resulted are simply the mistrust and disapproval between legitimate POA workers (illegally threatened with redundancies) and newly hired workers, who would do anything, to abide by slave like conditions, thus also being a pawn in the game.

      So your self and who you represent, take this on board, shut your loud, wrong mouth and get real, please.

  2. grumpy 2

    Dunno how you an claim it to be “illegal”. It will need a court to determine that. MUNZ are seeking an injunction, so that should say one way or the other.

  3. Uturn 3

    “Brown can’t stand by and let these two loose units damage his city any longer.”

    Sure he can! One thing I learned by experience in my twenties was, never underestimate the stupidity of the NZ businessman – that includes politicians. The foreign national (some would call him “one of the elite”) I was working for at the time was flabbergasted, during his interaction with them, at their lack of ability to do anything but lose once their egos were pricked. One board of directors closed their large company down, rather than lose face.

    Brown will give up his Mayoralty if he thinks his overall postion, within his circles, remains unchanged. It’s mind boggling that they think people “below them” want to be just like them.

  4. Hippynz 4

    Unions do no good for anyone now days. Get rid of these bllies and employ people that want to work instead of bullies that just want to have aa holiday at the expense of the tax payer while calling it a strike.

    • thatguynz 4.1

      Wow just wow.  I’m far from being a unionist – never having been a member of one and all but…  I don’t believe every last bit of crap that I’m spoon-fed.  You seem to be truly living up to your name.

    • David H 4.2

      We have been through this before. But for the very slow, and totally one eyed RWNJ’s and their hangers on. and Fisiani. I will repeat it.

      With out Unions you would ALL be in work houses, getting paid fark all. The supposedly hated unions are responsible for a lot of evils aren’t they? So lets list a few.

      40hr week
      3 weeks holiday a year
      Bereavement leave
      Sick leave
      Smoko Breaks
      Lunch Breaks
      Fair wages and Conditions.
      It is a terrible list isn’t it Just look at all those nasty things that the Unions have fought for to make the workers lives easier.

      And what do the NACTS want to bring in?? or should I say bring BACK in.

      Slave rates for our young workers
      Slave rates for anyone who is not a Boss or better
      No job security (fire at will)
      the Bullshit 90 day trial period.
      Lockouts
      There you go Fisiani or what ever handle you are using today. This is your lot, So stick with them, and when you loose your job. Don’t complain to a Union, remember you hate them so much.

  5. The “threat” of violence is being raised as a pretext.  If there was an actual concern it should have been raised with the Court and been the subject of directions.  The fact it was not suggests very strongly that POAL is looking for any pretext to continue this dispute.

    • What level of confidence do you have that there has been none – say, this year (aren’t there recorded cases from last year?)

      • Te Reo Putake 5.1.1

        Number of police prosecutions: nil.
         
        Number of videos of violence: nil
         
        Number of fantasy claims via WhaleOil: infinite.
         
        Even if there were isolated cases of violence, that does not make this lockout legal. But the fact is, there are none at all, except for the illegal bullying of it’s workers by the Port.
         
        By the way, I think it is utterly amazing that MUNZ have been so disciplined in the way they have run their picket line. It’s a tribute to how well organised they are.

      • mickysavage 5.1.2

        What skerret of proof do you have that there have been any?  Until someone, anyone, comes up with verifiable proof you are all wasting oxygen by continuing this discussion.

        • Pete George 5.1.2.1

          You’ve avoided answering the question.

          If POAL board members were filmed rocking cars of union members would you have any concerns?

          I don’t know if these are accurate reports claims or not…

          Mr Harrison was sacked on January 24 after an investigation concluded he made violent threats against a non-union employee and his family, calling the employee a “f**king piece of s**t”. Investigation by the Employment Relations Authority was delayed because of the industrial dispute.

          Mr Angus was reinstated while his case was heard by the Employment Relations Authority but was sacked a second time after he was caught on camera throwing a twist-lock under a straddle crane.

          Mr Lingard says a fifth union member, official delegate Dave Phillips, who was not employed by PoAL, was served a trespass notice in December after he entered the port’s mess-room and threatened non-union employees with violence.

          http://m.nbr.co.nz/article/meet-maritime-unions-bargaining-team-co-p-112582

          …but if they are they could be concerning to people wanting safety at work on the wharf.

          • mickysavage 5.1.2.1.1

            So if three behave inappropriately and 297 behave appropriately all 300 should be locked out?  Give me a break.
             
            Does this mean that because a member of the United Future Party is a loon they are all loons?

            • freedom 5.1.2.1.1.1

              Does this mean that because a member of the United Future Party is a loon they are all loons?
              (possibly a poor example?)

            • hawk 5.1.2.1.1.2

              So if there are comments on facebook…threatening violence. That are Anon like most comments on the internet theyou are suggesting the ports should trust that they could not come from any of the MUNZ members.

              Unless people I feel own up to the comments posted on facebook etc then they have no way of telling being able to tell if they are current workers or not. So to lessen the riskto current workers have locked out all potential people that have a likelyhood of making those comments.

              Easy to fix the comments made can be owned up to be the individuals that made them then they can be locked out while the others work.

            • Half Crown Millionare 5.1.2.1.1.3

              Does this mean that because a member of the United Future Party is a loon they are all loons?

              Yes

            • David H 5.1.2.1.1.4

              But with only two loons you can’t really have a looney party. Just the Hair and his devout comb carrier.

          • McFlock 5.1.2.1.2

            Love the way you put in “I don’t know if these are accurate reports claims or not” as a disclaimer before quoting the tory press (doing what looks like yet another privacy violation by releasing private employment information) carte blanche. That way, if it turns out that any or all of the cases were beat-ups or outright lies you have deniability. Classy.

  6. KeepOurAssetsDon'tSell. 6

    It’s obvious to me the real reason for this dispute is ideological: TPTB in New Zealand, the government and POAL are hellbent to eliminate Union Power which power gives workers fair pay and conditions. It’s no coincidence this is happening under Shonkey’s watch and his RWNJ colleagues.

    The same outrageous behaviours have been aimed at Qantas workers in Australia to break their Union

    Link:http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30887.htm

    “Up, Up And Away: How Money Power Works Down Under”

    By John Pilger

    “It was an article of faith that the world’s only island-continent, flanked by the two greatest oceans, needed a long-haul airline – until the asset-strippers took control. What followed is a cautionary, universal tale. Last October, without warning, the Qantas Chief executive, Alan Joyce, ordered the grounding of the airline’s global fleet. More than 68,000 passengers were stranded in 22 countries, and the entire Qantas workforce was locked out without pay. Joyce later admitted that tickets had been “mistakenly” sold for flights that Qantas management would never take off; the grounding had been planned well in advance.
    This unprecedented action was the climax of a plan to crush the unions, Murdoch-style, and to take much of the company “off-shore” into Asia.”

