NiuZila: Land of full fat milk and welfare money

The recession is over!  Yeah right…

One of the responsibilities of a Niu Sila/New Zealand Government being voted in by the public, is for that Government to look at the bigger picture - to make policies, plan for the future, implement changes - things the average Sione and Sina have little power to do themselves.  Yet this Government, with a Palemia/Prime Minister who was a former market speculator, has had a hands off approach to the economy.  That right wing mantra: the market will correct itself.

Little comfort for the nearly 3000 people who lined up last week, to apply for only 150 jobs at a new supermarket opening in Manukau, Aukilani Saute/South Auckland.  It’s an amazing illustration of how people are desperate, and not just a few, but heaps of people!  The majority were Maori and Pacific Islanders.  But there were also Indians, Asians, Palagi/Pakeha/European, people from across Aukilani/Auckland.

What’s the Government’s response?  Do nothing.  Well that’s not totally true.  They appointed a Tax Working Group made up of rich Palagi males to recommend how to make the tax system more efficient.  Their recommendations?  Tax cuts for the rich, increase the goods and services tax (GST) which will affect the poor the most. 

Again I’m being unfair on my representations on the Government.  The Tax Working Group also suggested a capital gains tax which would be like most western nations, where land and property owners would be taxed for the appreciation in value of their land/property.  Of course that would be too bold a step for the Government to make in Niu Sila/New Zealand, a country obsessed with owning houses as their nest egg.  There’s no incentive to put savings into industries that create innovation, further capital, and more jobs.

So when the public see the Government reject the extreme recommendations of the Tax Working Group (such as the capital gains tax), it would make a GST rise and tax cuts for the rich look more palatable for the public to digest.

Meanwhile, 3000 people await to hear the outcome of their job interviews/applications.  For these people it’s about putting bread on the table, paying the bills to keep a roof over their heads, and getting from week to week.  While those entrusted to look at the bigger picture seem to also be looking out for the rich only.

UPDATE:  The Government announced it will raise the minimum wage by… wait for it… it’s a whopper… it will be raised by “25 CENTS!”  That’s right folks.  Meanwhile the struggling Minister of Education, Anne Tolley, will be spending $26 million on propaganda to charm the education sector of her unpopular National Standards policy! Hmmm….

I was driving with my dad through Matautu, Apia a few years back, and we went through the popular swimming spot, Taumeasina.  My dad said he remembered the tide used to be a few metres out to sea, yet now the waves are crashing into the roots of several niu / coconut trees.  He also pointed out to an island in the harbour where there used to be a few trees growing, but now it’s submerged with just shells and what appears to be tree stumps.  Was this global warming in action?

In the last couple of years it appeared as if the political world was finally getting their act together to tackle the issue of global warming.  Yet recent events around the world has shown either the instability of the political will against economic interests and their forces at play, or the big publicity stunt and winning of brownie points with the nations’ citizenry by appearing to be doing something, but in reality they were never going to do anything.

A few days ago, Niu Sila / New Zealand had announced a 10-20% reduction in greenhouse emissions (the Green Party argued for 40%), after scrapping the emissions trading scheme set up by the last government.  Today, the Australian Senate voted down the Australian Government’s climate policy, forcing it to try again in November to have its legislation passed.  This same scene is being unravelled in the political classes all around the world.  Where there once was what appeared to be a unified global will to tackling the issue, there is disagreement and compromise at national levels debunking any hope of any true attempt to resolve the climate issue.

I’m not an expert in the area but what many of the deniers and sceptics of global warming always try to say, is that the science is not settled.  They are partially true, because science is never an exact instrument.  But that doesn’t mean society doesn’t act on scientic basis and theories.  In fact that’s exactly what we do.  Our civilisation is built on scientific theories.  But these theories are largely accepted by the scientific community as norms but never 100% perfect truths.  Evolution took a while to gain acceptance, but today many other technological advances have been based on the evolution theory.  It’s not an 100% accurate theory, but the scientific community have largely accepted it. 

And so, the scientific community has come to the conclusion (although not 100%) that global warming is an accepted theory.  It is up to the political classes whether they accept and act on the scientific community’s conclusion, as they have done many times over throughout history, or is there some other overriding barrier for the political classes to take action?

