Kudos to Maccas and Unite

Matt McCarten’s piece in the NZ Herald today is perfect evidence of the vital role Unions play and how they can and do work effectively for their members simultaneously with corporations. The success of supersizemypay shows what a loss McCarten and fellow ex-Alliance leader Laila Harre, now National Secretary of the NDU (www.ndu.org.nz link not currently working), are to Parliament (although both have consistently achieved meaningful improvements for vulnerable workers since leaving).

McCarten also reminds us of a critical difference between Labour and National:

For workers who think there is no difference between Labour and National, I should point out that National opposed this legislation. Low-paid workers need to know that if there is a change of government there’s little chance the minimum wage will move upwards next year.

Isn’t it a bugger when the real world doesn’t cohere to simple ideology? Wouldn’t it be nice to know what National’s IR and wages policy are?

Yeah, that’s smart DPF…

What’s DPF playing at?  It’s fairly clear he’s trying to reposition his blog away from its historically liberal position and has been frantically dog-whistling conservative material for weeks now.  But, as we’ve noted on numerous occasions previously, National’s big problem this is year is coalition partnering.  We’ve previously observed the stupidity of National’s former leader, Don Brash, and his cronies (most of whom are still on the National front bench), trying to sweep clean the centre right space and make it exclusive to National.  We’ve also paid some grudging credit to Key who seems more willing to entertain the prospect of dealing with rather than dealing to minor parties.  So what’s DPF doing ragging on NZFirst so frequently?  If he’s not bagging Winston, it’s crap like his recent post about the NZFirst President and a mildly embarrassing photo. What gives?  Is DPF so woefully ignorant of MMP politics after all these years?

Guest contribution: Out of Bed spruiks the Greens

Last weekend I did what many party activists do which is to spend a few hours on a stall promoting the political party that I belong too. It was a fun an interesting time getting our message across. However, I was shocked and scared by the attitude of what could best be described as typical Kiwiblog righter. The vitriol and hate spewed forth in my direction was in fact really scary. I have to ask myself why so much nastiness?

So I had a look at the Green Charter to see why. The charter is the founding document of The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and says:

The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand accepts Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand; recognises Maori as Tangata Whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand; and commits to the following four Principles:

Ecological Wisdom: The basis of ecological wisdom is that human beings are part of the natural world. This world is finite, therefore unlimited material growth is impossible. Ecological sustainability is paramount.

Social Responsibility: Unlimited material growth is impossible. Therefore the key to social responsibility is the just distribution of social and natural resources, both locally and globally.

Appropriate Decision-making: For the implementation of ecological wisdom and social responsibility, decisions will be made directly at the appropriate level by those affected.

Non-Violence: Non-violent conflict resolution is the process by which ecological wisdom, social responsibility and appropriate decision making will be implemented. This principle applies at all levels.

There doesn’t seem much there to get angry about does there? I mean you can’t really argue that the world resources are finite and that there shouldn’t be just distribution of those resources. To get some perspective take the ecological footprint test. If everyone on the planet lived the same lifestyle as us Kiwi’s, we would need 8 planet earths. As a member of the Green Party, to my shame the figure is 4.2 planets. Maybe the visitor at the stall had the right to be angry with me, but for the wrong reasons.

What to do about a mobile workforce

A challenge almost every country faces is how to develop and maintain the supply of skilled labour. It’s particularly difficult in industries where there is strong international demand leading to significant wages differences. A regular commenter here, Limited Faith, drew our attention to this story about a potential shortage of junior doctors. Is it evidence of a chronic problem or part of a campaign by junior doctors to improve their wages and conditions? Is NZ uniquely disadvantaged? What to make of similar stories from the UK and Australia? Interestingly, some time back I saw this research on nursing shortages in NSW which concludes that working conditions were as much a factor in why nurses left the profession as were wages - I wonder if this is also true for doctors?

A nutjob with good PR is still a nutjob

David’s spruiking Family First in a piece about how clever Bob McCoskrie’s PR is. McCoskrie is offering funding in the event that a family wins only enough money to pay for one, not two, children to travel to Disneyland. I wonder if the funding would still be available if the family was a same-sex family? Or a family of Muslim immigrants? Or if one of the parents was a sex worker?

Update: Like Ruth, I was a little surprised to see Farrar spruiking Family First but it’s now been confirmed that Family First are in fact a client of Farrar’s. More astro-turfing. Farrar’s positivity is directly linked to a pecuniary interest and the pretense of objectivism is just that. No wonder he’s trying to discredit others, i.e. Public Address.

What makes it all the more hilarious is that some of Farrar’s regulars, commenting before Davey confirms his work for Family First, rail against the suggestion - D4J is typically restrained saying:

Is kiwiblog a collection agency for the publication of false statements, which damage a person’s reputation? Liarbour scum continually sling libellous claims, because Aunty Helen has taught them well in the land of no accountability and consequences!

Congrats to Natural Party of Government for forcing this admission.