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Posts Tagged ‘Labour Party’

Its bigger than all of us

Posted by Grant Robertson on April 10th, 2011

Labour’s list for the 2011 election has been finalised. It is a great mix of current MPs and new faces. Labour takes seriously its constitutional commitment to produce a list that gives representation to women, Maori, Pacific Island and ethnic minority groupings. A number of journalists have commented after recent Labour Party conferences that the attendees “look like” New Zealand, and that is what we try to do with the list.

There will be people who feel disappointed with their position on the list. That is inevitable in a competitive process such as this one, as it would be in any political party. When I look at the list there are people who may not make into Parliament who I very much would like to see in there.

But the point we all know is that the values of the Party, and the goals we have for New Zealand are bigger than any of us individually. I joined the Labour Party in the late 1990s because I saw a country that was becoming more and more unfair, where prosperity and opportunity were becoming the preserve of the privileged. In the Labour Party I saw a history of standing up for ordinary people, giving everyone a fair go at success, being independent on the world stage and a belief that the government did have a job to give all its citizens security, opportunity and above all hope.

Today with the current National government we see New Zealand again heading further down a path of unfairness, where the economy works not for ordinary Kiwis but for those who have the most and where people are falling through cracks in our social fabric. Labour has a great team, enduring values and modern policies (some announced, many more to come) that will make the difference to establishing a better, fairer more prosperous New Zealand.

I know that from time to time supporters can be frustrated or disappointed by things that are done or not done but to me supporting Labour is about the values and the ideas. Those things are bigger than any one person’s ambition or position. They are beyond the modern media driven politics of scandal and celebrity. They are beyond any poll or focus group. They are about what kind of country you want to live in, and you want your kids and grandkids to grow up in.

Forget the side-shows, forget the beat-ups. Remember the values, retain the hope.

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Filed under: Labour Party
39 Comments

Phil’s Conference Speech

Posted by Chris Hipkins on October 20th, 2010

By popular demand, here is the video of Phil Goff’s speech to the Labour Party Annual Conference over the weekend.

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Filed under: Labour Party
16 Comments

Unlocking Our Potential

Posted by David Cunliffe on October 4th, 2010

The Canterbury Earthquake, terrible though it was, reminds us of the courage and resilience of New Zealanders in a crisis. 

 If only the same courage and strength could be tapped as part of our normal ‘economic development’, NZ would be able to unlock enormous untapped potential.

 That same courage was evident in many of our forebears: those who voyaged to NZ by waka or ship, and those hacked down the bush to form arable pasture (often on slopes so steep it should not have been touched, but their courage was undeniable).  

 Tapping into that same strength of character to unlock future potential is part of the task that lies before us. 

 Our world is changing.  The old solutions will not work for tomorrows problems.  The old certainties have gone.   The era of guaranteed markets in the UK for our sheep and beef has gone.   The era of free and easy credit has now gone.  

 We are told we face a ‘decade of deleveraging’.  All around us we see growing signs of despair.  

 Just as in the 70’s we were called upon to diversify our markets, in the 80’s to deregulate our economy, and in the 00’s to rebuild our torn social fabric, Labour is now called upon to rise to a new challenge in a new era. Just as Mickey Savage did in the 1930s, we are being called upon to find a better way.

 NZ is currently meandering through the aftermath of the global financial crisis.  We are beset by malaise.  We lack confidence.  We appear unable to define our own future, and even lack awareness of our own potential and character.

 So NZ falls back passively on its proximity to larger Asian growth centres, its traditional bulk agricultural base, and its relationship with its nearest neighbour Australia.

 These are undeniable strategic advantages, but if any are a substitute for owning our own future, they will ultimately undermine our national wellbeing and identity.  

 Our relationship with foreign investment has to change.  As it stands we are becoming more and more deeply indebted to foreigners.  We have been through a phase of selling state assets to cover the interest.  We are now selling our land at the rate of dozens of rugby fields a day.  But still our national debt keeps rising. 

 It was not primarily ‘the government’s’ fault.   Most of this debt is private debt.  Most of it fuelled the private binge on property consumption (it was never really ‘investment’ despite the temporary up-cycle in which much of it happened).