That barrier is the economic interests that will suffer (ie loss of profit) under political changes to deal with global warming.  Read the newspapers and you will see the business elite, whether it’s the business round table, multi-national conglomerates or farmers federation, trying to convince the public that it will hit us all in the pocket (ie they’ll lose their profits).  That’s a self-serving interest which contrasts starkly with the scientific community’s motives.  What self interest is there for the scientific community to broadly agree that global warming is an accepted theory?  Pursuit of the truth.

Opponents call the scientists and those that agree alarmists.  They claim the alarmists have a vested interest in the new green economy that politicians ‘were’ willing to legislate.  They say millions will be wasted on a big hoax (like the Y2K bug that never eventuated), that it’s all just a lot of hot air.  Some even claim global warming will be good for us!  In Niu Sila the sceptics argue the weather will alter to make it more productive for farming and agriculture.  They also say, the Earth has gone through ice ages and global warming many times before.

That’s true, but the change happened over hundreds and thousands of years.  We are now talking about climate change created by human activity over only 150-200 years.  The Earth will adapt, animals evolve (well some will die off and other eventually evolve), environs change, new life cycles and ecosystems will be created.  But will humans be able to adapt as fast?  We took generations to evolve.  Can we evolve fast enough once the climate changes?

Back at Taumeasina, I wasn’t sure if it was global warming, as I had read in a science paper I took at Uni that there is a lot of natural submerging of land around Samoa as it was along a volcanic fault line.  However, what many of the scientific research I did read about on global warming in the Pacific, did say, was low lying islands like Tuvalu, Kilipati / Kiribati and To’elau / Tokelau (where the highest point is only a couple of metres high) will one day be wiped off the face of the earth as the sea levels rise. 

Countless papers have been published reporting the world’s glaciers, the northern ice sheets are melting, and great chunks of Antartica’s shelves are breaking away.  And this ice is not being replaced, further accelerating the melting and breaking up of these fresh water reservoirs into the world’s oceans.

With this added water volume, scientists have said places such as Tuvalu will need to be relocate their peoples, most likely becoming the world’s first climate change refugees.  I’ve seen a documentary where Tuvaluan’s have bought an island in Fiti / Fiji, as a possible new homeland, whereas Niu Sila has already offered to relocate Tuvaluans into Niu Sila.  But the sad fact will be the disappearance of Tuvalu who emit’s a pittance of greenhouse gases compared to the industrialised and developing world.

Samoa is a little bit more fortunate as it is an archipelago of volcanic mountains.  But the cost of adjusting to a new climate will not be cheap for an already struggling nation.  Again, it is those who pollute the least who will bear a lot more of the burden than others.

Are the political classes of the world willing to make a fundamental shift in our civilisation based on scientific evidence?  Or will they cower to the economic interests and think only about the now, and not the future?  Because all I see at the moment is a lot of hot air.

From the 1 April this year, the minimum wage was increased by the previous Government:

Adult minimum wage = $12.50 per hour and applies to employees aged over 16 who are not new entrants or trainees.

New Entrants = $10 per hour and applies to 16 and 17 year olds, except if completed 200 hours or 3 months of employment, are supervising or training other workers, or are trainees.

Training min wage = $10 per hour, applies to 16 years and older who are participating in recognised industry training that involves 60 credits a year.

Needless to say many of our people are on or barely above the minimum wage income bracket.  After years of decline for Union movements after the introduction of right wing neo-liberal economic policies (colloquially known in Niu Sila / New Zealand as “Rogernomics” after the 1980’s finance Minister, Roger Douglas), there has been a re-emergence of sorts for these Unions in the last decade.  There is an argument that as Unions had become successful in achieving certain legislative protection of worker’s rights, the less need for workers to be part of a Union. 

It was argued that this apathy was coupled with a browning of the working class.  Many workers came from the Pacific Islands and many did not want to rock the boat for fear of losing their jobs, or they did not fully appreciate the workers rights here in Niu Sila.

But the biggest effect on Union membership wasn’t the legislative changes to protect workers, but the legislative changes which took away protection of workers, namely the Employment Contracts Act 1991.  This law severely weakened Unions powers, took away workers rights and entitlements, and made bargaining in employment agreements extremely difficult.  The previous Government replaced that law with the Employment Relations Act 2000, reinstating some of the rights for workers and powers of Unions, but the damaged had already been done. 

