It was bad enough that Roger Douglas’s members bill to bring back youth rates was drawn from the ballot this week, but another bill that was drawn out on the same day is Tau Henare’s bill to impose secret ballots on workers and unions before a strike.
I’m not worried about Tau’s bill at all, because it’s so out of touch with reality. Tau (who describes himself as an “experienced union organiser”) seems to think nothing’s changed in unions since his days as an paid official for the old Clerical Workers Union, back in the 1980’s. But the process of requiring secret ballots before strikes is already standard procedure in unions.
Tau’s bill is a pointless waste of time, but I don’t care, because it’s the government’s legislative time he will be disrupting. That’s got to be good news, because while we’re wasting time on his bill, the government will be slowed in its insatiable appetite to cut workers’ rights.
However, I do wonder if Tau has thought about the costs to the government and business of making it legally compulsory for unions to conduct secret ballots. If secret ballots are legally required, they must be enforced. Does that mean going back to the Tau’s good old days when the Department of Labour had to conduct the ballots?
Tau’s bill is a crock, but it should be fun taking it apart.
Poor old Tau…. who says having a big name wont get get you anywhere.
No mention of the unions role in wiki biography. Hes dressed it up as ‘consultancies’
After all that effort to get back in parliament with his 3rd party ( 4th if you include mana motuhake) . he is now a nobody as the Maori party make sure they have the running.
With a background like that , you would have to make sure all the knives are counted each night
Cheers Darien.
Same as my analysis.
Maybe there needs to be a Private Members bill that stops Roger ‘the corpse’ Douglas from collecting on his Superannuation and his tax-payer provided salary at the same time. And I hope that there are some pretty staunch young persons out there that are going to campaign hard and take him on.
From Mana Motuhake to national must be proof the guy’s a fraud, as well as a liability (for national that is, not our our sense of fun).
Hi Anton,
It was actually NZ First he was a member of – he was one of the infamous ‘tight five’ – NZ First’s Maori MPs.
+++++
I wonder if TH was a bit of a bully boy himself when he was a union organizer.
Millsy – Anton’s right he was a member of Mana Motuhake – and Labour too.
He’s been an MP for NZ first, Mauri Pacific http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauri_Pacific and National. He has also been an Independent MP.
But before being elected to Parliament he has been a member of both Labour and Mana Motuhake,
“Tau’s bill is a pointless waste of time, but I don’t care, because it’s the government’s legislative time he will be disrupting. That’s got to be good news, because while we’re wasting time on his bill, the government will be slowed in its insatiable appetite to cut workers’ rights”
Sadly not quite true. Unless his Bill is taken up by the Government it will be taking up time on Member’s Day – when members of the Opposition should be having their Bills debated; and will not have any effect on the Government’s legislative agenda.
“Maybe there needs to be a Private Members bill that stops Roger ‘the corpse’ Douglas from collecting on his Superannuation and his tax-payer provided salary at the same time”
I read somewhere when Douglas was elected that he wouldn’t be collecting super while he was in Parliament. Which seems the least he could do. I’d be interested to know if Jim Anderton does (I think they’re the only two over 65 – Jim is one month younger than Douglas).
@counting 123 : You’re right that the bill will be debated on members days, but I was thinking more about the Select Committee – where we’re expecting a raft of workers’ rights bills coming our way.
@ Jill – I didnt know what – I thought he was just Labour/NZ First/Mauri Pacific (the 0.36% wonder
).
Long may this bill be dragged out to slow the path of destruction to our country.
Tau used to wear black fingerless gloves and leather jacket in the 80s which one can only imagine what the largely conservative clerical workers members would have thought of. At least over the years Tau has been an equal opportunity mocker of anything he has been involved in.