A man came to see me. He was laid off a few weeks ago. He’s a mechanical engineer. Highly skilled. He has five children.
His wife has cancer. Inoperable cancer.
He was chosen for redundancy. Involuntary. Along with others. He thinks probably because of his outspokenness.
He can’t pay his power bill this month.
There are no jobs. He needs to stay in Dunedin for his wife’s treatment. Meanwhile, she has been forced to work part time to keep food on the table.
This man was a valuable contributing member of our society. He paid taxes. His skills were worth something to our economy.
As a direct result of this government’s policies, he, and others like him, do not have jobs.
What are his options?
Yes I’m angry, because this is the reality that more people are facing each day.
And I heard today that the foodbanks in Dunedin are empty.
Dunedin is just one place where there is rampant poverty and need. But it’s where I live and these are the people I represent.
You have every right to be angry Clare. What’s happening to our country?
I wish I could offer a solution, but I don’t have one. This is heartbreaking.
I’m angry too. Angry that NZ has such weak protections for workers, and that we’ve never got back what we lost. Angry that free trade agreements signed in the 90s and 00s mean that NZ can’t employ its own people. Angry that benefit levels set by National and maintained by Labour are still at bare-survival levels, and that people fired still get nothing at all. Angry that there has never been an attempt to provide socialised insurance for those affected by non-injury illness (and that all those in the grey area get denied by ACC).
Yeah, I’m angry. So I’m working to get people who will do things about all of these elected.
And now you’re using a tragic situation involving terminal cancer to score a political point.
That’s a step back towards the right attitude…. wait, no it isn’t
On ya Clare.
Politics seems to be a battle of the brain’s fear chip which causes people to resent others and succumb to promises of immense wealth and the rational, compassionate chip where we realize we just need to get along and support each other.
Good to see your rational compassionate chip is working well.
And we need 8000 Irish builders ??
WTF ???
Surely in a project this big we could have 12000 locals trained up in three months. That’s about 2 1/2 months more than it took any of those Irish builders to get their skills.
This is a scandal. Ask them to bring their own No.8 wire.
“As a direct result of this government’s policies, he, and others like him, do not have jobs”
Which policy/s?
We should all be angry at what is being done to manipulate the public with deception that public spending is causing ruin.
The cuts and closing down of our economy is a path to greater borrowing and more debt – a path that is deliberate. Nothing is being done to lift us out of it except tell us lies.
The Nact leader is a puppet of world bankers and helping to hollow out our country sliding us into the downhill spiral that won’t be broken until NZders wake up.
He has an infamous history of working closely with the worst cartel operating on a massive scale across the globe creating havoc for their profit opportunity and NZ is just another job assignment.
Our involvement in Afghanistan is more important to him as he complies with directions given. We will see our soldiers there for an extended time. Other countries have realised the mistake in going there supporting US adventuring for private profit, and got out.
Lies about Afghanistan and Iraq are well known overseas but held from public knowledge through our press.
Today’s fiasco in Libya is a similar adventure by west to grab and strip a booty.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28666.htm
We should be ashamed to allow both our national mess and alignment with profit through war; be foisted upon us without protest and anger.
Which policy directly caused this redundancy, Clare?
That’s sad,
I feel sorry for them
I had a look on Seek and saw 5 vacancies in Dunedin for mechanical engineers he could apply for – I’m sure there will be others on other web sites – perhaps as his local MP you could help him get one of them?
And this guy has a right to a job provided by whom exactly?
I can think of a railway wagon or prime mover for starters. The RWNJ’s just don’t get it do they?
Yes, I’m angry too and getting angrier. This government has done nothing for ordinary people and it intends to continue to do nothing for them. Why? Because they don’t care! All the smiles and waves and photo ops. mean nothing. And in three years time there will nothing left. All but essential services sold for 30 pieces of silver. They are passionless, heartless, visionless and have no empathy for anyone other than their own kind. But never fear, they will go down the gurgler one day and sink (I hope) without trace. That is inevitable.