  7. Enough is Enough 7

    We all know the end game here for PoAL is the destruction of the Union forever. When these rich white men sit around the board table they will be discussing one thing and how to achieve it. You can bet they have factored in 12 months of poor returns in their pursuit of their key objective.

    That is why this is the toughest war workers have had in decades. We are up against a boss that wants to destroy a democratic union and will do whatever it takes to get their including adopting illegal tactics and running the business into the ground.

    This is class war people. They have drawn the line. Time to pick a side and fight for democracy before these rich white men destroy it

    • KeepOurAssetsDon'tSell. 7.1

      Hi Enough is Enough
      You are 100% right.

    • Draco T Bastard 7.2

      You can bet they have factored in 12 months of poor returns in their pursuit of their key objective.

      Nope, they’re just going for their key objective (the destruction of the unions and pauperising everybody else) and have no concerns about how much it’s costing Auckland.

  8. Te Reo Putake 8

    The POAL/MUNZ meeting has ended and POAL has decided to continue breaking the law by locking out its workers:
     
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10794055

  9. Te Reo Putake 9

    Latest Press release from MUNZ:

    Auckland residents and businesses will be mortified to learn the Ports may only be functioning properly for a week before Ports management shut it down again.

    Ports management this morning told the Maritime Union that their intention is that none of the 292 wharfies covered by the collective agreement will have any work until next Friday March 30th at the earliest.

    The company has said they’ve asked their shift allocators to then ‘look out’ for shifts for the workers from next Friday onwards.

    The Port will then attempt to lock the workers out from April 6th.

    “Aucklanders should be angry that Ports management has no clear plan in place to get the Ports up and running as quickly as possible again,” Garry Parsloe said.

    “When the company put on ice their plan to dismiss its workforce and contract out the jobs, and agree to return to complete the negotiations, Ports workers were able to immediately end their strike action.”

    “The wharfies are ready to get this Port up and running again for Auckland. We need ships back in, and stock moved.”

    “The company are coming up with excuse after excuse about why they can’t get Auckland’s Port fully functioning again. The latest rosters debacle is another sideshow.”

    The Maritime Union has today filed an injunction to declare the lockout unlawful, Garry Parsloe said.

  10. burt 10

    Right… so we need to consider the impact on Auckland of shutting down the port operations…. But this wasn’t a concern when the unions were calling the strike becuase workers rights are mor important than increased freight costs to consumers…..

    FFS guys… you are making a rod for your own backs taking this tact, I hope you are comfortable with that rod when it gets used against you.

    • Blighty 10.1

      God you’re dumb, burt. there were posts here talking about the economic cost throughout the strikes.

      The strikes were the result of the Port management’s actions.

    • Uturn 10.2

      That is a good point, but if MUNZ starting telling Aucklanders that this dispute was the illustration of a Class War, not an issue of wages, hours and permanent work, most of them would fall asleep. He’s addressing those of the classes, that include the media; those “caring conservatives”; those who haven’t figured out how it is they are wealthy, but have figured out that if they behave in much the same way they always have, believe the same things they’ve been told to believe, stay in the social slot assigned to them, then the money keeps coming. From where the money comes… now there’s the rub!

      So you reckon, MUNZ, should just go to war on NZ?

      Do you think it would be a good move for MUNZ to publish research that cites “no stable long term work” as the most influencial driver of increasing poverty – and base their argument on that?

      Or attack the margin, investment, profit merry-go-round gospel the population has embraced, not by education, but almost by inhaling it from the air?

      Or even try what Eddie has done in his most recent post, open the can of worms about how the middle classes and above make their money – effectively exposing them as social parasites?

      Well, MUNZ could. They could take you advice. Maybe they just don’t want to be fighting a war on several fronts at once. What MUNZ are doing is using the… nah, it’s funnier to watch!

      The effect of the strike action was brutally rammed home to shoppers last night in the supermarket: the stock of Smiley Balls – children’s rubber kick balls – is unavailable till further notice. Won’t someone on the POAL board think of the children and end this senseless illegal action?

  11. Kevin 11

    @Pete George

    The examples of abuse you quoted wouldn’t be sufficient to close the Port due to health and safety concerns. For example calling someone a f..king piece of s…t would not present an immediate threat to Port operations.
    No one is being fooled by POAL’s antics, it is a cat and mouse game but increasingly POAL are looking foolish and amateurish.

    • David H 11.1

      And look at the foolish and amateurish supporters the POAL have on here.

      You know when you look at a class of school students goofing off. And you shake your head when you realise that these could be the next leaders of our country / industry.

      Well I give silent thanks that some of the goof offs I see in here, are NOT, or will ever be in charge of our country / Industry .

  12. Dr Terry 12

    Just whose “health and safety” is threatened? Surely that of union members and their families. The workers well-being is threatened by the rich employers, I would say! It appears to me, also, that the employers are repaying the court for what it, of course, regards as an “unfavourable” finding. Does this come close to contempt of court?

  13. chaz 13

    Your efforts to pretend there has been no threats of violence or safety issues are frankly laughable.

    There are current trespass notices in place against a MUNZ official because he encourged violence against non union workers – He won’t be back on the port for a couple of years – that’s a fact.

    There are MUNZ workers that have been walked off the port because they engaged in activities such as putting obstacles behind the vehicles of non union workers, that’s a fact as well.

    And this is a statement below made by a woman terrorised by the workers the last time they blocked the roads. I suppose this is all made up as well is it?

    ——————-
    One woman who works in the area, who did not want to be identified, said she was confronted by 20 to 30 men in dark hoodies when she arrived at the Solent St entrance at 6.15am.

    “After making me stop they demanded to know where I worked and when I told them I didn’t work for the ports and didn’t feel comfortable telling them were I worked and asked them to please move, I had them lean on my car call me a ‘stupid f**ing bitch’ telling me to ‘get a real job’ and pushing it backwards.”

    The woman said she was “extremely upset” by the incident and called police.

    “Feeling totally intimidated I started to move my car forwards and they threw themselves on it and shoved a road cone under my car.
    —————-

    [lprent: And for some strange reason there is no link, no substantiation. How unexpected from a idiot troll. ]

    • Uturn 13.1

      All depends on your perspective really. The story could be headlined: “Woman discovers life is not so suburby-simple”.

      Most NZders are lucky that they never see how their lifestyle is paid for – they think money creates the trinkets they buy, like Santa at the north pole, but instead a paradisical place run by dollar bill Elves. They hand over the cash for the imported product, the cash turned up in their account by electronic magic, from the corporate they work at shuffling papers and pressing keyboard buttons – that’s all they see. Ain’t life simple? If she wasn’t living in NZ, there’s a good chance that she’d be lucky to be alive instead of just “extremely upset”.

      • chaz 13.1.1

        Wow, so when we are talking about violence what we really mean is that it is all just a matter of sematics. I understand your position completely now.

