When MAF made the announcement of the loss of 241 positions, that will end up putting 144 people out of work, it was a continuation of this government’s policy of putting more than 1500 people out of work in the public service. In my media release I made the point that those put out of work are real people with families and themselves to look out for.
That hit home to me yesterday when the daughter of one of the women who found out she was losing her job visited me in my electorate office yesterday. She was upset. Her mother is in her early 60s, and faces the prospect of trying to find work in an environment where jobs are few and far between especially for someone of her age. She has written a letter to John Key. She asked me if I thought he would actually get to read it. I said I didn’t know, but I want to make sure people get to know the real impact of losing jobs. Here are some extracts from the letter.
My mother who raised her children on her own and started work part time when my younger brother started school has worked her guts out for her family and paid tax to a government that has basically shitted on her.
She also lives on her own in a small privately rented one bedroom flat. Now faced with unemployment and the prospect of having to move out of the flat that she will no longer be able to afford and go on the unemployment benefit and move into a state flat.
The reality is employers are not looking for workers of her age the the prospect of her getting a decent paying job is very slim. This has terrified her and she is in turmoil and worry about her future something that a woman of her age does not need in her life. My mother is a loving and vibrant woman who now seems depressed and anxious.
I know from talking with other people facing the same issues that she is not alone. People in this country continue to struggle to buy food and clothe their children or themselves.
Cutting the public service is not the answer. People’s livelihoods depend on their jobs and the retail sector depends on people spending their money. This government should be creating jobs which I do not see them doing. When cutting budgets and jobs is the only method a government has to reduce debt that government will not survive in an election.
She goes on in the letter to talk about some of her personal circumstances which I won’t put in the public arena. But the reason she wrote was not for herself, but for her mother. Its a real story about the real impact of unemployment, and I think it deserves to be heard.
This is where you put in how she would be better under a Labour Led Government. Not to profit from her suffering, but to give everyone an alternative to vote for.
Grant. many of the jobs now being lost in the public service, were created during the 9 years of Labour rule. These are not jobs that create anything. They do not create any wealth. They are simply a drag on our economy, and we will see over time, that the departments that have lost staff (many from the upper echelons, and not front line staff) will continue to operate as before.
We will see no difference in their services to the public, and their departure will go unnoticed in the main.
While I feel sorry for those who have lost their jobs, this is an ongoing cycle. Labour fills the public sector, then National trims it. Nothing new here. Hopefully those affected can fine productive employment in the private sector, though I agree this won’t be easy in the current global economic climate.
I sympathise with your constituent, it’s not a good situation to be in. Unforetunately, the Government doesn’t owe anyone a job for life and needs to be careful and efficient spenders of what is (ultimately) the result of other peoples hard work. Labour has done this, for instance with the shutting down of Terralink in 2001 where a number of staff were laid off – and became creditors of the entity in receivership so didn’t get the full redundancy entitlement.
If you think that your income should be spent that way, club together and pay the extra money into a pool to employ the former civil servants made redundant since 2008.
@Grant I am sure all compassionate New Zealander’s feel sorry for your constituent but we need to trim expenditure in the public sector and balance the books. This unfortunately comes at a personal cost to a few for the greater good. It is never nice but it is necessary. Arguing against this is either opportunistic politics (always easy in opposition) or agreement to carry unaffordable state overheads.
What cruel comments above and they show almost sociopathic lack of empathy. But I bet if that situation was about them, they would demand support from others. Don’t they know that well functioning public services make for a well functioning society? These job cuts will create worrying biosecurity and other risks. That woman’s job could be the vital link that keeps us safe.
Oldlogger. Putting aside your argument that Public Servants are a drag on the economy, for which you have no evidence for except Don Brash may have said it.
The assertion that Public Servant numbers expanded in a rampant way under Labour is false. During the Labour government the percentage of people employed in the Public sector varied around the standard 19-21% of the total workforce for nine years. The Sector stayed the same throughout the period. Between 1989 and 1997 it was consistantly higher than 21%. But since 1997, public sector employment has been around 21%, including including the period post the 2008 election.