Nick the government policy which caused these particular job losses is the policy which requires an SOE such as Kiwirail to take a narrow financial view when awarding tenders, ( accept the cheapest) even if that means purchasing from outside New Zealand and rendering our own skilled workers redundant. The government required this sort of approach from Kiwirail which meant that Hillside did not win the Tender to build rolling stock which meant that it had less work coming in which in turn led to redundancies. And there was a well researched alternative, ie take into account the wider economic benefit of building rolling stock locally which would have more than made up for the difference in price between Hillside’s tender and that of the winner. Government Policy directly leading to job losses!
National will get rid of that policy of cheapest contracts for SOEs though… When they sell all of our SOEs.
I was lucky enough to be given a chance in retail as my first job when I was 18, nearly 5 years later i’m not trying for a better job because there’s just too much uncertainty about jobs and job security these days.
This bloke is a victim of nine long cold years of the Labour regime.
If only the Labour regime hadn’t spent a decade over-taxing the economy into stagnation. If only the Labour regime had invested in our national future, rather than flushing the tax-take down the welfare toilet.
This bloke would have a job.
Thank goodness we now have a National-led government, to represent the interests of Kiwis and rebuild our economy after a decade of Labour Party ideology.
@Jen,
The government policy which caused these particular job losses is policy of the Labour government, who bought back the white elephant that is Kiwi Rail, and dumped it in this government’s lap.
Toll must be laughing their tits off at the stupidity
Any SOE should pay it’s way (ie fair return to the shareholders) or it should be sold to someone who can make it work.
Jen, would you be prepared to pay over the odds for a Toyota corolla assembled in Lower Hutt (generally shoddy workmanship) or would you rather have the Japanese assembled model at a lower price?
Same scenario. Just a fact of life, that if we want cheaper goods, we need to focus on the things we do well, and that unfortunately means redundancy from time to time.
So glad Toll took the dog that Interislander was and turned item a reliable competitive service. Remember the bullshit we had to put up with every school holidays when the union decided to hold the country to ransom? Or the pilfering of your car below decks,while you were suffering surly staff and a railways pie?
Why Clark and co. felt the need to pay way over the odds to take back the only bit that Toll didn’t want, I will never work out.
I’d be angry too…
Angry that I’m part of such ineffective opposition…
Angry that my party is too gutless to pick a leader that the public may have confidence in…
Angry that my deadwood front bench is sleep walking to defeat…
Angry that I’m having to lash out at potential coalition partners for releasing better policy than my party…
Angry that SMOG’s are out there for everybody to see…
At least this post makes more sense than your two previous, Clare; and less likely to alienate all those people you dealt with so spectacularly yesterday.
Though may I join the chorus and ask which policies have caused this man such distress? It appears it isn’t evident to us how this is all evil national’s fault.
I’m angry too Clare! I’m angry that your party is doing so badly that you start blaming voters and the Greens when they should be your friends. I’m angry that when the foodbanks are empty, your solution is to get people to knock on doors for you.
If the foodbanks are empty I would much rather spend my time and energy helping out the foodbanks, not helping you out, your party hasn’t done anything to deserve my vote so I’m voting Green.
On stuff
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5491588/Clare-Curran-stirs-blog-controversy
Curran today said she didn’t want to comment. “I’m not taking it any further. I think there has been enough in the blog-osphere about it, with people going feral, so I’m not going to fuel that further.”
So now kiwis asking Clare hard questions are feral – um maybe the Labour party are the feral ones huh…
Perhaps 3 yrs of National isn’t enough to fix 9 yrs of Labours’ poor regard for the country and their incessant meddling with things they dont understand
Labour is never going to get anywhere because you view things from an emotional perspective and ignore rationality. Unfortunately the tactic of using emotional arguments to entice the majority to vote away the rights of the minority that pay most of our tax is becoming less effective. Keep chasing the stupid vote labour
can we donate to the Dunedin foodbanks online? I’m not in Dunedin, but i do have an income and want to help. Initial searches on google i can’t find any.
arohanui.