        Thanks for clearing that up.

        I’m terrifically grateful that no MUNZ workers have killed me, and I’ll be sure to pass that on.

        PS: I’d love to participate further in this, but my lunch hour is over, and sadly I have to get back to work.

        • McFlock 13.1.1.1

          I certainly am surprised that men in hoodies would use profane language.
               
          Since when do “road cones” = “murder”? Shit, besides the f-bomb, lying on someone’s car isn’t “violent”. They’re just lucky the driver wasn’t a jumped-up egotist who would have just run them over and possibly really killed them, like happened a couple of years ago.
           
          By the way, what was your source for that little anecdote? 

          • Chaz 13.1.1.1.1

            This is the article I got the material from: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/6559176/I-do-not-advocate-violence-Willie-Jackson-addresses-ports-comments

            It also points out that when Willie Jackson was calling on strikers to smash their placards on the cars of port workers, he meant that in a non-violent way.

            [lprent: I see that in your own link that Jackson didn’t advocate violence? I thought violence was against a person? Property damage doesn’t quite fall into the same level. I think that you are just a dumb troll. ]

            • Colonial Viper 13.1.1.1.1.1

              Right wingers always focus on physical violence. Because often that is all that labour can muster, not having the financial resources to muster the different forms of corporate violence a large organisation can use against people and their families.

              Right wingers always try and obscure that fact.

        • Jackal 13.1.1.2

          chaz

          One woman who works in the area, who did not want to be identified, said she was confronted by 20 to 30 men in dark hoodies when she arrived at the Solent St entrance at 6.15am.

          LOL. That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all week.

    • Te Reo Putake 13.2

      Big deal, chump. As you yourself point out, that official has been trespassed and won’t be returning. So why can’t the workers go back?
       
      And why shouldn’t the scabs be packing themselves, anyway? They made a concious choice to attack their fellow workers and now they’re on the losing side. As the London piece says;

      “No man has a right to scab so long as there is a pool of water to drown his carcass in, or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
       
      I’d suggest the Waitemata is a perfectly adequate pool of water for that purpose.
       

      • chaz 13.2.1

        The more you guys talk the less anyone else has to.
        The fact that you think this kind of sentiment is at all appropriate says it all.

        • Te Reo Putake 13.2.1.1

          C’est le vie, c’est la guerre.
           
          POAL will not be able to defend their illegal lockout on the basis of what an anonymous poster says on an unrelated blog, Pete. As you well know.

        • Tiger Mountain 13.2.1.2

          Hey chaz you turd on legs, it could be time to read the full text of Jack London’s “Ode to the scab” and learn something of how taking food from the table of families of the workers being deprived of their livelihoods is all about.

          • Chaz 13.2.1.2.1

            I don’t think Jack’s sentiments would have been so vehemently on the side of people earning (an audited by Ernest and Young) 91,000 per year somehow.

            • thatguynz 13.2.1.2.1.1

              And there’s the kicker.  Has the $91k figure not been roundly debunked previously?

              • lprent

                Yes. It is complete crap – including the E&Y ‘audit’ which is just a description from a idiot who has no idea that what it means when an accounting company audits accounts.

                chaz is just another idiot fuckwit troll who literally can’t discuss anything without a playbook next to him saying what to write next. Lets see what he says in comment 11 and ask ourselves who inserted the next pile of crap into his fingers.

                I’m getting rather tired and less tolerant of trolls again. Must be working a damn sight harder than they try to.

                • Chaz

                  I’m not sure what you mean by comment 11 lprent, but I thought you were all in favour of evidence.

                  The EY report is a published and attested document.

                  Do you have one of similar authority that debunks it, or is it just a matter of adding up hourly rates, ignoring allowances and penalty time, to arrive at a number that suits your argument?

                  Mark Cairns the CEO of Tauranga Port is on record stating that the contracted employees at Tauranga are earning at this level or higher.

                  It must be terrifically inconvenient to have all this out in the public arena, but i suppose if everything the ‘righties’ says is a lie, then you can just heap ridicule on it and describe that as ‘debunking’.

                  [lprent: If it is public – then where is your link? ]

                  • rosy

                    Try this from ‘Scoop’:

                    A number of commentators in the media, such as former National Party MP and Food and Grocery Council CEO Katherine Rich and prominent blogger David Farrar have uncritically repeated claims by the Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson that the average port worker is paid $91,000 a year. No detailed figures have been released to back this claim. In contrast the Maritime Union has released a fact sheet showing how much their members at the Ports of Auckland are paid. A Ports of Auckland worker is guaranteed $1090.40 for a 40 hour week, that is $56,700 per year. The union says earning $91,000 a year would be theoretically possible if one worked 1377 hours on top of a normal working year. This would be the equivalent of an extra 34 full working weeks on top of a full year of work. Workers at the Port are not paid penal rates for working overtime. Working these sorts of hours would mean almost never having a day off. This imaginary $91,000 figure also doesn’t take into account that overtime is not always offered because there are not always extra ships visiting the Port that need loading and unloading.

                    And this from the Herald about the PoT

                    “It makes it quite a dangerous place to work. I’m not saying the bosses are horrible but they are squeezing us. Because you are casual you are forced to take what shifts you can …”

                    This was usually in the form of “rolling shifts”, resulting in tired staff with a dangerous environment, the worker said.

                    Casual workers at the port make on average nearly $20 an hour before tax.

                    There’s plenty of stuff out there contradicting the Port management.

                    • Chaz

                      I’ve offered evidence Lprent, published eyewitness testimony which if untrue is defamatory of the union. I haven’t noticed any charges being laid for defamation have you? To apply your twisted logic then by defintion that makes it true doesn’t it?

                      Not to mention the threats made in this actual blog and the defence of violence on the grounds that it isn’t actually very bad violence.

                      Your crusade against people making allegations without evidence looks like nothing more than a device to reduce debate to the usual standard of dog-whistling that applies here.

                      Good luck with that.

                      The EY report by the way, whihc your posters claim not to exist is report on here:

                      http://needforchange.poal.co.nz/News/Other/120309_Stevedore_Remuneration.htm

                      [lprent: Back from a blog free weekend. But I can see that you’re running at the classic troll standard for stupidity when asked for evidence.

                      What you have referred to is not anything to do with a report by E&Y. It is a PR statement made by the Ports of Auckland that cherry picks a few unrelated numbers from a report by E&Y. Now I expect that you are too thick to understand how much of a difference that makes.

                      I and many others suspect that the figures here have some interesting criteria on them. For instance the total cost of having employees including such things as employer contributions to Kiwisaver, health insurance, and many other things that shouldn’t be part of such a calculation when looking at wage remuneration. If you look at the hourly rates and the number of hours that the PoA is asserting that wharfies work, then the is a substantial hole.

                      The port has so far proven to be unwilling to release any of the information about how this is calculated, including any reports done on their numbers. In fact I’d say that they are somewhat scared of doing so.