 That we need more foreign investment is undeniable, but it must be channelled into genuinely value-creating and productive activity and not simply transfer the ownership of existing assets to foreigners making our future income deficit worse.   

 A new conversation must begin – one that starts from the proposition that we wish to own and govern our own affairs.

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Filed under: Investment, business, commerce, community, debt, economic, economy, environment, monetary policy, politics, social development
51 Comments

Big Norm

Posted by Darien Fenton on August 31st, 2010

81tour-006A tweet from Phil Goff was a reminder that today is the anniversary of the death of Norman Kirk, a much loved NZ Labour Prime Minister, who died suddenly at the age of 51 in 1974. “Big Norm” was the fifth New Zealand PM to die in office.

To quote Michael Bassett in the Dictionary of NZ Biography :

“New Zealanders awoke on the Sunday to the news that their Prime Minister was dead. There followed an outpouring of grief paralleled only by that which had followed M.J. Savage’s death in 1940. People who had been slow to embrace Kirk as a leader could not believe that he had been snatched away, seemingly in his prime. As the Labour Party slid towards defeat at the 1975 election, legends grew about the man who might have saved the country from Muldoon. Princes, prime ministers and potentates with whom Kirk had established friendships also mourned his passing; most thought him an extraordinary individual, and the “log cabin to White House” metaphor was on many lips.”

I’m old enough to remember his death, and was young enough at the time for his short tenure as PM to make a formative impact on my fledgling political views. Norman Kirk’s strong protest against French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific Ocean, which led to the Labour Government taking France to the International Court of Justice in 1972 and his heroic act of sending two New Zealand navy frigates into the test zone area at Mururoa Atoll in 1973 to protest  French testing made a big impact. Kirk also refused to allow a visit by a South African rugby team  team, a decision he made because of the apartheid régime in South Africa – which was a forerunner to the 1981 Springbok Tour actions.

I strongly recall the sense that something good and promising with his election as a Labour Prime Minister had disappeared, followed soon after by the malevolent and all-pervading presence of Muldoon – which in its weird way was also transformative for my generation.

And of course, only a taste of what was to come.

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Filed under: Labour Party, history
38 Comments

BUDGET 2010: Will they fix the rorts?

Posted by David Cunliffe on May 19th, 2010

Interesting piece in the Dom front page today about the tax avoidance around trusts – but mostly interesting for what it does not say. 

The National government has spent much of the last year cutting “low quality” services like home help for frail elderly because of the supposed fiscal crunch.

Tomorrow they will announce billion dollar plus tax cuts, overwhelmingly benefitting the wealthy few, while the many just tread water in the face of rising GST, rent, power and food costs. 

They lamely justify the top end tax cut as either a growth stimulant (which is nonsense – much more stimulus results from good investments or tax cuts at lower income bands)…

…or a way or retaining talent (branding Kiwis as “envious” is rubbish, as not all talented people are wealthy and NZ already has the third lowest taxes in the OECD!  Our real need is to lift wages and sustainably grow the economy)….

….or a way of stopping the $300 m tax fiddle arising from the abuse of Trusts.  Ironically the way they plan to do that is by giving all top rate earners the same rate as if they too werre fiddling.  (Of course, without sin there would be no sinners)….

But here’s the real rub: even that trust tax avoidance is puny compared with the writeoffs around loss attributing companies (LAQCs) – $2.3 billion in 2008 alone.   Plus a $500m writeoff around rental property losses.  Plus more around the abuse of savings vehicle (portfolio investment entities – PIEs). 

Not to mention the wider issue of the income/capital boundary and the incentives created to hock off small companies too soon, taking the tax free proceeds to buy the bach and the BMW rather than to grow the business.

Does this government have the nerve to address these issues, which have spiralled out of control since the election?   Or will it just continue to take home help off oldies and special ed services off crippled kids?  Will it penny pinch on night classes while boosting private schools? 

Will it stop the rorts?  Is it capable of governing for the many not the few? 

Increasingly, Kiwis are coming around to the view that it cannot, but Labour can and will.

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Filed under: Budget, GST, Labour Party, Tax, Tax Working Group, Uncategorized, business, economic, economy, finance, labour
46 Comments

Hon Vui Mark Gosche – NZLP Life Member

Posted by Darien Fenton on May 16th, 2010

32068_388188524681_706324681_4159818_1393378_nIt was a great moment at the Labour Party Region 1 Conference on Friday night when Vui Mark Gosche was honoured for his contribution to the Labour Movement with Life Membership of the Labour Party.