National clearly is planning to take the public sector below that level, which leaves the question – in 2008 the National party campaigned on no cuts to frontline Public Services. It seems quite unlikely that even if National keeps that line for the up-coming 2011 election, that the promise would be worth the paper it is printed on
Oh, and frontline staff have been fired already.
P.S. My information came from the Infoshare site – made available free to any researcher by the good Public Servants of Statistics New Zealand.
@Hilary all of the comments made (mine included) expressed sorrow for the woman concerned. Unfortunately though we need to face reality. I have been through redundancy – it is not nice. I have also had to make people redundant and that is awful too. However the other option, in both cases, was closing the business. Hardly a sociopathic lack of empathy.
need to trim expenditure in the public sector and balance the books.
DarrenW, it would be easier to balance the Public books if the government had not reduce the revenue it was receiving. Which reminds me, that tax change Bill English brought in was supposed to boost the economy. Still waiting for that economic lift… has anyone seen it? Or is it hiding somewhere?
@Derek. That alternative is for you to read and absorb here, http://www.labour.org.nz and more to come.
@darrenw and others. This is a story at several levels. The first is that it is easy to see job cuts just in terms of numbers, this woman and her mother are the human face of that, and I thought it was important to highlight that ( and I hasten to add she agreed to me using the content of the letter). The second is the public sector and what it should look like, how big it should be etc. The reason Labour put resources into the public sector in our last term was because National had let it run down so much it was not delivering the kinds of public services New Zealanders wanted. Under the current government we run the risk of the same running down happening again. In terms MAF they do have a critical role in promoting and protecting the economy. Some of the people who are losing their jobs are responsible for fisheries policy seen as gold standard around the world, some are people who play an important behind the scenes role in making our borders safe. All of them are people who deserve some respect for the commitment they have shown to their fellow taxpayers.
Smart move for a country surrounded by ocean and reliant on agriculture, backbone of the country and all. So long as there’s no foot and mouth outbreak or Bio Security issues things should be fine restructured and downsized…. Of course no problems at all lately with the fishing industry.
@Sean – what do your think has assisted us being in such a strong position coming out of the global financial crisis and a major earthquake? We are seeing a lift and it will only get better from here on in thanks to policies you have criticised.
Stimulus for the economy is critical – as is creating an affordable cost structure.
Is simple macroeconomic policy so hard to understand?
Why are so many people so keen to line their pockets with other people’s money now rather than build an economically sustainable future?
@Grant – there is no doubt that the people are hurting, nor should there be doubt that they deserve respect. Unfortunately they are paying the price of over-investment by the past govt and the trimming of this. A high performing, efficient and productive public sector is critical – but we cannot afford a fat one.
@darrenw ‘Why are so many people so keen to line their pockets with other people’s money now rather than build an economically sustainable future?’ Maybe the National Party can answer that question the best.
AND
Michael Cullen paid off Bill English’s huge public debt, that’s what put us in such a strong position re the recession. Bill English has once again racked up a huge public debt and he has no idea about stimuli for the economy apart from giving tax cuts to those who don’t need them and THAT has done nothing for the economy except create more DEBT.
@Marsman your nom de plume is fitting! Your link to economic reality is similar to the idea of life on mars
Unfortunate fact of life, happens in the private sector too and let’s face it the government grew to big for it’s boots. I feel for the poor lady but the job for life scenario ended 20 years ago.
Shame we had 9 years of the feather bedding of government workers which leaves the tax payees somewhat less them empathetic.
Been let go a few times myself as a tradesman when the work runs out or somebody won’t pay, it’s harsh but a fact of life Grant you would be well to acquaint yourself.
Hopefully the good lady has had 40 years on a nice government pay scale with a good PSA pension and will be better off thN most in her retirement.
@Grant – clearly the only pertinent question is, will you promise here and now to reverse the cuts, and re-employ all those people? Otherwise, you accept that it was the right decision for the Minister to make?