                      But basically you’re trying to pass off warmed over discredited propaganda from the PR wing of the port as being a report by auditors. That is really dumb. Banned for 2 weeks for being unable to backup your assertions. ]

                    • McFlock

                      Doofus,
                        
                      “testimony” involves named witnesses referring to specific incidents that have enough information for others to refute or support it. You linked to rumour and innuendo.
                        
                      And you didn’t link to the EY report, you linked to PoAL highlights of what they claim was in the report, selectively quoted out of context.
                        
                       

                  • thatguynz

                    Quite frankly I’m less concerned about the so-called left/right paradigm than I am about hearing the facts.  Left and right are just nice convenient labels that some may use to determine whether they deem other peoples opinions as worth listening to or not.
                     
                    There were a number of comments here a couple of weeks ago that IIRC debunked the “audited” $91k figures.  To substantiate my previous comment further, you may want to look at those and draw your own conclusions as to whether the $91k average is accurate or not.

                    • “To substantiate my previous comment further, you may want to look at those and draw your own conclusions as to whether the $91k average is accurate or not.”

                      So let’s assume, for a moment, “thatguynz”, that the $91,000 is accurate and the figures haven’t been inflated (as I suspect they have).

                      Let’s assume that the Port workers earn fantastic sums.

                      So what?

                      Considering the the CEO is being paid three quarters of a million dollars pa, (plus perks?) do you begrudge him that?

                      Considering that POAL Board members appear to be paid, on average*; $70,833 each, for part-time work of a few hours each week; the sum of $91,000 doesn’t appear to be out-of-line with other “remunerations” paid by that company.

                      So it is unclear to me why some right wing groupies are fixated on what port workers earn. “Envy Politics”, maybe?

                      Indeed, the high wages would seem to be fulfilling Dear Leader’s pledge in ’08 and ’11 to lift wages to parity with Australia;

                      “We will be unrelenting in our quest to lift our economic growth rate and raise wage rates.” – John Key, Prime Minister, 29 January 2008

                      “The driving goal of my Government is to build a more competitive and internationally-focused economy with less debt, more jobs and higher incomes.” – John Key, Prime Minister, 21 December 2011

                      In which case, MUNZ is carrying out National Party policy.

                      Conversely, POAL appears to be doing the opposite.

                      * http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/a-fistful-of-dollars-for-some/

                    • thatguynz

                      Couldn’t agree more Frank – I’ve done my research and I know which side I believe and why.  What I was suggesting was directed to Chaz – that he might like to do the same and draw his own conclusions…

                  • Colonial Viper

                    The EY report is a published and attested document.

                    A report commissioned and paid for by the Board of the POAL.

                    • Colonial, I’ve sent several requests to POAL requesting a full copy of the Ernst & Young report – not just the public precis. I want to see HOW E & Y calculated their sums and arrived at certain figures.

                      Because E & Y’s report appears to totally conflict with POAL’s own stated figures of port worker’s wages. http://www.poal.co.nz/news_media/publications/20120124_POALFactSheet_ErnstandYoung.pdf

                      So so I’ve recieved nothing – not even a “No Can Do”.

                      I have the stronbgest suspicion that the full E & Y report would show calculations that would discredit their case.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      FM – why am I not surprised that they do not want to release the actual report. Good work mate.

                  • Pascal's bookie

                    Mark Cairns the CEO of Tauranga Port is on record stating that the contracted employees at Tauranga are earning at this level or higher.

                    From memory, he said something along the lines that many of the better contractors earned more than the average stated in the EY report. Which isn’t actually saying much when you think about ‘many’ (which doesn’t mean ‘most’, let alone ‘all’) and ‘average’.

                    But if my memory of what he said is correct, then your statement I’ve quoted could be made technically accurate, if misleading, by changing the bolded word to ‘some’, or better yet, just deleting it.

                  • Chaz, in your 24 March 2012 at 2:01 pm post, you state,

                    The EY report by the way, whihc your posters claim not to exist is report on here:

                    http://needforchange.poal.co.nz/News/Other/120309_Stevedore_Remuneration.ht

                    We are all aware of that report. Nothing new there.

                    What I (and others) are seeking is the full breakdown of how Ernst and Young arrived at their figures.

                    Because quite simply, the figure of $91k doesn’t gel with the hourly rate pf $27.26. (Grab a calculator and try it yourself.)

                    I have requested the full report and means of how E&Y arrived at their $91k conclusion, not just their precis. Because Para #10 on the precis indicates to me that E&Y may have included costings that are not normally considered as a worker’s pay.

                    Hence, “remuneration” may not be the same as “pay” if employers’ costs are included.

                    That would be the same as suggesting that Oceania rest home workers are given a remuneration of $20.00/hr instead of their actual pay of $13.61/hr.

                    I have requested the full breakdown from POAL, to no effect.

                    Considering they’ve been only too happy to release data to right wing blogs, I can only assume that their reluctance to release the information I’ve requested can only be because it does not serve their purpose.

                    (By the way, the POAL employee, Catherine Etheredge, no longer works for that company. Instead, I have been dealing with Wayne Thompson, POAL’s Chief Financial Officer.)

                    • Further to above, I’ve emailed Wayne Thompson again;

                      Re:
                      Date: Sunday, 25 March, 2012 11:24 AM
                      From: “Frank Macskasy”
                      To: “Wayne Thompson”

                      Kia Ora, Wayne,

                      Thank you for getting back to me.

                      I have seen the precis of the E&Y report on alleged port workers’ “remuneration”.

                      What I am seeking is E&Y’s full analysis as to how they calculated port workers’ “remuneration”. The precise which is publicly available, and which you sent me, is not not clear in how E&Y made their determinations.

                      I await your response on this issue,

                      Regards,
                      -Frank

            • fender 13.2.1.2.1.2

              There’s many people earning more than that, start your war of wage envy with the highest paid why don’t you.

          • David H 13.2.1.2.2

            And just in case you don’t know how to click a link, Chaz here’s the text.

            The following written by Jack London in 1915.

            Ode To A Scab

            After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.

            When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn’t.

            Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust, or corporation.

            Still fitting words 97 years later.

            And this I found as well
            http://transportworkers.org/node/1129

            ODE TO A BART SCAB by anonymous

            You snake, you rat, you festering scab
            Your spine is weak, your personality drab
            Your morality is nil, your ethics none
            We stood for all, you crossed for one.

            You don’t believe in the strike you say ‘
            But smugly accept your new found pay
            Plus the check you made, the one we lack
            Your blood money for stabbing us in the back.

            Now in the halls, we hear you whine
            Hoping all will be forgiven soon in time
            But our resentment likely will last for years
            You profited from our blood, sweat and tears.

            You sat on your butts, ate like swine
            Have no qualms about crossing the line
            There will be no forgiving, we’re pals no more
            You crossed the line, now we’ve shut the door.