Mark was a leader of the Service Workers Union until 1997, and was an awesome advocate for low paid workers, particularly during the tough times of the early 1990s when National set out to destroy workers’ rights and organisation.

I know that Mark didn’t have expectations about being an MP.   He campaigned for others and worked within the CTU and the Labour Party for change.  But when he decided to put his name forward, there was great pride when he was first elected to Parliament as a list MP in 1996.  In 1999, he won the seat of Maungakiekie, and went on to hold a number of Cabinet posts, including Minister of Corrections, Minister of Housing, Minister of Transport, and Minister of Pacific Island Affairs.

Mark and his family experienced the worst of times in the coming years, with the illness of his wonderful wife Carol, after a brain haemorrhage in 2002.

In April 2007 he was bestowed with the Samoan matai title Vui at his grandmother’s village of Lano in Samoa and left parliament in 2008 to spend more time with his family.

Mark was a leader to many, not only in the union, but in the Pacific community.  He is sorely missed in the caucus, but he carries on his commitment, as he always has, outside of Parliament.

I was proud to sing “Solidarity” alongside others when he received his well earned Labour Party gold badge.

The best comment came from Mark who said that while the Honours system in NZ has gone silly, the two most important Honours for him are his Life Membership of his union, the Service & Food Workers Union and his Life Membership of his party, the NZ Labour Party.

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Filed under: Labour Party, Pacific issues, low pay
6 Comments

First, Twice, Again, Sort of…

Posted by Pete Hodgson on December 14th, 2009

This post is inspired by Charles Chauvel’s post earlier today especially his point 3.

When our PM arrives in Copenhagen he will declare two world firsts for NZ. The first first will be our ‘all gases all sectors’ ETS. He will not dwell on the fact that it was passed 15 months ago in David Parker’s name and that his Government has since gutted it. It still has form but struggles for substance.

The second first will be NZ science leadership on agricultural gases especially methane. He will announce, again, an international NZ-led effort. Splendid. Except it began about 5 year’s ago. Remember the Fart Tax? Well the farmers paid up anyway and so did the taxpayer and the research got started. (I was both Climate and Science minister at the time)

Not that we shouldn’t do more. Not that another conference of research workers mightn’t be a good idea. But it ain’t new.

So what would be new?

*research and business development of ligno-cellulose(ie forestry products or by-products) to ethanol in pilot refineries beginning in BoP where the science and the wood is most concentrated. Actually the science is done but the scaling out of the lab isn’t.
*research into deep geothermal energy. That research got underway two year’s ago but modestly. We need baseload thermal electricity to wind out Huntly and to give charging capacity to electric vehicles….
*an undertaking to purchase a few hundred electric vehicles, possibly limited for official use in Wellington in the first instance, not to save lots of petrol (there would be too few), but to test recharging options, planning law, and other infrastructure so that when they are available affordably we will be ready.

The Conference would erupt at your speech because they would see substance Mr Key. Substance Mr Key. Mr Key? Hello? Hello…….?

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Filed under: Labour Party, climate change, national
6 Comments

Being in Opposition

Posted by Grant Robertson on November 9th, 2009

A year in opposition teaches you a lot of things. Any commentators who might like to think that Labour does not understand that it lost can rest assure that it feels very real. Most especially for me it feels real when I see things like this and this.

In these circumstances there is an understandable desire from supporters or would-be supporters to hear from Labour ” what we would do”.  This refrain also comes from those on the other side of the spectrum, usually when we criticise the government and they know that their guys have stuffed up and they can’t think of anything else to say!

The reality though is that, for now, we don’t get to make the big calls. The government gets to decide what to do.  They won, and they are the ones who have to come up with the ideas.  Our immediate job is to hold them to account, challenge the assumptions and ask the questions.

Its tempting to want to respond to every issue and say we would not do that, or we would fund that, but we aren’t at this stage in the process.   We will be definitive on some things- eg restoring the Adult and Community Education cuts or not sending the SAS to Afghanistan.  But for some other things we are going to take some time. This means that we may not have a definitive alternative to articulate on every issue.