This constituent would be better off in a real job, not a public service make-work artificial job.
Are these cuts a result of the amalgamation of the ministries of fisheries and MAF? Maybe there was duplication in positions.
If the govt laid people off from the ministry of thumb twiddling, you would see emotional letters like this one. But that isn’t a reason to keep them employed. MAF isn’t thumb twiddling, but you still need to ask whether these bureaucrats were needed.
Is anyone disputing that they were no longer needed after the merger? Or are we just focusing on the emotional cost of change?
@ darrenw. And your link to economic reality is, let me guess, via Roger Douglas’s voodoo mumbo-jumbo ‘no free lunch for you all but free banquets for me’ school of economics.
what do your think has assisted us being in such a strong position coming out of the global financial crisis and a major earthquake?
Michael Cullen is the reason that we went into the global financial crisis and major earthquake in good conditions, because he paid down debt and gave the country more space to react to that crisis than the once aclaimed Celtic Tiger. Remember when John Key wanted us to be like Ireland? If Brash had become prime minister in 2005, we would be just like Ireland right now.
We are seeing a lift and it will only get better from here on in thanks to policies you have criticised.
If there is a lift it hasn’t actually reached the public, the improved unemployed numbers, or the life of anyone I know.
@Hilary:
Could you conceive of middle class people (like me) NOT actually demanding support paid for by others, in time or money, when they fall upon hard times in finances or health?
And what exactly is a “well-functioning society”? Functioning the way YOU want it, or functioning the way the self-interested individuals that make up “society” want it?
@marsman:
Unfortunately Douglas did blot his copybook a wee bit. He wasn’t a pure free marketeer, but he was a sea change from the state-knows-best politics of Muldoon.
I agree with you that no-one should line your pockets with someone else’s money obtained by force. That goes for the rich lining their already well-filled pockets at the expense of others, just as much as the less well-off lining their pockets through the exploitation of wealth creators.
Amazing.
Show the RWNJs a case where a real person is put out of work by their Free Market is more Efficient policies, and suddenly they believe it’s more efficient to have this person, currently working, on a benefit and living in state-funded accommodation.
Sometimes I think they have swallowed some of Alice’s potions and have no trouble believing six impossible things before breakfast.
Me, I’m with the Red Queen and that’s us shouting “Off with their heads.”
national does not want any independent advisors or collectors of statistics so they can make up their own truths.
with the job market depressed odds these now unemployed govt sector employes will be either be unemployed at some stage, go find another job in aussie or find a deskilled position. Dont we need as many people being productive and spending soas to allow companies to generate profits..better to have a productive public sector with good pay scales contributing to the company coffers than a reduced number of middle class spenders. vicious cycle really – pump up total net incomes and the economy floats along ok.
Lots of laid off public sector workers will be heading off to Australia, I imagine.
Over to Aussie, to make money, contribute, and pay taxes.
While here in NZ, we seem to have people applauding this – as if throwing away good jobs and good people is somehow a good thing.
and the NZ economy slowly sinks….
according to Hooton last week on rnz mornings(the hooton party) national was going to create 210,000 jobs sooon. but he didnt have much to say about that this morning on the wireless.
“suddenly they believe it’s more efficient to have this person, currently working, on a benefit and living in state-funded accommodation.”
If the taxpayer-funded job she had is now obselete, surely it is more efficient. She’s now available for a productive job and will probably be looking hard to get one. Or start a business.
Bea, you are working under the assumption that there is a productive job for her to move into or that someone would employ a 60 year old when there are thousands of middle aged skilled people looking for work. You are all ignoring the fact that it is not labour who put the WORLD into recession but in fact your capitalist free market with its reckless lending. We have right wing politics to blame for where we are and at the moment all they will do to try and fix it is blame everyone else.
@crashcart
Are you implying that your job is not generated by the capitalist free market?