            And if you think management is your friend
            Judas, I advise you to think again
            You’ll struggle, you plead until you’re dead
            But not in this job will you get ahead.

            Because bosses are dense, but they’re not blind
            And they don’t want the odor of your kind
            Lingering on in their one-way cabs
            That malodorous stench of the BART strike scabs.

      • Pete George 13.2.2

        That suggestion may render worthless all the claims of indignation here that there’s no problem with intimidation or threat.

        Maybe Te Reo Putake could confirm if he/she is not one of those out the remaining of the 293 port workers, or affiliated to any union involved in the dispute.

        [lprent: Or maybe not. Requests for others to break privacy tend to draw my attention with what is effectively an open-ended question.

        They degenerate so fast into demands, and then into my having to exert myself banning people. I often abort the entire process by simply pre-emptively banning anyone requesting such information before it escalates into too much work for me and the moderators.

        In other words you can’t ask that without moderator involvement. You can ask someone how they know something if they assert it but not framed as “you must be” (as you have done). I will if requested state if a person is (in my opinion) likely to be who they are claiming to be. ]

        • tsmithfield 13.2.2.1

          However, IF those sentiments expressed by TRP are typical of those held by the wharfies, THEN I can well understand why the POAL is locking them out, legal or not.

          • Te Reo Putake 13.2.2.1.1

            Really, TS? Really? I can assure you the sentiment is widely held in the entire union movement, worldwide. But the question is not about the sentiment itself, but about whether MUNZ members are going to act on the sentiment. So far, there is no evidence that they have or will.
             
            Nice to see you backing law breaking though. Typical Tory, use the law when it suits, break the law when it doesn’t.

            • tsmithfield 13.2.2.1.1.1

              If I thought that the safety of my workers was being threatened by others that I could exclude from my workplace, I would do that and then worry about the legalities of it later. For me, the safety of my workers is more important than legalese.

              Let me ask you: How likely do you think it is that people holding those sentiments will be able to completely divorce them from their behaviour towards those whom you refer to as “scabs”?

              • Te Reo Putake

                They have, so far, TS. And wouldn’t the easiest solution to the safety ‘problem’ be to send the 50 or 60 scabs home on pay and let the real workers work?

                • Do you mean just in case those sentiments are more than just sentiments?

                  And what about the workers you think should be on the wharf – there’s total unity and trust amongst all them? What if some have different sentiments to others?

                  • Pete, the illegal lockout contravenes Employment Relations Act 2000, section 97.

                    That is the same law which forced Wellington port workers back to work, after mounting an unlawful strike.

                    The question begs to be asked; how can POAL get away with breaking the law, whilst workers have to abide by it?

                    The relevant law and section can a be sussed here; http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2000/0024/latest/DLM58317.html

                    • If the law requires it then it should happen. But does the law require an instant re-rostering to a full complement of staff the same day the union decided to stop a strike?

                    • Colonial Viper

                      PG no but a visible plan to get to a full roster should be easy.

                    • toby

                      How is it that the law has been broken with this lockout? Specifically I mean.

                    • McFlock

                      Seriously, Toby?

                    • toby

                      Yes, McFlock. Seriously. In all the blogs and social media I’ve read, not one has managed to provide a legitimate reason why the lock-out is illegal. The ones that attempt to, like the blog entry here, claim that two weeks notice was not given. That is simply untrue and you would know this if you had read the actual notice. It gives 2 weeks notice and states that the lockout starts from 12:01am on 6 April 2012. So, not illegal on that count. Does anybody else have a reason why the lockout is illegal?

                      BTW, the link to the notice is here:
                      http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/news2011/auckland/lockout.pdf

                    • McFlock

                      Read the post again.
                          
                      The illegal lockout is where the employer is refusing to engage the workers right now. Even if you disagree with James’ interpretation, the subject of his argument is pretty obvious. Are you that dim?
                       
                       

                    • toby

                      There’s no need for name calling just because I disagree with you, McFlock. Are you getting a bit angry?
                      The port isn’t ‘refusing to engage the workers’ at all. To say it is, is a gross mischaracterisation. They simply don’t have the work or the roster for the union staff. I don’t know about the Ports, but I get my roster something like two weeks in advance. The Port would have done their roster in advance. Do you really expect the Port to be able to cater for the union staff when the strike action has reduced the number ships visiting and hence there is no work for the extra staff? Do you really think that the Port ought to come up with a new roster immediately which allows the union staff to recommence work instantly, unloading non-existent ships? Come on, be honest with yourself. Think about what would happen if the Port pulled a new roster out of thin air where the union staff show up and do nothing: reality is that they would spend their time heckling and intimidating non-union staff. Hell, Pete George summed it up succinctly but you don’t seem to have taken any notice, so I’ll quote him again:
                      “does the law require an instant re-rostering to a full complement of staff the same day the union decided to stop a strike?”
                       
                      Besides which, a key factor here is that in a real lockout the affected employees don’t get paid. In this case, most likely the union staff who don’t have a roster will get paid up until the lockout tales effect, hence there is no lockout currently in effect.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      Thanks for being an obstructionist management shill Toby.

                      I’m looking forwards to Gibson getting his highly paid ass fired.

                    • McFlock

                      O, okay – so when you were asking about what was illegal about the lockout and talked about the poal notice of a lockout starting on April 6, you actually knew that the “lockout” being referred to in the post is the current state of non-work.
                          
                      I don’t particularly wish to rehash the issues around the current state of “lockout” (or not, for the tory apologists out there) because it’s been throrughly discussed in both the post and the comments. I merely wanted to know whether you were really that dim,  or merely being intentionally obtuse. Obviously it’s the latter.
                         
                      As to your plaintive whining about how hard it is to write a roster, that is neither mine nor MUNZ’s problem. PoAL have an agreement to provide employees who are union members with work. If they hired someone else to do that work as well, that’s nobody’s problem or fault but PoAL management.

                    • toby

                      Gee, McFlock, you are a bit nasty aren’t you?
                      I got the answer to my question – that answer being that there is no illegal lockout and your posts have helped clarify that. So, thanks. BTW, the employer doesn’t have to provide them with work – it just has to pay them. POAL is within their rights to do that. It’s worth noting, also, that it’s not illegal until a judge declares it to be so.
                       
                      @ Colonial Viper: management shill? Very funny, but not true.

                    • McFlock

                      Was I being overly nasty? I was merely trying to establish whether your misunderstanding of the subject of the post was intentional or inadvertant. You claim it to be the former. So really, you are simply complaining that someone was a bit terse when you came to waste people’s time. Imagine that.
                       

                      it’s not illegal until a judge declares it to be so.

                       
                      Not quite. Otherwise trials would have to be held before the offense.
                       
                      As for the nuances of what constitutes a “lockout”, I suggest you actually read the post.
                       