This is in part because we have to take the time to re-assess where we got to in government, and what needs to stay and what needs to change. We also have to deal with issues that cut across  geographic and policy boundaries.  Traditional assumptions about how we create sustainable wealth are no longer tenable. Practically we  have to focus on how we support people as they pay their bills and seek to improve their and their families lives.

Labour will have much more to say in terms of definitive policy  in time, but we have to be patient, and we have to be open to new ideas. This does not mean that we are silent, nor does it mean we are open to any old idea. Phil Goff puts it this way- we face new and different challenges, but our values endure.

Our values are based on a belief that we are stronger when we act collectively, that for a good days work you should get a good days pay, that we need to invest in people and redistribute wealth in order to create opportunity for all and that we must always act to protect and support the vulnerable.

What Labour has been doing is listening and talking to groups and individuals all over New Zealand about their ambitions and how we can create policy to support that. The Party policy committees are hard at work. As we move into next year we will have more to say about some of the big themes and where we stand and some more detailed policy.  By 2011 you will see a comprehensive programme and a plan.  But for now, its the job of the current government to provide those, and from all sides, the question is being asked, where is that plan?

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Filed under: Labour Party
37 Comments

Youse had nine years to do it…..

Posted by Darien Fenton on November 7th, 2009

Or so the refrain from some of the contributors to this blog goes.

It’s true that Labour had nine years in government and there were things we didn’t get around to doing. We can all be critical about that.

Before I became an MP in 2005, I often joined the chorus of frustration that “Labour hadn’t” or “Labour should….”, particularly when it came to fixing obvious problems relating to workers’ rights, even while recognising that Labour had done a lot.

But once I became an MP, I learned that there are only so many House Sitting days, only so many Select Committee days for hearing submissions and that passing laws doesn’t just mean coming up with an idea and barging forward.

I also found out about the realities of numbers. In the 2005 Labour-led government, the truth is that we couldn’t always get the support we needed for the things we wanted to do.

While theoretically, the votes of the Greens and the Maori Party gave the Labour-led government a 1-vote majority in the house, it was unreliable. The Maori Party were often not there in the numbers required to vote full strength because they were off doing other things.

This is not intended as a criticism of them, but an observation about the priorities of small parties, which may be different to Labour’s –  and their responsibilities both within and outside of Parliament.

That meant Labour had to win additional support from NZ First or United Future or both, to give a buffer to legislation we wanted passed. I know that took a lot of effort. I was involved in that effort with the help of then Minister of Labour Ruth Dyson to try to win the numbers for my bill to give minimum wage to contractors.

Time and again, I had to postpone the second reading and committee stages because of the lack of Maori Party votes in the House.

After Taito went Independent, he withdrew his support, and as a result, my bill did not get through in the last parliament and failed in this one.

The point of this post is to say to all and sundry who like the mantra “Labour had nine years…” is that it’s not that easy. I wish it were.

And surely that doesn’t mean that we should never come up with new ideas and policies for the future?

In the next Labour-led government, we will be in the second decade of the 21st century, facing new challenges and a changing country.

Labour’s history in government is one of taking the country forward.

It’s how we do that in the next ten years of a Labour government I’m interested in.

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Filed under: Labour Party, Uncategorized, legislation, policy
36 Comments

Yes, in everyone’s Language – Hon Phil Goff’s Labour Conference Speech Chinese Translation

Posted by Raymond Huo on October 14th, 2009

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Filed under: asian
9 Comments

Redundancies rolling on in

Posted by Darien Fenton on October 12th, 2009

fair-deal-badge1Despite Paula Bennett’s premature claim today that the tide has turned on those claiming the unemployment benefit, those redundancies keep on rolling in.

Today’s announcements include iconic firm Fairydown’s proposed move to China, affecting 25 jobs and the loss of all 75 jobs with the closure of Sea Health Foods, south of Nelson.

That’s 100 in just one day and it’s an easy guess that at least 75 of the workers affected will not be receiving redundancy compensation.

And it’s not just those losing their jobs.  On Wednesday, PSA members at Parliament will rally to protest at their employer’s efforts to make it easier and cheaper to lay them off by slashing their redundancy agreement.   They join the many workers who are facing similar demands from their employers.