I seldom see eye to eye with you, Clare, over your political comments, but reading the vicious personal attack on you by the former Murdoch tabloid muckraker Andrea Vance on Stuff really makes me wonder about the role of the media bosses enabling certain politically motivated pseudo-journalists in a pluralistic democracy, heading into an election.
Re those asking why Kiwi rail should have been bought when the ferries work since sold. There is a distinct difference between the sale of a key infrastructure which when sold becomes monopolistic and the sale of something that can have compitition. The sale of Kiwi rail did nothing to improve its service and in fact private ownership resulted in asset stripping and a reduction in services compbined with inflation of costs that almost sent New Zealands rail system into oblivion. Yes Labour have sold state owned monopolies in the past but they have learned from that past that it only leads to rubbish service at high costs and now realise it is not the way to go along with most kiwi’s. It just seems to be hard core idealogs who still seem to think that you can set up a private company in a monopoly and not expect it to take advantage of that to maxamise profits by upping prices and reducing services.
Go YOU!! Finally Labour with balls – oops sexist bastard that I am.
@crashcart
Upping prices? Reducing service?
the Interislander has far better services than it ever did, and reasonable fares, due in most part to competition.
How much competition do you the previous owners (NZ govt, would have allowed?
Kiwi rail will never be a successful mover of people, because there just ain’t enuf of us who want to travel by rail.
Hi Clare, so what did you do for this man after he came to see you? It’d be good to know, so we can point people in the right direction if they are in a similar situation.
He was chosen for redundancy. Involuntary. Along with others. He thinks probably because of his outspokenness.
If this is true, and that’s a very big IF, did you recommend/encourage he seek redress via the Employment court?
Curran impresses me with her passion.
Meanwhile, I think most of the people on the left have turned whatever kind of political movement they believed they had into a complete joke. While there are a few who speak up in the Labour and Greens and Mana who understand reality, a vast majority of Leftists are irrelevant in their arguments.
To come out and be critical of an MP who is clearly frustrated with an ignorant and self-serving government, and an MP who is trying to do something for the people of her community and her country, is a bit rich. It is just wonderful how many people are keen to come and post their thoughts on a blog, but lack the balls to expose their true identity.
Why don’t you grow a pair?
Everyone who hides behind a psuedonym is chicken if you ask me – including every single person who posts on this blog under a make believe name.
I wonder if anyone on the left is still capable of fighting a good fight?
For example, take a look at my home electorate of Taupo, where the candidates from the Left are a complete joke. National’s Louise Upston is going to win very very easily. This is a seat which should be strongly contested. But no. Mark Burton is gone, and now there nobody there to fill the void.
If there are any LABOUR men or women around with a more coherent message than Curran, please inform me. Because they sure have been silent in the last 6 years.
But it is not me you have to try and convince is it? It is the average Joe and Jane on the street. The people who don’t read blogs, nor probably have the time to do so.
When people from Labour are worried about whether a Green candidate or any other minor party is standing in certain electorates, that tells me there are serious problems within the party. And thats why people aren’t signing up to Labour. The socially liberal left who Labour have pandered to for the last 20 years are now deserting Labour, just as the hard working labourers did at the last election. How is Labour going to win these people back?
With passionate people like Clare Curran, that’s how.
Now if everyone could start showing their true colours instead of being such pedantic, pretentious know-it-alls, the Left might win an election in the next 10 years.
Are the polls close in Dunedin Clare? It is the only reason I can imagine as to why you have been posting so irrationally.
The case you mention is sad – we all feel for people in situations like this but I cannot imagine how compulsory unionism (which seems to be being proposed as a solution) would have helped him at all. Suggest he spends some time studying to reskill him,self while working part time (and good on him for doing that rather than going on full welfare!)
