Juncker was referring to the crisis in the Eurozone some two decades past. I don’t know enough about that period to comment further but keep his wisdom in mind as we concentrate on the here and now.
Let’s focus on this week’s heroine; Brooke van Velden, who brought this nation to attention with her response to Stuff columnist’s Andrea Vance’s colourful characterisation of herself, Nicola Willis and others.
The issue that gave rise to these passions is the curious concept of Pay Equity.
The idea of comparing teachers and nurses to better-paid male professions in order to wrangle more cash from Treasury reminds me of the discredited Labour Theory of Value.
It is demanding I pay you a lot of money for your painting because you spent a hundred hours on it and some other painter sold his work for a fortune.
Even if you think this is a good idea we’d be borrowing to meet the cost. And it would be expensive. There are, some reports indicate, 150,000 people covered by the thirty-three claims van Velden euthanised. It has been reported that the cost of the existing pay equity settlements are nearly 1.8 billion annually with a lot more to come.
The Crown spent two billion to settle the Kristine Bartlett aged-care workers case where the last National government agreed that 55,000 workers in that sector had demonstrated their case under the law. The cost of this round of Pay Equity would be substantially more and impose a permanent burden on the exchequer’s tattered purse.
We’re running unsustainable fiscal deficits and will be doing until we default because no one wants to do what needs to be done for the reasons Junker outlined. Cutting spending requires courage. It means doing the right thing knowing that you will be subject to abuse, vitriol and spite.
The idea of comparing teachers and nurses to better-paid male professions in order to wrangle more cash from Treasury reminds me of the discredited Labour Theory of Value.
It is demanding I pay you a lot of money for your painting because you spent a hundred hours on it and some other painter sold his work for a fortune.
Even if you think this is a good idea we’d be borrowing to meet the cost. And it would be expensive. There are, some reports indicate, 150,000 people covered by the thirty-three claims van Velden euthanised. It has been reported that the cost of the existing pay equity settlements are nearly 1.8 billion annually with a lot more to come.
The Crown spent two billion to settle the Kristine Bartlett aged-care workers case where the last National government agreed that 55,000 workers in that sector had demonstrated their case under the law. The cost of this round of Pay Equity would be substantially more and impose a permanent burden on the exchequer’s tattered purse.
We’re running unsustainable fiscal deficits and will be doing until we default because no one wants to do what needs to be done for the reasons Junker outlined. Cutting spending requires courage. It means doing the right thing knowing that you will be subject to abuse, vitriol and spite.
Brooke van Velden brought New Zealand to attention with
her response to Stuff columnist Andrea Vance’s colourful
characterisation of herself.ROBERT KITCHIN
Van Velden is a courageous politician and displayed this before she entered parliament. Shepherding the end-of-life bill into law isn’t a task Seymour would have deputised to someone unwilling to take the heat.
She confronted the Chinese on their treatment of the Uyghurs when most of our parliamentarians preferred we focused on our dairy trade and watered down her resolution; back when the Labour Party was a little more squeamish about throwing around terms like genocide.
Since entering cabinet she has tackled restrictive health and safety laws that hinder productivity, made it easier to remove non-performing high-paid executives and finally turned her attention to the mess that was the Pay Equity legislation.
She has achieved more of value in eighteen months than NZ First has over its entire existence.
New Zealand has endured three decades of low productivity, restrictive land use laws, falling education standards and high taxes which have resulted in the average Kiwi earning 75c compared to our Australian cousins.
If you want to complain about pay equity let’s talk about that!
Van Velden is one of a small cohort of ministers confronting the structural drivers of our relative decline. Like Messrs Bishop and Court in the Resource Management Act, Stanford and Seymour in education and Penk in construction, these ministers are seeking to permanently shift the trajectory of their sectors.
Van Velden’s portfolio made the Pay Equity mess her problem and she did not shirk the responsibility. She knew what had to be done and did it. The law was redrafted and passed, perhaps a little brutally, but it was passed. Laws and sausages, as the saying goes.
The concept of pay equity was not killed by these changes as has been reported; claims can still be brought if the sector has over seventy percent women and there are reasonable grounds to believe that the work has been historically undervalued because of the preponderance of females employed. The threshold has been raised from being ‘arguable’, to having ‘merit’.
Secondary teachers miss out, because 40% of them (according to the 2018 census) are…men. Which debunks the idea of ‘women’s work’, I’d have thought. It would require some creative girl math to make that forty percent disappear.