So, please join the thousands signing the petition and the postcards going to John Key.   He needs to support the Redundancy Protection Bill to deliver fairness to New Zealand workers.

I am sure he’s going see sense.

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Filed under: workforce
3 Comments

Affiliation or MOU?

Posted by Darien Fenton on October 11th, 2009

The Greens have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with my union, the Service & Food Workers Union (SFWU).  Good old them.  It’s the first MOU signed between a union and the Green Party and it commits both organisations to working together create a sustainable society in New Zealand.   The SFWU says it’s part of their strategy to develop wider political relationships and good old them too.  It is part of the progression of MMP and necessary for unions who want to be able to influence future Centre Left governments.

But will it replace affiliation?   I don’t think so.  The SFWU is affiliated to the Labour Party, which means it has voting rights in party and candidate selections and is influential in Labour’s policy development. SFWU, unlike some other unions, stuck with affiliation to the Labour Party throughout the difficult years of the Douglas era.   I know how hard the union worked at this and how divisive and difficult it was at the time.

There were those who said National couldn’t be any worse than Labour. Well they could. SFWU members found out they could and paid the price.

The Labour Party was founded by unions as its political arm, and I’ve always believed we have a responsibility to ensure our party works for working people, as well as the rest of New Zealand.

This is why affiliation is different to an MOU.  The Labour Party is the only New Zealand political party that recognises this special relationship through its constitutional processes.  It has worked for the SFWU, particularly in the last few years.  Through their affiliation, they have been able to drive real legislative and other change in Labour that has delivered real benefits for low paid workers and their families.

Will an MOU do the same?   I think starting a formal relationship with other like minded political parties is a good thing, but the relationship Labour enables in its constitutional processes through affiliation is unique.  I would hate to see it diminished in any way.

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Filed under: Labour Party, labour
8 Comments

Back to our roots

Posted by Phil Twyford on October 9th, 2009

Sue Bradford gave an interesting talk on the future of social activism at a Child Poverty Action Group hui in Manurewa this week. It got me thinking how important it is that Labour uses this spell in Opposition to reconnect with the grassroots groups that over the decades have provided much of the inspiration for Labour’s reformist drive.

Ninety three years after our party was borne of the union movement, workers’ struggles still provide a compass. I saw this at the annual conference of the Service and Food Workers Union this week where we celebrated campaigns to improve the lot of the lowest-paid.

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century Labour was renewed by social movements. From No Maoris No Tour in 1960 to the anti-tour protests of 1981 the anti-apartheid movement injected a dose of internationalism and protest against racism. The anti-Vietnam War protests mobilised a generation of activists, some of whom later went on to lead our party. The anti-nuclear movement built a grassroots movement that culminated in the Lange government passing the nuclear free legislation in 1987. The women’s movement has left its stamp on the party as much as it has changed our society. The rise of Maori nationalism and tino rangatiratanga has redefined our sense of who we are. Environmentalism has added another layer to Labour politics.

As a social democratic party though we are more than just the sum of a whole lot of causes. Labour offers a comprehensive vision of a better society, based on opportunity, security and equality. And as a party of the centre-left wanting to lead governments, and therefore needing to weld broad coalitions, inevitably we sometimes disappoint the social reformers. At the Child Poverty Action Group hui the CPAG leaders welcomed Labour MPs present in the knowledge that seriously tackling child poverty will depend on a future Labour-led government. At the same time they castigated us for what they saw as the disappointments of our last term in office.

But opposition is a time to re-think and renew. Annette King has declared child poverty Labour’s “unfinished business”. The party is looking for ideas and policy that will drive an assault on child poverty in our next term in Government. Working with groups like CPAG to do this, and campaigning alongside progressive social movements on all sorts of issues is the job at hand.

Sue Bradford will be missed. She’s made a great contribution in Parliament. But back on the outside she will no doubt be a catalyst for the progressive grassroots activism that political parties of the left need to speed us on our way.

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Filed under: Labour Party
10 Comments

The Conference Programme

Posted by Chris Hipkins on September 11th, 2009

The Labour Party Annual Conference is about to get underway properly with a Powhiri at 6.30pm. The mood of the delegates seems pretty positive and everyone I have spoken to is pretty resolved to put last year’s election loss behind us.