Re your posting – don’t get too carried away – it might hurt your chances of a cushy union job if you lose on Nov 26.
If Labour want to have a chance at winning the next election, or at least improving their present position, the party needs a new leader. Everyone knows Phil just doesn’t have what it takes to raise Labour’s profile. The problem is he has no sharp edges. Too bland, too boring. How about Rick Barker? He’s got a bit soft of late but in his Union days he was someone with a bit of get up and go…..or has it gone?
It may have been cold last week but not cold enough for hell to freeze over and that would be a requirment for Dunedin South to not vote Labour especially with what is happening with the Hillside workshops and the way the local member is working for them
Well done oldlagger you managed to not read my whole post. I specifically pointed out that Monopolies such as kiwi rail should never be privitised due to the fact that for them to be run to the benefit of Kiwi’s they can’t be run at a profit. I don’t know about you but I am more interested in benifiting Kiwi’s than some private company that wants to asset strip a key infrastructure. Ferries privitesed because all it takes to introduce compitition is to have another provider buy a ferry and contract a point to run it from. hence it not being a natural monopoly. Thanks again for making my point.
our power grid is an essential infrastructure. It is also a monopoly. This is due to the lack of profitability in laying a completely new one to act in compitition. The lack of compitition means that the owner can set the prices at what ever they want and have no requirement to invest in the network This maxamises profits. Don’t try and argue that any private investors would have a minority share. Investors with a minority share in Air New Xealand prevented the majority shareholder of the government being able to keep air craft servicing in New Zealand due to higher costs. The exact same thing will happen with and asset sales.
{deleted. People are allowed to use pseudynoms on this blog within the rules that we have set. Your other comment was disingenuous. Grant}
I have sympathy for this person’s plight…. but I don’t make the link with government policy for one persons predicament; and certainly government policy didn’t give his wife cancer.
I presume this man has a mortgage- in whih case for a Dunedin home with a $100k mortgage his weekly mortgage payments would probably have declined more than $50 a week under the current government. I hope that- and his redundance- helps to tide him over in this time between jobs.
Thank goodness the left hasn’t shut down the mining industry at Macraes…ce a mechanical engineer will get work there …. or perhaps on the roading projects approved in the region….. or in the dairy-support industry (that thankfully still has some water rights….
{deleted, personal attack (and don’t pretend your were not being). Take this as a warning, next time you will be banned, Grant}
When this man came to see you, did you tell him that you intended to use him as a political football?
I agree with George D – we need a real Labour Party that is not afraid to take on the fatcats in the name of social justice. During its last term in office, Labour’s MPs sat on their arses and did nothing to repair the damage to our social fabric done by their predecessors (1984-90 and 1990-1999). I’m looking for solid commitment to Labour’s principles from its MPs this time round (it does have them, unlike the Nats) but I’m not seeing any evidence of them. (Sorry Michael but this is rubbish. Do you not remember Income related rents, Working for Families, 20 hours free early childhood education, $3 prescriptions, massively reduced doctors fees, interest free student loans…. Its fine that you have different views, but please dont just make stuff up. And as for this election that commitment is absolutely there, both in policy and people., Grant}
“There are no jobs”
Really? Im a Mechanical Engineer (Graduating early next year). I have very little Work Experience and yet can tell you that there are definitely jobs available. One employer that i received a job offer from was also looking for Dunedin based staff. From my experience the job market for engineers is no where near as cold as you make it sound.
“Oldlogger says: Kiwi rail will never be a successful mover of people, because there just ain’t enuf of us who want to travel by rail.”
Kiwirail is already a successful mover of people. The Trans-alpine in particular is very profitable because of high patronage.
OK Grant, let’s look at Labour’s achievenments in 1999-2008:
1. “Interest Free Student Loans” – interest was charged on student loans for many of these years, but it was labelled “CPI interest” (or something similar). I know “interest”, in the technical sense of a charge on capital wasn’t levied but, IMHO, this is a semantic argument, of the type frequently deployed by Labour that didn’t deceive anyone except itself, as 2008 demonstrated.