@GW are you implying that the capatalist free market isn’t responsable for the Global recession and by extension the unemplyment and empoverishment of millions. Oh I could turn around and say “yay I have a job too bad for every one else” but I don’t buy into that selfish mantra like you do.
Before we start slagging off capitalism, let us at least acknowledge that even in recession it manages to deliver to most people a standard of living that could only have been dreamt of under any other economic system.
I visited the Eastern Bloc many times in the 70s and I can tell you that the iron curtain wasn’t there to stop the ‘peoples democracies’ from being swamped with refugees from their capitalist neighbours…
Oh capatalisim seemed like a good idea. So did comunisim when it was written down. That however shouldn’t stop us questioning where it has got us too. For all we know we will all be living in global China in 50 years looking back and saying we couldn’t belive that people thought unrestricted free markets would actually work.
@ crashcart
My question was genuine.
Interesting that you chose to answer it with a question.
Also interesting that you have attributed to me a mantra that I have never even remotely espoused on the basis of that question. But never mind.
I would still like you to answer my question but it’s OK if you don’t want to.
However in response to your question given that capitalism is a concept and therefore has no ‘agency’ I would say no, it did not cause the CFG.
Greed, mismanagement and incompetence caused it, all of which are directly attributable to the human condition rather than an system as amorphous, complex and illdefined as ‘free market capitalism’. (Something that doesn’t actually exist in the real world, btw)
@GW I chose to ignore your question on my employment because whether or not the capitalist system provides my job is subjective. I am in the military and so strictly speaking my job is provided by the government and not the capitalist system. However there are many who would argue that the primary purpose of my job is to prop up the system. It was a muddy area that I didn’t particularly want to get into because it detracts from any valuable argument.
Your response is strange to me. One moment the capitalist free market is what I should thank for my job and in the next it is merely a concept so can’t be responsible for the GFC. You can’t have it both ways. Either:
a) Capitalism is the basis for the system under which our global economy works and it is therefore not only what provides my employment but also the system that provided an environment where the GFC was able to happen in the way it did, or
b) Capitalism is a concept or idea that has no real bearing on any ones employment or the GFC.
I will go with the former. How about you? Or is there a real other option that you could explain to me. I am always open to new interpretations.
Marsman: re-write with factual basis or you are banned. Clare
@ crashcart
I haven’t suggested you thank anyone (or anything) for your job.
What I was suggesting is that the concepts of capitalism (at a high level, freedom of trade, freedom of labour mobility, freedom of capital mobility) create the environment where your job exists; though in your case it is as you stated, more complex.
It’s just when I see statements like, to quote you, ‘your capitalist free market’ being blamed for putting the world into recession that I get bent out of shape.
I agree that it is a ‘crisis of capitalism’ (to use a Marxist term) for a whole bunch of reasons, mostly involving trust and due diligence, but blaming capitalism for the ills of the world is reductive reasoning.
In effect, I agree with your point (a) above, but it’s important to realise that with the bad, you get the good.
While capitalism provided the environment, humans provided the greed, poor governace and ignorance.
These human traits can and do operate under any system with varying effect.
My mother is in the same predicament as the lady from MAF. After reading all the comments I have to say I’m appalled at all of the assumptions made. The fact of the matter is, regardless of all your socioeconomic and political theory and debate, not one of you has made a rational reasonable suggestion for the nearly 1500 New Zealanders who are or will soon be unemployed.
Working from the bottom end of the govt pay scale, this means that at least $60,000,000 will no longer be going through the economy in the form of income and taxes paid. This is an annual figure. Add to that bill the cost of social welfare payments and other support costs, and I fail to see how this could be construed as anything other than false economy.
Yes this is running on the assumption that none of these people will find work, however the number of people close to retirement age is quite high and therefore they will be among the last to be re-employed. In addition, the remainder will be competing against people leaving Christchurch as well as the existing market of unemployed.
My words to my Mum when she told me she was losing her job? Sell up and move to Australia. We won’t be far behind.
I agree, I’m in same position as your Mother. Read my comments under Jacinta’s – give the kids a leg up into employment.