You need no further confirmation of the latest hole Brownlee has dug for himself than this blog from DPF…all credit due of course to David Parker
The wage gap
July 29th, 2010 at 11:00 am by David Farrar
Claire Trevett reports:
A war of statistical tables in Parliament left National red-faced after even its own figures showed the gap in earnings between New Zealanders and Australians had increased since it took office in November 2008.
Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee had said in Parliament on Tuesday that the gap was less than it was when Labour was in power but yesterday the statistics proved him wrong no matter how they were presented.
Prime Minister John Key produced a table which he said most accurately compared average earnings because it took into account purchasing power parity.
But his own figures showed the gap had increased by $22 in the two years since National took over in 2008. Instead, he said it showed the gap was less than it was at the “maximum point” of Labour’s reign when the gap peaked at $187.60 in 2005.
But it subsequently shrank to $137.89 by Labour’s final year in 2008 and had since increased again to $160.25 under National.
Of course the wage gap has increased. We went into recession, and Australia did not. In a recession you have little wage growth.
I am surprised that a Minister would claim the gap has not increased. Rather than try to push dodgy comparisons, they would be better to outline policies which will help reduce the gap.
u know Gerry B has stuffed up big time when you see posts like this on DPF’s blog..
I think you are wanting desperately to read more into this than is reality. After a decade of mismanagement and excessive taxation, and the tradeables recession that started in 2005, it is taking a while to turn the ship around – but it is happening and the wage gap will close – but it will take time. I do not think support for National is going to subside on the back of these figures as the country still has much faith in this national government.
Yeah the wage gaps will close – with China!
!
Blah blah blah, yakkity yak….. you boys and girls surely have better things to argue about in the house than whose got the biggest figures. Whether it’s $1 or $1000, there is a difference that you all want to address. Can’t you all just get along?
“Can’t you all just get along?” He he he – that reminds me of a fight I once saw at The Standard – they were basically insulting each other – but it was “nice” because they were using smiling emoticons at the end of their sentences
I’d love to see them try and get along – even just for one question time – oh the discomfort of it all –
It really is pathetic though Spud.
The gap has widened
No it hasn’t
Yes it has
No it hasn’t
Yes it has
No it hasn’t
It was worse under your government
No, it’s worse under yours
No, it was worse under yours
No, it’s worse under yours
My stats show the gap is $67.84 a week more than under our government.
Well, my stats show it’s only $27.53 more but actually the gap has narrowed.
No it hasn’t, the gap is $23.97
Yes it has, the gap is $99.47
No it hasn’t, the gap is $1.24
Yes it has, the gap is $325.78
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Simon, I agree with your sentiment but I do think we have an opposition to point out situations when a minister gets so blantantly caught in a lie AND THEN tries to treat us like 6 year olds and tell us it isn’t a lie…
Agreed JMH, they can’t spin that one around.
trust Monty to be first off the blocks trying to defend the indefensible! He must surely be sitting at Nat Party HQ poised to reply to any slur on his bosses?
@Simon: it’s the “throw enough sand in people’s eyes and you’ll confuse them long enough to divert attention from bad news” trick. Seems to be one thing this govt is quite good at but people do eventually realise they are being bamboozled.
I see that big Gerry put a $28 roadside snack on his taxpayer credit card while ‘en-route to Thames’. How much does he get paid, again? Something like 6 grand a week? Yet he expects the taxpayer to keep up his sustenance while lounging in the back of the limo on a road trip to Thames. After eating a full ‘eggs benedict’ breakfast, also on the taxpayer, a few hours earlier.
Blog etiquette has you at least linking to the post – not simply cut / pasting and putting in your format (colours etc)
You will note that other blogs link to red alert – why wont you do it back?
trust Monty to be first off the blocks trying to defend the indefensible!
Well give him some credit for not trying to defend Brownlee
He probably has a point about the tradeables recession though.
Chris – try clicking on the big red words above that say ‘The wage gap’ – I think that you’ll find you’ll end up at Farrar’s place.
Monty, do you really believe the wage gap will fall between the two nations? I still wonder if it’s a worthy goal anyway, not a falling wage gap but the comparisson in the first place.
@ MikeG. Sorry – I stand corrected – the formatting threw me.
The wage gap happened years ago. Our dollars are different and I hope remain so. Our cost of living is different as well.
Just another Nact distraction as well as being a disguised fear campaign.
If you want to be an Ozzie save up the fare.
