John Key’s promise to close the wage gap with Australia was an important policy plank.
Yesterday Bill English formally abandoned that policy and used the fact that our wages are 30% lower to try and sell New Zealand as a long term investment option.
The fundamental competition is for capital, including Australian capital, he said, and over the next few years New Zealand’s advantages would become more apparent.
“One is the wage differential. We have a workforce that is better educated, just as productive and 30 per cent cheaper,” he said.
I suppose it should be refreshing to see honesty from the government but I do feel sad the the first appearance of a plan openly involves keeping wages low.
Well decent wages are “nice to have” but we really can’t afford them right now…
It would be “nice to have” a decent, honest Prime Minister. ‘Shonkey’ greased in on Labour lite and no significant change till a second term, all since reneged on in various ways.
He even says he is outta here if he doesn’t get a second term, now that would be truly “nice to have”!
John Key, 2008: “We would love to see wages drop”
John Key, 2011: High fives the business roundtable, job well done.
If we remove ACT’s 2008 campaign promises, what promises from 2008′s campaign have National gone through with?
Is any Opposition going to start reminding everyone of the crowing PM about how his job summit would be a do fest not a talk fest?
So they’re happy that we are the bleepin Mexico of the South Pacific?!
Sácame de aquí !!!! ?
!!!!
RRRRR
Remember when John Key said that he’d “love to see wages drop”?
The first real chance he had to ensure that one industry’s wages were on a par with Australia’s was when the actors asked for the same terms and conditions as Australian union members in their dealings with Peter Jackson.
Result: John Key falling over backwards to ensure that Peter and his rich American masters got taxpayer handouts, while the actors got sliced, diced and steamrollered.
He had his chance and this is what he did with it.
So now we know what his word is worth.
Blimey Blingish!
So the Nats wanna sell our people now.
But we only need to earn enough for a one-way ticket to Oz to be paid higher wages and we’ll be off with our family and friends.
How will that save our economy?
How will that stop us crossing the ditch?
There are some very good points made here, and Key has been found out lying several times lately, but it’s all in vain because the MSM has decided there’s more money to be made having him in power than not. Simple as that, sadly.
@Gary Jones
It will stop us going over the ditch as people will eventually not be able to save enough to leave, due to the cost of living rising.
Am pleased to see that he considers NZ workers are better educated. Maybe we don’t need national standards after all…
Gago puñeta !!!!!
Well that’s an eye-opener. For years the righties have been telling me the only way to fix our piss-poor wages is to raise our productivity. Looks like that’s not so true – if we’re “just as productive” how come we’re “30 percent cheaper”?
Labour, I sure as hell hope you’re just keeping your powder dry for a full on assault on these slimeballs come the election. (As opposed to just milling around hopelessly not knowing what you should be doing – so far it’s pretty hard to tell the difference, but it’s early days). If we get this lot back in again, NZ is toast.
If all else remains the same then higher productivity must result in deflation including the accompanying reduction in wages. In a capitalist socio-economic system such as we live under higher productivity only ever makes the capitalists richer as they’re the ones who control the communities wealth.
A workforce that is better educated is great. But there currently seem to be so many young adults that give up on the career that they want because they can’t find someone to take them on as an apprentice. It also looks like the upcoming budget may push university further out of reach for those who don’t get funding from wealthy parents. And that the cost of attaining tertiary qualifications are never going to result in a career in NZ where the job is commensurate with the cost of the qualification.
That period when young ones are just out of school is the prime period for directing them onto a productive career path. If they miss that and get used to taking on no-brain jobs (or no job at all), that opportunity can be missed altogether.
If Labour wants to pull some votes away from National, devoting energy to this area and coming up with solutions that are actually viable is likely to be productive. I say this as someone who isn’t loyal to any of the parties. It is incredibly sad to see the number of young ones who have left school in the last couple of years and are not on the tertiary path that they were aiming for while at secondary school.
Does this mean NZ will soon get all the outsoruced work from
the US that used to go to india because of THEIR low wages????
Trade New Zealand’s new slogan ” invest in NZ we’ve cheap as chups!”
Wow, tracey!
You have nailed the slogan! 
Remember the years leading up to Nov 2008 with National bemoaning the brain drain, urging us to vote for them to close the gap with Australia? It seemed to come up every other day during the campaign how bad it was ALL these people going to Australia and other countries??? Seems it was all hypnosis, and now we’re all just mesmorised
“GUYON The last headline I saw said Australian had dropped its unemployment rate to 4.9%, added 37,800 jobs. Unemployment here pushing 7%, wages 30% higher over there – why wouldn’t you go?
BILL Well, some people will, and that’s fine, but why would we sit round being mesmerised by the fact that some Kiwis go to Australia ? “
liked Key’s comment: “New Zealand is certainly seen as a country which is high quality in terms of its people.” Unlike other countries with their poor quality people
You know many Years ago we had a jolly fellow called Bill Birch who told the country “we must deregulate the labour market to make us competatieve!” ( with Taiwan was his fav) Well he was right on the button, down went our wages, standard of living, truly down the gurgler and all the time he was telling us how good this was for us!! Now we have Bill English he too wants us to be “competative” with Ausie, will it be Fiji next? does National have a new “Bill” on the horizon? the mind boggles, oh by the way before Bill Birch pushed the Employment contracts act upon us there was only a small % difference between us and Aus!!
You know many Years ago we had a jolly fellow called Bill Birch who told the country “we must deregulate the labour market to make us competative!” ( with Taiwan was his fav) Well he was right on the button, down went our wages, standard of living, truly down the gurgler and all the time he was telling us how good this was for us!! Now we have Bill English he too wants us to be “competative” with Ausie, will it be Fiji next? does National have a new “Bill” on the horizon? the mind boggles, oh by the way before Bill Birch pushed the Employment contracts act upon us there was only a small % difference between us and Aus!!
So English and his cronies are happy to pick up a salary which is $21k higher than thier Aussie counterparts but will keep the hard working Kiwi at levels of significantly lower than diggers across the ditch. No wonder so many young graduates are packing thier bags and heading off shore. If it wasnt for boyant dairy industry NZ would be third world economy. Anyone know a friend who is willing to put thier hadn up and say they voted for the Nats at last election?