Heather du Plessis-Allan: We all know how this police pay negotiation is going to play out

I think we all know how this police pay negotiation is going to play out, don't we? It's pretty obvious. 

We don’t know how long it’s gonna take, but we know how it’s going to end. The Government will, in the end, have to offer the police a decent pay increase.

And the reason they will do that is because anything short of that is just stupid. Politically stupid and realistically stupid.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Raise pay for teachers

I don’t think teachers should accept the Prime Minister fobbing off their pay request like he did today.

When he was asked about next week’s mega strike, he washed his hands: "Ultimately that's a matter for the Ministry of Education and the teachers to work through." 

Technically? Yes. Really though? No. 

The buck stops with him and cabinet.

Mike Hosking: The pay rises are fine, until the economic reality comes

At PWC in Britain, the pay rise coming is 9 percent. They employ about 20,000 locally. Some pay rises will be as high as 10 percent . The chairman says you can't ignore reality, which is true.

Given the job market, if you are not offering the 9 percent, someone is. And that person will be hoovering up the scare resource that makes up today's labour market.

Locally, Air New Zealand is offering in house bonuses to those who nominate people who can be hired. They currently have about 1100 jobs up for grabs. I was shown an ad last week for a job at TVNZ, they are offering five weeks leave. And it's not just for the job ad I saw, but it seemed all jobs advertised.