2. “Income related rents for HNZ tenants”. In fact, HNZ continued to charge market rates on rents, except for “low income” tenants (about 20% of the total, IIRC) and only if those tenants completed a complex bureaucratic obstacle course, labelled rent reviews (every 6 months, again IIRC). If tenants who had been receiving income related rents were unable to complete the bundles of paperwork HNZ required them to submit for every rent review (such as people with English as second language, literacy problems etc), HNZ defaulted their rent back to market levels. 2 Court cases involving the same appellant, one in the High Court and the other in the Court of Appeal, exposed the truth of Labour’s housing policy.
3. “Working for Families” aka Family Support with extra hurdles attached. This policy always had a low take up rate from the working and under classes because (a) the bureaucratic obstacle course defeated many (as it was intended, IMHO) and (b) the abatement regime led easily to overpayments and threatening letters from the bureaucracy for repayment. I recall asking a number of people if they were receiving WFF, only to be told either that the claim process defeated them or that they would not apply because of previous bad experiences (to put it mildly) with WINZ/IRD bureaucracy.
3. “20 hours free childhood education”. Again, parents faced ‘sudden death” if their incomes exceeded the limits, even slightly (easy to do, if both parents are working in multiple jobs with irregular hours etc). I’m not sure if all EC centres accepted payment from government, as I seem to recall arguments about the conditions. My memories are a bit hazy on this one so stand to be corrected. Wasn’t this policy only introduced in the last year or 2 of Labour’s time in office?
4. “$3 prescriptions”. Only some (those on the Pharmac schedule?). I recall problems with people who were shifted onto generic medications being unable to handle them (side effects) but being unable to afford the market cost of the previous drugs.
5. “Massively reduced doctors fees” Sorry, never happened to me. I had to pay whatever the “market” dictated. IIRC, although Labour subsidised GP visits, all that happened was that GPs pocketed the subsidy and continued to charge patients, even children, because Labour lacked the guts to tell the GPs they were not allowed to charge patients while accepting the subsidies. In that respect, the policy is analagous to accommodation supplement, where taxpayers subsidise rich landlords, who keep hiking the rent every year (no regulation of the residential property market, of course).
I assure you I’m not making any of this up.
Clare, I was with you up to the point where you said “As a direct result of this government’s policies, he, and others like him, do not have jobs.” You talk as if there’s some kind of magic fairy dust that politicians can sprinkle around, and, hey presto! Jobs get created!! If you people want to get re-elected so that you can boss us around for three years instead of letting the Keyster do it, why don’t you stop whining about those awful Greens and tell us exactly how you are proposing to create “jobs”?
Sad story, but did this engineer purchase income protection insurance, as I have? Not cheap, but false economy if you don’t.
And since when did anyone have a right to a guaranteed job for life, and unlimited medical care paid for by someone else?
@Michael:
The answer to GPs not responding to subsidies as you think they should is to remove the subsidies and let the GPs prosper or fail according to the wishes of their patients.
The food banks are empty because people spend their dole on cigarettes, drugs and alcohol.
If only someone could think of a solution to this…
Maybe stock up the foodbanks with cigarettes, drugs and alcohol?
Many poories are poor cos they don’t have enough money and stuff is expensive!
Richard – I agree with you. GPs accepting subsidies from taxpayers should not be permitted to charge anything on top. They should not be compelled to accept subsidies, however, but it should be either subsidies or market rates, not both. The point I was trying to make in my earlier post is that Labour defeated its campaign pledge by failing to prevent GPs accepting subsidies from charging top ups – just like landlords with accommodation supplement. Perhaps state-run primary healthcare centres, with GPs getting their student loans written off in return for a few years work, is worth considering. Why not lawyers at community law centres, too?