                       

                • tsmithfield

                  “They have, so far, TS.”

                  Well I have seen a few specific examples cited above that would seem to contradict you on that point.

                  “And wouldn’t the easiest solution to the safety ‘problem’ be to send the 50 or 60 scabs home on pay and let the real workers work?”

                  I have seen no evidence that they hold the nasty, vicious sentiments you seem to think union members generally hold. As you said: “I can assure you the sentiment is widely held in the entire union movement, worldwide.”

                  So why should they go?

              • McFlock

                 How likely do you think it is that people holding those sentiments will be able to completely divorce them from their behaviour towards those whom you refer to as “scabs”?

                Bullshit. Show me in employment law where employees have to pretend to like each other.

                Is there a real threat? If yes, suspend the individuals involved while the matter is referred to the police. If no, it’s a bullshit excuse from someone who wants shills like you to defend apparent breaches of employment law. 
                   
                I guess either way, it’s going to court. 

          • Tiger Mountain 13.2.2.1.2

            This dispute is not the place to be faux precious and disingenuous tory laddie (TS).

        • Pete George 13.2.2.2

          I wasn’t asking for an identity, I was asking if they were one of the port workers or associated with any of the unions involved. No name necessary, and no broken privacy, but it would clarify if it was some random mouthing off or a view from within the dispute. Isn’t that relevant to the discussion?

          [lprent: Nope. It is only relevant to the discussion if they choose to share it or choose to rely on their experience.

          In every other case I view it as fishing for their in real world identity using the 50 questions technique. I treat whoever is doing it as trying to violate our privacy policy. ]

          • Pete George 13.2.2.2.1

            I have no wish to know the identity of Te Reo Putake. It’s sufficient to know that…

            And why shouldn’t the scabs be packing themselves, anyway? They made a concious choice to attack their fellow workers and now they’re on the losing side. As the London piece says;

            “No man has a right to scab so long as there is a pool of water to drown his carcass in, or a rope long enough to hang his body with.

            I’d suggest the Waitemata is a perfectly adequate pool of water for that purpose.

            …and…

            I can assure you the sentiment is widely held in the entire union movement, worldwide.

            But the question is not about the sentiment itself, but about whether MUNZ members are going to act on the sentiment. So far, there is no evidence that they have or will.

            Len Brown has been called a scab, but no worries if he pops down to the wharf to see if he can help sort things out, unless he has proof he has been chucked in the harbour he needn’t worry about mere widely held ‘sentiments’.

            And no worries working alongside such sentiments. Just idle chat on the wharf I guess.

            An illuminating insight into old union thinking.

            • Colonial Viper 13.2.2.2.1.1

              Its Old Tory thinking which has been driving the POAL into losing money last few weeks.

            • Te Reo Putake 13.2.2.2.1.2

              I disagree with Brown being called a scab, Pete. He’s a flea.
               
              And, rest assured, I’m always happy to illuminate your otherwise drab world. But you are wrong to think of it as ‘old thinking’. It remains as true today as it did two hundred years ago when the class war started in industrialised Europe. While there are two classes in this world, there will always be a need for unions, whatever righties like yourself might wish.
               
              And as for you not wishing to know my identity, I think, actually, that you’ve been obsessed with finding out ever since I set you up on that Dunedin TV show, you poor sap.

              • Colonial Viper

                Oh do tell what happened?????

                • Te Reo Putake

                  You might recall Petey boy admitted he was most likely going to vote Tory in Dunners North, instead of for himself as UF’s candidate, in a bid to stop the Labour candidate getting up. And he also refused to say whether he would even party vote UF. At the same time he let slip that he was going to be on the local access TV station that night talking about his refreshingly vague campaign.
                   
                  So I rang the producer and suggested they ask Pete if he was going to vote for himself. About two minutes in, they did. The look on his face was priceless! He blinked and blustered, fluffed and bluffed, said it was just bloggy banter and he’d make up his mind on the day or some such waffle and then namechecked The Voice of Reason as the villain who dobbed him in. Laugh? I nearly wet myself!
                   
                  End result? UF’s electorate and party vote both dropped on election day. Yes, that’s right, Pete, I’m claiming credit for making you fail as a candidate. Got any proof that’s not the case?

                  • McFlock

                    Sadly, as proof that you are not the only reason pg received trace-element support as a candidate, I must reluctantly present Pete G himself. 🙂
                        

                       
                     

                  • Your first statement is incorrect for a start.

                    Re Channel 9, there was plenty of laughter in the studio over that. Did you really think that was a hit? A different sort of hit to what you seem to think.

                    And no, you’re wrong about my interest in your identity, I don’t care. I’ve done nothing to try and find out/

                    You’re really getting a bit lashy aren’t you? Fairly typical attempted diversion from your ballsup here. “The Voice of Reason” was a typically hypocritical pseudonym.

                    Whale sometimes calls Labour “the nasty party” – I don’t agree, not all of it. David Shearer seems very nice. I’ve heard first hand that David Clark was very nice on a visit to a Dunedin training organisation today.

                    And I’m sure not all in union faction are nasty, but some can’t help themselves, obviously. Carry on proving a point.

                    [lprent: I prefer to be nasty. It sure beats being a hypocrite like yourself and Whale.

                    Ummm I’m sure you had a point.. somewhere.. outside of the moronic superficial drivel that you specialize in.. Perhaps you should simply look at why you provoke such a response from others.

                    But I can see why you avoid other peoples opinions about you if my reactions are what you usually get (you realize I had complaints from dimpost readers trying to tell me I should lift your last ban?) ]

                    • Te Reo Putake

                      Crikey, Pete! I knew it hurt, but to hold on to it like that isn’t healthy. I can certainly understand the laughter in the studio, the young folk running the joint must have thought you were a hoot. Did you try and act hip? You did, didn’t you! When the interviewer asked if you were going to vote for yourself you looked like a possum in the headlights. Two moons, Pete. Two moons! Still it’s good to know you’ve done nothing to try and find out my identity, because a mere mortal might think that’s exactly what you did up thread.
                      I thought I was being diplomatic in my first statement, by the way. You said you’d be voting for the party most likely to beat the Labour candidate. That’s National, obviously.
                       
                      What were the numbers again, Pete? How much did you cost UF?
                       
                       

                    • Diverting to something silly you did six months ago won’t hide something sillier you’ve done today.

                      If I doubled the UF vote it wouldn’t have made any difference, you’re scraping the barrel a bit. The party vote % in Dn Nth was just over the national %.

                      “You said you’d be voting for the party most likely to beat the Labour candidate.”

                      No I didn’t, making things up won’t help. I said I didn’t usually make up my mind who to vote for until election day.