There is also a realistic mood within the party. People know that we lost the last election and we need to spend some time getting out and about, listening to why people voted the other way, and taking the opportunity to refresh some of our positions and work through some new ideas.

Tomorrow there are some great New Thinking Workshops scheduled. Selwyn Pellett and Lachlan Mackenzie will present a workshop on New Zealand’s economic future. Professor Ralph Chapman and David Parker will present a workshop on sustainability. There will also be workshops on political communication, Auckland issues, and approaches to social inclusion.

Some of the ‘fringe’ workshops that aren’t part of the official programme also look really interesting. Fringe workshops are being held on Open Source, a NZ republic, animal welfare regulation in NZ, and union campaigns, among other topics.

Keynote speakers include Helen Kelly, the President of the NZ Council of Trade Unions, Mike Rand, the Premier of South Australia, and of course, our Leader Phil Goff and Deputy Leader Annette King.

Should be a good weekend!

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Filed under: labour
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Conference starts…..

Posted by Trevor Mallard on September 11th, 2009

The Labour Party conference starts with sector days. I’m at the affiliates. Biggest group I’ve seen in the nearly 30 years I’ve attended. Interesting discussion of  complementary roles of social partnership/accord and industrial approaches.

Real issues around the position of the low paid, methods of growing the cake to ensure wealth for all and questions of New Zealand ownership.

Phil Goff, Helen Kelly and Andrew Little have all made presentations. Phil and Andrew have ten other sector groups to talk too. Really good talks tailored to audience but with themes which I am sure will be reflected in the plenary speeches.

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Filed under: democracy, labour, public services, redundancy, union
29 Comments

Congrats Chris, Thanks Mike

Posted by Chris Hipkins on August 23rd, 2009

Congratulations to Chris Flatt, who has been chosen as the new General Secretary of the Labour Party. Chris is an experienced organiser and brings a range of really useful skills to the role. His selection is another step in Labour’s renewal process following our defeat in 2008. Chris comes from a new generation and I’m sure he will have a huge contribution to make to the Labour Party’s future.

I’d also like to warmly thank Mike Smith who has served his term as General Secretary with distinction. Mike Smith and former party president Mike Williams were a formidable team. While we were obviously disappointed with the 2008 result, if we judge their performance based on their entire tenure, it’s clear they provided solid and successful leadership to our party. I’m sure both will remain loyal and dedicated party activists, so it’s not so much goodbye as it is thanks for a job well done.

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Filed under: labour
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Bananas? I don’t think so

Posted by Raymond Huo on August 18th, 2009

With Peter Jackson bringing Hollywood to New Zealand and the ingenuity of Kiwis who have done everything from inventing bungy-jumping to creating water powered cars, New Zealand has long been tagged as a creative place, and on the weekend I was glad to see an Asian flavour added to New Zealand’s creative community.I was a guest at the premiere screening of New Zealand Stories – a television series based on the experiences of Chinese people in New Zealand.

The stories were entertaining, production was slick and I’m sure once New Zealand Stories hits TV screens it will appeal to a wider audience.

Talking to members of the audience after my speech, I was pleased to hear that a number of my points struck a chord, such as:

- Labour Party’s vision of a strong and inclusive country where everyone is treated equally no matter of your background
- It was the Labour Government that apologised for the poll tax imposed on the early Chinese migrants
- It was the Labour Government that signed the historical free trade agreement with China

New Zealand Stories is not simply a television production made by a group of University Graduates, it is probably the first drama series showcasing the experiences of Chinese in New Zealand from a ‘KiwiAsian’ perspective.

KiwiAsians are the new generation of Asians in New Zealand. They are mainly young, educated, and from large urban Asian areas.

They are not bananas and refuse to walk within that framework of thinking.
They do not have the burden shouldered by many of the families of the first generation of Chinese miners from the late 1800s.

To help you understand the mindset of this expanding population of KiwiAsians, here are a few key points, based on my experiences in dealing with these ‘new New Zealanders’:

- For them it is hard to understand the idea that Kiwi birds are precious simply because they are endangered – long beak, tiny brain and flightless – symbolic meaning here perhaps?

- Sixty percent of George W Bush supporters (Republicans = Tories = National Party supporters) do not have a passport. Is this a possible reason why many Asian migrants are not welcomed here?