The impact on the Crown accounts will be substantial and for this taxpayers of all genders should take a moment and give thanks to the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety for having the courage and taking the political heat for doing what everyone knows had to be done but were unwilling to endure the opprobrium that van Velden has enjoyed for doing the right thing......The full article is published HERE
Van Velden is a courageous politician and displayed this before she entered parliament. Shepherding the end-of-life bill into law isn’t a task Seymour would have deputised to someone unwilling to take the heat.
She confronted the Chinese on their treatment of the Uyghurs when most of our parliamentarians preferred we focused on our dairy trade and watered down her resolution; back when the Labour Party was a little more squeamish about throwing around terms like genocide.
Since entering cabinet she has tackled restrictive health and safety laws that hinder productivity, made it easier to remove non-performing high-paid executives and finally turned her attention to the mess that was the Pay Equity legislation.
She has achieved more of value in eighteen months than NZ First has over its entire existence.
New Zealand has endured three decades of low productivity, restrictive land use laws, falling education standards and high taxes which have resulted in the average Kiwi earning 75c compared to our Australian cousins.
If you want to complain about pay equity let’s talk about that!
Van Velden is one of a small cohort of ministers confronting the structural drivers of our relative decline. Like Messrs Bishop and Court in the Resource Management Act, Stanford and Seymour in education and Penk in construction, these ministers are seeking to permanently shift the trajectory of their sectors.
Van Velden’s portfolio made the Pay Equity mess her problem and she did not shirk the responsibility. She knew what had to be done and did it. The law was redrafted and passed, perhaps a little brutally, but it was passed. Laws and sausages, as the saying goes.
The concept of pay equity was not killed by these changes as has been reported; claims can still be brought if the sector has over seventy percent women and there are reasonable grounds to believe that the work has been historically undervalued because of the preponderance of females employed. The threshold has been raised from being ‘arguable’, to having ‘merit’.
Secondary teachers miss out, because 40% of them (according to the 2018 census) are…men. Which debunks the idea of ‘women’s work’, I’d have thought. It would require some creative girl math to make that forty percent disappear.
The impact on the Crown accounts will be substantial and for this taxpayers of all genders should take a moment and give thanks to the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety for having the courage and taking the political heat for doing what everyone knows had to be done but were unwilling to endure the opprobrium that van Velden has enjoyed for doing the right thing......The full article is published HERE
- Damien Grant is a regular donor to the ACT Party. He is a not a party member.
5 comments:
Damien, you are quite correct. Sadly however there is a cohort in NZ that would call you nothing more than an 'ACT troll' followed by apparently the c word, a bigot and no doubt racist.....it is because those that throw shade have no real arguement other than ad hominem. The sadder part is these get more press time than truth, reality and facts. Looking at you Andrea 'News of the World' Vance.
Brooke Van Velden's star has risen and will continue to shine because she has courage and discipline . National believe they have a star named Willis however this entry into the political galaxy is beholden on the upcoming 2025 budget.
If the upcoming Budget demonstrates courage and discipline , demonstrably cuts the Govt deficit, unscrambles the MSD pension age impasse, and leads to a huge removal of Govt ministeries and fiscal drag Paris Accord , Zero carbon and environmental issues a second star will have emerged , otherwise the lone brightest star will undoubtedly be Brooke Van Velden .
RE. a disciplined budget
Is NZ at the point where a large number of people expect their benefits and similar entitlements as their due and to be funded by " the wealthy"? ( Hence the absurd Green draft budget. ) The psyche of the NZ voter has changed. NZ is a dangerous place if you have aspirations via hard work. Like Cuba - drainlayers and surgeons paid the same. Ardern fully approved !) This is a key factor to understanding the NZ economy.
Bet this wasn't published in Stuff LOL
Spot on
The woman is a freaking legend.
And on the topic of pay equity....are you serious NZ? What a joke!
Here's a radical idea....I'm going to train to be a librarian because I like to spend my days in nice quiet libraries helping the few people that come through the doors find some books. Fully aware that the pay isn't great. Then after I've become a librarian I'm going to demand the NZ taxpayer pay me heaps more for no other reason than some bloke working the air traffic control tower at the airport (where people's lives are at stake if I screw up) gets paid more than me.
Teachers don't become teachers for the pay packet - it never used to pay well - though it seems that isn't the case these days.
Nurses don't get paid as much as doctors - but all nurses are able to train to become doctors.
Pay equity is a load of communist rubbish.
"She has achieved more of value in eighteen months than NZ First has over its entire existence."
Really? The end of life choice bill was never about courage or bravery. It is the abandonment of the protection of the vulnerable to the wolves.
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