                    • Te Reo Putake

                      Nope, you didn’t just say that you wouldn’t make up your mind till the day, which is funny enough in itself, given that you were UF’s candidate, but you also said you would probably would be voting National. The latter was prior to your announcement as UF’s candidate, as I recall, but it doesn’t make it any less real.
                      Anyhoo, (as they say down your way) I’m off to the pub. It’s been fun reminiscing. Good times, good times!

                    • lprent – If I wanted to avoid other people’s opinions would I come here? I happen to provoke opinions, which often says more about those making them.

                      I do find the nasty approach strange. (Is that why Shearer isn’t well supported here? Not nasty enough?)

                      Almost incomprehensible. Physical violence, verbal violence, blog violence. Trying to hurt others, trying to knock them down, just because they are labelled different. Maybe we just aren’t as civilised a race as we sometimes like to think.

                    • lprent []

                      Read the policy which was put up about a couple of months after the site opened in 2007 and has minor revisions since. You’ll find that we want robust debate. It means discussion and tearing apart others ideas and motivations. You can describe that as being ‘nasty’. I don’t.

                      Similarly Whale can describe the Labour party as being ‘nasty’. I just think he is looking at a mirror. The whole purpose of a opposition party is to examine a government’s performance in exhaustive detail. It involves robust discussion, and tearing apart others ideas and motivations (now where have I seen that before?).

                      But since neither of you has earned my respect from your ideas then I really don’t give a shit, and neither will many around here in inside Labour or the Greens or even through the business communities that I work in. Since you probably can’t code then you don’t earn much kudos from your professional skills either. But I have a very limited view of what is important in skill sets – coding is hard. The rest of my skills like (to name a few) management, sciences, running factories, running computer systems, or running this site are child’s play by comparison..

                      I have a grudging respect for your action in fronting up in an election campaign. It tends to speak more highly of you than Whales’ inventive but largely futile imagination (ie an ability to lie) does of him. But I’d have to say that I’ve seen more useful and implementable ideas out of 18 year old’s than I have seen from either of you. And they don’t tend to offer up futile excuses like ‘nasty’ to excuse their inept performances. They’re more interested in living.

                      But that’s ok. I like being ‘nasty’. Please give me more excuses…

                    • McFlock

                      Pete, even if “race” were a coherent and valid sociological concept, nobody would ever admit to being in one with you. So your use of the nominative plural of “I” would be delusional.

            • ak 13.2.2.2.1.3

              Nothing “old” nor “union” about it Pete. Simply basic human nature that no amount of moneyed spin can ever eliminate or change.

              When an individual has put his or her hand out and accepted for years the wages and benefits that have been hard-won on the backs of of his or her colleagues over many decades, then suddenly and viciously stabs them in the back for monetry gain, it elicits resentment. Quite rightly, naturally, and inevitably.

              Quite a wee bit of resentment actually: because such betrayal is a direct attack on the very hand that has fed: the ultimate heinous obscenity. More treasonous and foul than simple theft, a gross act of greedy selfishness, effectively stealing from the plates of the children of those who have sacrificed and fought for all. The ultimate Judas act: SCAB is actually far too kind a word.

              Similarly, any individual of eminently mediocre talent who is nothing but hair until elevated from the same struggle to represent workers and underdogs, and who then betrays them by joining the opposite political party, is as worthy of any consideration at all, as suppurating pus. And those who support him, far, far less.

              Have a nice day.

              • Rob

                awesome show folks , the anonymous trying to out the anonymous. What a bunch of legends and hard arses.

                [lprent: I’m waiting ]

          • Frank Macskasy 13.2.2.2.2

            “And what about the workers you think should be on the wharf – there’s total unity and trust amongst all them? What if some have different sentiments to others?”

            Pete, that’s an old red herring…

            The collective contract is between POAL and MUNZ, on behalf of their members. Anyone not a member of MUNZ and not covered by the collective is a separate issue.

            Much like a professional body (eg lawyers) with protocols that cover their members. Even if they don’t have “complete unity and trust”)

            And pray tell, why should workers have complete “unity and trust” when even political parties don’t always have it. United Future’s own history might serve as an example, I think.

  14. Windy City 14

    Hippy N.Z???? How old are you/
    If there were more unions N.Z. would be so much beter off?
    Look at ozzy? You an narrow minded person!
    Good on those guys down there.

  15. Hami Shearlie 15

    Pearson claimed in the Saturday herald that he was being paid $200,000 p.a.for a two day working week because he was being paid for his experience! So why doesn’t he think the port workers should be paid well for THEIR experience? Hypocrisy!

    • Maybe he does think that – experience relative to similar types of jobs. Isn’t he suggesting that Tauranga is a good model to copy? Most of the port workers there even own shares in the company.

      • .

        Most of the port workers there even own shares in the company

        So?

        You infer that losing conditions and full time job can be justified with shares? What if workers don’t want shares, and want the continuance of their wages and conditions?

        • rosy 15.1.1.1

          I’m extremely interested to know which workers own shares in the in the PoT. How many wharfies are permanent staff? If any, do they own shares. How many wharfies are contractors, do they own shares?

          Unless you can definitively say all wharfies are able to have shares in the company this information is totally meaningless in terms of supporting the employment model at the PoT. If, OTOH the wharfies are contractors and thereby excluded from options to buy shares in the company it supports the MUNZ view that contractors have poorer remuneration conditions than permanent staff.

  16. Jenny 16

    The Ports of Auckland workforce are being illegally kept from their work place by the Ports of Auckland.

    If these workers can not return to work when they are fully legally entitled to be there, when in fact of law they are actually legally required to be there.

    Then they will never get their jobs back. (Legally)

    What ever happened to the rule of law?

    What ever happened to the conservative right wing war cry “One law for all”?

    The government, the courts, the EMA and council may regret allowing this precedent to be set.

    He who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind.

  17. Jenny 17

    This must be very worrying for all employers who rely on the courts for industrial peace.

    If Richard Pearson for the Ports of Auckland can openly spit in the face of the judge Travis of the Employment Court, what’s to stop unionists also ignoring the directives of the Employment Court?

    If unionists behaved like this, no matter what else was going on in the world, there would be thundering denunciations on the floor of parliament and in the media.

    Yet the parliamentarians of left and right are silent.

    And the best the Herald could come up with, was a very mild reprimand in their editorial column.

    The company should rescind the lock-out notice and concentrate on less aggressive means of achieving its ends.

    NZ Herald Editorial: Provocation move wrong route for port

    P.S. Check out the comments section; Unusually for Herald commenters, overwhelming condemnation of the Ports of Auckland’s action. Is this an expression of worry about the new direction for industrial disputes? By the normally conservative readers and commenters to The Herald.

  18. james 111 18

    Here is the link for Chazs comment, and even Willie Jackson said they would lose the support of aucklanders if they carried on like this. It appears they have trouble controlling these guys. No point picking on Chaz or me for telling it like it is.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6559219/Jackson-pulls-back-from-port-comments

    • James111 – funny ole world isn;’t it, when you demand angelic purity from the workers – whose jobs are under threat – and yet POAL management and their “little helpers” run rampant, including ; bad faith “bargaining”; wasting company money; illegality; etc.