Many of the Unions had disappeared and those that existed had dwindled in numbers.  Collective agreements were replaced with individual contracts as Union presence had been eliminated.  Many of the surviving Union movements (which also reflects in the Labour party makeup), were largely made up of academics, professionals (teachers and nurses etc) and liberal middle class people.

Working class blue collar workers had to move out of the mainstream political parties and found support in the Alliance and now the Greens Parties.  These parties, especially the Alliance were associated with many of the new Union movements that also moved away from the bigger mainstream Unions.  The new Unions recognised or re-established that link between Unions and the most vulnerable workers.  Unions such as Unite have in recent years represented call centre workers, fast food outlet workers, retail store workers; and have run successful campaigns such as “Up-size my pay”, which ultimately led to the current minimum wage increases.

We need more participation in these Unions.  We need to demand from our political parties to protect our employment rights and entitlements.

Instead we have a conservative National Government (trying to portray a centrist agenda) in coalition with the far right Act party (which interestingly has the historic boogie man and cheerleader of neo-liberal economics, Roger Douglas as an MP), threatening to scale back workers rights.  If not this term, then definitely in the next.  Just look at a current National MP like Melissa Lee, to see how either incompetent this Government promises to be, or how out of touch they are with ordinary working class people.

I am beginning to feel sorry for poor Melissa Lee, but her fumbling of her campaign to win the Mauga Alapati by-election is an insult to the previous National candidate she replaced, Pastor Ravi Musuku, undemocratic for National party supporters, and unfair on the Mauga Alapati voters for getting a shoddy candidate to consider on the ballot.

After her comments about building a motorway to stop criminals from Aukilani Saute from coming into Mauga Alapati, her “hope” to come second, etc, last night at a public debate full of Union members she added another stupid joke that she is paid only $2 an hour.

Her salary of $131,000 a year, as a sitting MP, is more than five times the $26,000 someone would earn on the minimum wage, and her expenses and allowances raise it to well over six times.  Even if she is paid for every second of every hour of every day, (including when she is asleep), she earns $14.99 an hour.  Cold comfort to those Union members who have been campaigning for the minimum wage to be increased to $15 an hour!

Incompetence or out of touch?  Perhaps they are not mutually exclusive.  Or perhaps it’s just plain stupid.

These new Unions saw that many of the people in the apathetic political and economic classes were young, brown, and in low income occupations.   The campaigns they run targeted exactly those people, using the technology the young generation are so well adapted to.  This now reflect in their membership: young, brown and proud to stand up for their rights.

I can see the emergence of young, brown and proud leaders of tomorrows Niu Sila, being born in the ranks of these new Union movements.  Born from our communities as young Pacific people here in Niu Sila, they won’t be incompetent, they certainly won’t be stupid, and above all they will not be out of touch.

As the recession bites harder, again it’s the most vulnerable at the bottom who bear the brunt of the negative effects.

A New Zealand Herald article reports a Magele / Mangere budgeting agency has seen 27 families lose their homes to mortgagee sales in the past two months as the recession appears to be biting most heavily in South Auckland / Aukilani Saute.

People of Magele have been forced to sell their homes because one or two people in the household have lost their jobs.  Mangere Budgeting Service manager Darryl Evans said the biggest job losses seemed to be in warehouses and hotels, but many occupations were being affected.

These aren’t the criminals that Ms Lee talks of, or the dole-bludgers the right say infest Aukilani Saute; these are real people with real families, with real struggles.  They were tax-paying citizens, who worked hard to make ends meet and to try keep a roof over their family’s heads.

And where is the Government support?  The Palemia / Prime Minister, John Key announced $50 million towards his pet project, building a cycle way, against the budget suggested by his deputy, Bill English, and Treasury. 

Ohh that’s right, there’s also the Government support in tax cuts… for the rich.

New Zealand Herald article:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10573363

The current Government appears happy that unemployment is only at 5% as opposed to the projected 5.6%.  That’s no consolation for the thousands who have lost their jobs recently.

My sister went through a two month long redundancy process at work.  Up until Monday this week she wasn’t sure if she still had a job.  There were 12 people, but the company only wanted 9, and with only one person taking voluntary redundancy, it was a very volatile situation for my sister and her co-workers as they waited for the company to decide on the other 2 people.  Although it turned out that my sister’s job was safe, it’s no comfort knowing two other people have lost theirs. 