Another benefit for NZ.
A static population has many benefits including economic.
We were doing quite well in relation to the Aussies right up to the 1980’s. Especially since they got the jump on us in terms of developing farming, trade etc. as we are a younger country.
Dunedin has a static population and it is not at all good for this city. The Dunedin population barely grown one iota since 1976/1981.
Young people have nowhere to go job-wise, many of the senior well paying jobs e.g. at the uni, DHB or City Council are held by people who will only leave them when they leave feet first, and every year 10,000 educated highly skilled grads leave this town and never come back – there simply are not the jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities here to keep people even if they want to stay.
This city just haemorrhages talent and skills, loses skilled high paying jobs on a regular basis, and a lot of people seem very complacent about it.
But we will soon have a brand new $250M stadium which will employ some groundskeepers, barristas and event organisers. Thankgoodness for that
Loota
Thanks for taking me up on that.
The problem is we are geared to growth as that is what the western economic mess is based on with credit extended to facilitate that and depend on that.
Re-gearing towards a sustainable community servicing of needs will leave out the large parasitic overload we now carry.
Presently we feed the parasites and starve ourselves.
Population growth requires expansion of goods supply, housing, credit and bank activity, food production, education, hospitals and health care provisions, housing, jobs opportunities, police, doctors and so on.
Infrastructure is expensive in NZ and so our standard of living drops unless we borrow and that can only work short term.
Borrowing is not the only answer to a Govt needing money for infrastructure. Privatisation of infrastructure makes the problem worse.
Profit in some sectors is very healthy yet jobs are not there for so many either.
We import food, clothing, furnishings. building materials, vehicles and even trains that we once supplied locally. There is no control over this importation which has killed out employment.
The big red shed and others get rich, banks of course ever do well and lend money in excess of what they hold to make continuing fat profits.
This situation is sacred to present time Govts and the strangle hold on NZ is allowed by apathetic public and mind washing press.
We may complain about lack of employment but NZ voted for it.
It is much cheaper not to grow your population. Resources and the things we love about the country are less likely to be alienated from us.
Increasing population by natural means is slow process particularly with an educated mass.
40 hours work in a modern setting including automation, a myriad of mechanical and electronic devices that minimise worker time, seems archaic.
Vast amounts of time and resources are spent creating and shuffling paper across desk through out the land.
Less working hours and sharing opportunity for more workers is a simple concept as one solution.
Renumeration is the other problem. So much is skimmed off to service finance without any redress to that absorption of community wealth. A large amount of money is spent in buying overseas.
High levels of profit have less taxation than what is needed so government reduce its role as employer. We get less services.
There have been many laws passed around the globe at various times to put limits on the parasitic accumulation of societies money into the hands of such institutions.
Masking the problem cannot be a sustainable option in the long run.
A stadium is a one off with little related employment after it is built. A lot of money is spent in its construction but much of that goes to supply of goods, of which imports are a part.
We are not the only country to feel the pinch after relying on the madness we have flowed with.
Serious damage to our biosphere will impinge on our economies to a greater extent before too long.
World mineral resources have estimated limits that will be aggravated by out ballooning consumption. We have been rich and wasteful users of resources and other countries will compete increase competition with us for them.
Energy forms and resources for transport are very likely to stem our exports and imports.
Water is becoming an issue for production.
The list goes on and so does the denial of need for change.
If NZ doesn’t react to the evidence before it then troubles found to day will be minuscule to what lies ahead.
Increasing population will only magnify the problems.
I will post the following coming TV interview again:
“[ “In Conversation” discusses the fruits of human folly.
If you think that climate change is the only big problem on the horizon then you haven’t really been listening. Dr. John Robinson is this week’s guests on “In Conversation with Noel Cheer” on Triangle/Stratos Television. Matter-of-fact, cautionary but not alarmist, John Robinson sets the facts before us.
While climate change is ‘flavour of the month’, we face a range of other potentially serious developments ranging from water and oil drying up to the melt-down of the ice-caps and the world economic order.
Triangle Television, Auckland: (UHF Channels 41, 42 and 52) Wednesday July 28, 7:00pm
Stratos Television, nationwide: Monday August 2 at 8:30pm
Stratos is found on the satellite platforms Sky Digital Channel 89 and Freeview Digital (but not HD) Channel 21.
Stratos is also found on Telstraclear Cable Channel 89 in Wellington, Kapiti and Christchurch and on the streaming video website ziln.co.nz ]“