- In order to thrive in the 21st century and future information age, New Zealand needs to become an IT capital (following the lead of Wellywood’s digital effects success) and build on its clean, green, sustainable tourism industry.

Farmers are great, but we are a small country, so we have to be smarter.

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Filed under: asian, comms & IT, ethnic
35 Comments

Where to from here?

Posted by Chris Hipkins on August 15th, 2009

John Armstrong has an interesting column in this morning’s Herald on the challenge ahead for Labour. It came to my attention because he quotes my Red Alert post on small business, although my Google Alert actually referred me to the ODT version, where the sub-editors have given me a sex change. 

Armstrong quotes one of the people Phil Goff met on the streets of New Plymouth who remarked “Listen, mate. You know we voted these guys in seven months ago. You don’t expect us to come up and say we did the wrong thing yet, do you?”

That sums up the present state of New Zealand politics. National won the last election quite comfortably. Kiwis are fair minded people and will be willing to give them a fair go at the job before they pass judgment. I expect that will be reflected in the opinion polls for most of the current parliamentary term. I would be very surprised if we make much of a dent in the poll gap before election year. But I’m not worried about that either.

New Zealanders will next get the chance to weigh the pros and cons of a Labour-led or a National-led government in 2011. They will judge National on what they have delivered and all parties what the respective parties are offering for the future.

In the meantime our role as an opposition is to keep the government honest. We need to highlight what they are doing and the impact of the spending cuts they are making.

At this point in the electoral cycle nobody expects to see new detailed policies from Labour. But they do want to see us out and about listening to their concerns and reconnecting. That’s what Phil Goff’s “Touching Base” visits have been all about. It’s also why the Labour caucus has visited places like the West Coast, Wanganui and New Plymouth.

We need to keep listening. We need to talk about our values, rather than giving laundry lists of specific promises or commitments.

There is no doubt in my mind that victory for Labour in 2011 will be tough. But our party is in great shape. Our members and supporters are upbeat and ready for a vigorous campaign.

Meanwhile National is busy breaking its election promises, bullying its critics and implementing policies it didn’t dare put before the public before the election. All that will be starting to add up by the time 2011 rolls around.

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Filed under: democracy, labour
25 Comments

Reconnecting: Small Business

Posted by Chris Hipkins on August 11th, 2009

Since being elected to parliament in November last year I have been spending as much time out and about in my local electorate as possible talking to people about why they think we lost the election and asking what they think we need to do to earn another stint in government. This is the first in a series of posts highlighting some of the common themes that have come out of those discussions.

My visits to businesses around the electorate have highlighted for me just how markedly the labour force has changed over the past two or three decades. I’m not sure that as a party we’ve kept up. 30 years ago huge numbers of people were employed in factories, freezing works, by the railways, or by some other large employer. Many of those big employers are gone or have been dramatically scaled back.

Here in my own electorate, General Motors closed some time ago while South Pacific Tyres shut up shop a few years back. So what happened to all the people who used to work there? They’re still around, but today they are more likely to be small business people. Many are either independent contractors or they have setup a small business with two or three employees. Some still contract to the larger businesses, while others have a wider customer base.

This significant change in the way people work has implications for us in the Labour Party. These new small business people are more interested in GST returns, ACC levies, and provisional tax than they are in statutory meal breaks and personal grievance procedures. I’m not saying the latter aren’t still significant issues for a large number of workers, I’m just saying that for increasing numbers, they’re no longer top of the list.

I think Michael Cullen recognised this change when he prioritised improvements to depreciation rates ahead of cuts to company tax. The former was much more likely to help small business people, the latter a lot less so. Similarly my colleague Darien Fenton recently sponsored a Bill in parliament to extend the minimum wage to contractors. Unfortunately it was voted down by the new National government, but it’s the type of thing we need to see a lot more of.

There is also a wider issue of companies attempting to force current employees to become contractors. My colleague Darien Fenton blogged about the Telecom case earlier this week. Should large firms be allowed to force their workforce to become contractors in order to reduce their liabilities and shift their responsibilities onto individuals? I say no. These are all issues we’ll need to work through over the next few years if the Labour Party is to remain the party of workers.

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Filed under: labour, workforce
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