Maybe it is merely a sign of the times, but it does seem that some sectors of society are feeling the pinch more than others.  Last week the directors of a finance company negotiated a “rescue” package with the company’s creditors, and shortly after, there were news reports of the director’s holding million dollar birthday parties in Europe etc.  My friend said his company recently moved to a new business park.  Yet the parking building announced this week they are raising their weekly parking fee by an extra $100.  That’s $100 my friend does not have and with pay stagnant, it’s $100 he wont be seeing anytime soon.

Even yesterday, my cousin was picketing the national airline, Air New Zealand, in protest for pay parity for onboard airline crew.  The company owns a subsidary company which contracts cabin crew staff back to the parent company.  But the contracted cabin crew are paid 30% less than the cabin crew employed directly by Air New Zealand, the parent company.

While the world economy is taking a battering, many companies (in Niu Sila / New Zealand at the least) are still turning a profit, although reduced profits at that.  Yet the places that companies seem most willing to cut corners in the name of this economic crisis, are jobs and employee entitlements or benefits.

It’s great to see businesses and employees and/or unions working together to try keep the companies afloat.  But there often seems to be more sacrifices being made on one side of the table than the other.  Furthermore, this is a recession/depression that is hitting some people more than others:

thestandard.org.nz reports that Taranaki, Southland and Nelson/Marlborough still have unemployment rates below 3% and steady of falling while there were big jumps in Northland, Auckland and Gisborne/Hawkes Bay to 9.0%, 6.5%, and 7.8% respectively.

Unemployment for 20-24 year olds rocketed from 7.3% to 12% while 25-29 year olds went from 4.6% to 4.9% suggesting that recent graduates are finding it tough but firms are holding on to those with some work experience.

And Pacific peoples unemployment jumped from 7.8% to 13.1%.  Palagi unemployment remained below 4% (3.2% to 3.8%).

Businesses and workers need to get along with each other to ensure not only the survival of the businesses which employ the workers, but also where businesses are transparent with their approach to business survival.  Otherwise we will see another generation of people with no jobs, forced to use the dole, and risking they may like it there and start their cycle of poverty going.  Others will become disengaged with society and turn to other forms of survival such as crime, just to make ends meet.  Employers and employees need to be taking equal share of the burden, otherwise the after effects on society will be a toll on us all.  We’re only now seeing the generational impact of the huge job cuts during the 1980’s and 1990’s, with all these youth gangs, criminal behaviour and sub culture etc.

So for many, the issue that is burning in the today and the now isn’t the war on terrorism, or even the the battle against global warming, rather it’s the daily skirmish to keep providing for their families, making sure there is food on the table, a roof over their heads and clothes on their back.  It’s all about job security.

On Saturday night, my family settled down in the living room to watch a movie.  Nestled in our couches with our ie afu / blankets, munching away on potato chips, it was promising to be an enjoyable family night.  However our movie was cut short when we heard the sound of glass smashing from the road.  Our house is no stranger to car crashes as our road is often used as a short cut through the Aukilani Saute / South Auckland suburbs and careless (often drunk) drivers would mis-judge the corner and the gradient slope of our hilly road, ending up in any of the front yards of the houses on our street, or attached to a fence, letter box, tree or even a power-pole.

As usual we and our neighbours came out to investigate the sound.  But the smashing didn’t sound like a car crash.  Instead we witnessed the end of a brief skirmish between two groups of young Polynesian youths, throwing beer bottles at each other.  The youths must’ve been so drunk that they didn’t realise they woke up the neighbourhood (or they didn’t care).  But my neighbour and I started shouting at the boys to stop what they were doing.  At that point they all sprinted off down the road.  Littered across our road were at least 15 beer bottles all smashed into hundreds of pieces.

The neighbours and my family got out our brooms and salu and began to clean up the mess.  Even though those boys should be the ones cleaning up, it was going to be our cars that drive along that road, it is our kids that walk along the footpaths to school and back, it is us who mow the lawn verges, it is our neighbourhood that we live in every day.

As I was sweeping up the glass pieces into the dust pan, I began to think “why?”