      But all you’re focused on is when workers and other people react with anger at blatant injustices.

      Rememeber the reaction of certain people against “them uppity blacks” when they were rude enough to sit UP FRONT in the buses?! That broke the law. Yes, indeed, those Blacks broke the law…

      So whose side was justice on?

      History has passed judgement and those laws were judged to be bad laws. History will judge this moment as well, and my belief is that the workers will be seen as struggling for what was right and fair.

      Which puts you, James111, and others in your camp, fair and square on the wrong side of history.

      • McFlock 18.1.1

        What I find fascinating is that police said they’d received one complaint, the port said the police were investigating several complaints, the reporter couldn’t contact the CTU for comment (wtf? Isn’t it MUNZ involved with the pickets, anyway? Couldn’t the reporter have, oh, walked down to the fucking picket line?) but they still got oodles of comments from the port and an unnamed female complainant – unclear as to whether she is a port employee.
           
        No arrests, no charges.
               
        Is that a faint whiff of bullshit in the air?

        • Jackal 18.1.1.1

          It’s an interesting question Frank Mackasy raises… when is it appropriate to use force to ensure justice is done and how much persecution should be allowed to take place before more drastic measures are undertaken?

          Perhaps Pete George, james 111 and chaz etc should put themselves in the workers shoes before trying to answer that question.

          • McFlock 18.1.1.1.1

            I agree.
                
            But the local tory lickspittles seem intent on framing the debate around union violence before things have reached that point. Give ’em a “vilence might be theoretically legitimised insome circumstances” and they’ll take “gangs of union hoodies are out molesting women every night”.

          • Chaz 18.1.1.1.2

            I do put myself in workers shoes jackal.

            This strike was originally called on the basis, so-called, that munz wanted to get rid of 4 non-union positions at the port.(This is pretty much illegal under the legislation by the way, people don’t have to belong to a union)

            At the time the management offered to roll over the existing agreement, with a 2.5% wage rise, and an undertaking that the union and management would work together to pursue productivity gains.
            This was rejected by the union on grounds of principle – non union workers must go (four of them). It is not even clear if this offer was put to members for a vote (none of which are secret votes BTW because any hint that workers might be intimated is just plain insulting.)

            Since then there has been months of stoppages and weeks of striking with a huge cost to the economy and to the port business, while the union tried to enforce this demand.

            Since then also, dozens of people have left the union and crossed the picket. So the idea of trying to grab 4 jobs has pretty radically backfired.

            The contracting out is the last of many offers made by the company and came at the end of that whole business.

            It seems pretty clear that the port is not prepared to go through this disruptive process every couple of years, and they want to contract it out to make it someone else’s problem. Who can blame them?

            In my opinion the workers have been severely let down by their union, who have played a game of brinksmanship with the management by continually escalating and raising the ante until they reached the point where they played their members right out of their jobs.

            To put it bluntly, they have been engaged in a pissing contest, which was motivated in my opinion, by a desire to show the new port management who was really in charge at the waterfront.

            Well they sure showed ’em didn’t they? And in the aftermath the union bosses will keep their jobs while the workers line up for redundancy, a brief period of full pockets, and then the dole queue, or emigration of australia, where some of them by all accounts have already gone.

            • McFlock 18.1.1.1.2.1

              So that’s what happens when you wear blue-tinted welding goggles, is it?
                    
              Funnily enough, most employers, even of MUNZ members, manage to renegotiate collective agreements without it being too much of a “disruptive process”. And calling it a “pissing contest” implies that the other party is also engaged in urination, so even under your scenario it’s not a case of evil MUNZ shafting its members (I figure you’d appreciate the freudian imagery).

        • lprent 18.1.1.2

          That is my conclusion based on the sheer lack of substantiation. Looks to me like a PR exercise designed for talkback…

  19. Jenny 19

    Police have told the wharfies that they will arrest anyone who blocks any trucks going into the wharf.

    Police have not said that they will arrest anyone who blocks any wharfie from legally going into his job.

    Are the police aiding an affray by refusing to arrest anyone who blocks the wharfies legally going into their job?

    Are decades of industrial law, court rulings and the social contract they are based on, to be trashed, replaced with a naked show of state ordered bias on the whim of an employer who has decided to defy the courts?

    If the police refuse to honour their oath of office to uphold the law in an unbiased way, who will be responsible for any resulting industrial chaos and breakdown of the rule of law?

    Meet the new lord of industrial chaos! Ronald McPortsofAuckland

    • Grumpy 19.1

      Jenny, that is the shit fight you guys have got yourselves into…….

    • Rob 19.2

      Well thats great Jenny, lets make sure the goods get delivered.

      [lprent: I’m waiting ]

    • Colonial Viper 19.3

      The police always support the port owners and the farmer-exporters, not the port workers. NZ history very clearly demonstrates that time and again.

  20. Craig Glen Eden 20

    The Union should be requesting Police support to enter the work place, I agree Jenny. Lets see them up hold the Law.

  21. North 21

    Righties don’t worry about being on the wrong side of the law and on the wrong side of a palpable morality.

    Why ? Because they’re essentially selfish, tunnel visioned people, notwithstanding the intelligence I’m not prepared to say many of them don’t have. Their selfishness overrides their decency.

    J.K. Galbraith: “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

    Fisiani, Grumpy, Pete George et al are more and more flaky in their stubborn apologism for selfishness. And when their backs are to the wall they’re more and more hootingly superior. Poor buggers !

  22. rosy 22

    I just want to know if Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and PoA CEO Tony Gibson are the same person. Has anyone seen them in the same room? They sure spout the same words.

    • Colonial Viper 22.1

      That’s from the Neoliberal Bastard Bosses Bible they all seem to get free copies of at MBA school.

  23. Doug 23

    It’s happening in Australia too.

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/asciano-appeal-on-port-dispute-20120316-1vaqx.html

    ASCIANO has escalated its long-running dispute with 1200 wharfies at ports around Australia, calling on the federal government to step in to ensure a resolution.

  24. KATY 24

    The ITWF are giving their international support to MUNZ.

    http://www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/Auckland-wharfies.cfm

    This is going to increase

    http://www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/7221

    And will cause more problems that are going to spiral way out of control causing government intervention in the future unless it’s sorted. At the moment our government remains tight-lipped, they surly know their is a possibilty of problems arising and would have made up some form of action plan that would make some money for them and their mates.

    http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/brownlee-wont-yet-divulge-govt-interest-port-stoush-ck-114308

    So why the refusal to tell us about any information that they have is Brownlee waiting for an opportunity to step in and take control as happened during the world cup?

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    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    11 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    12 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    14 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    1 day ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    9 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    23 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
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