A newspaper this morning reports benefit figures show that, once again, Maori and Pacific people are worst affected.  Aukilani / Auckland’s Maori unemployment benefit rate rose 1.5 per cent in the past year to 3.4 per cent, and the rate for Pacific people rose a full percentage point to 2.1 per cent.  In contrast, the rate for Asians and others rose only half a percentage point to 1.2 per cent and the European rate rose by only 0.4 percentage points to just 0.7 per cent.  Unemployment benefit rates were higher in Aukilani Saute South Auckland - Manukau City (1.8 per cent) and Papakura City (3.2 per cent) than in North, West or Central Aukilani.

Today the Government announced it would change more labour laws which Unions believe points to a trend of re-introducing the three week annual leave for workers (instead of the four weeks guaranteed under current law).  This is on top of recent changes made by this new Government, such as the 30-day trial period (ie an employer of a small company can fire any employee in their first 30 days of work, and not have to give a reason), introducing tax-cuts that favour the rich (who will most likely save it rather than spending it to provide a stimulus to the economy - all the while the poor struggle on to make ends meet), not offering to support workers in upskilling through their 9-day fortnight programme, but willing to pour millions into private companies. 

Recently Samoans / Pacific Islanders have been making the news headlines for all the wrong reasons: robberies, assault, escape from police custody etc.  In these strained economic times, more pressure is heaped on those already struggling at the bottom.  Some feeling the only way out of their circumstances is a life of crime and/or drunkness.

It is our families and communities who are feeling the effects of this economic crisis.  And it will be our families and communities having to sweep up the messed up lives and pick up their broken pieces.

Niu Sila / New Zealand is unique for reasons more than just being the backdrop of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Unlike most western countries, if a person was to injure themselves in the workplace, at home, on the playing field, in fact anywhere in Niu Sila, then you will be covered by the state owned Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) insurance scheme.  It is paid by taxes, employers contribution and car levies.  It provides 24-hour no-fault personal injury insurance cover.  Everyone in Niu Sila is covered! 

The flip side of this is that no-one can sue anyone else for causing the injury.  People in Amelika / America have the opportunity to take the offender to court and there are constant news items about million dollar pay outs etc.

But for people in Niu Sila, it’s quite comforting knowing you are covered no matter what.  Coz while you might not have the potential million dollar payouts, you are also not at risk of getting nothing.  Furthermore we here in Niu Sila chuckle when people in Amelika live in fear of being sued for the smallest things: the lady who sued McDonalds for hot coffee?

Currently however, the new conservative-business-friendly political party in government, the National Government, has started to make changes to ACC with some commentators pointing out this will lead to privatisation of ACC.  There have been murmurings about the current Prime Minister, John Key, having held meetings last year with Australian insurance companies, pre-election, with the prospect of selling (the profitable) parts of ACC to them.

And with this economic crisis, the Government has the perfect excuse to push for privatisation of ACC on the Niu Sila public.  The Minister for ACC, Nick Smith has been harking on about a $22 billion blow out of the ACC budget, then raised the car levies, and has sacked the chairman of the ACC board. 

This National Government has gone through a very long honeymoon, with the general populace showing good will to it.  But I think it’s just got a really good PR spin machine at work.  It’s put itself out as the pragmatic, middle of the road Government ready to put ideologies behind and choose what works.  However, the opposition has long accused the National Government as a wolf in disguise.  That Niu Sila will in time see it for the right-wing, pro-rich, business-friendly Government it really is and has been since day one.

I tend to agree.  The National Government does have a hidden agenda.  It should stop beating around the bush, and show it’s true colours.

Hopefully the voters of Niu Sila will see through all the smoke screens.  This Government’s intentions of privatisation of ACC has had the thumbs down from many economists calling it scaremongering.  The $22 billion dollar shortfall was not about mismanagement, but something all invested money by companies have faced, a degradation of their value.

There have been countless reports and commentators espousing the success of ACC.  Unfortunately, National and it’s insurance business buddies in Australia have only read the reports about which part of ACC will be most profitable once privatised.

Once privatised, only the rich will afford injury insurance.  Only the rich and lucky few will be able to afford lawyers to win any compensation.  Only the rich will make a buck from the profitable parts of ACC leaving under-investment in the rest of ACC.

Once privatised, just hope you don’t injure yourself.  This wolf in disguise is only looking out for their rich business buddies.