Thanks to everyone who passed on their best wishes for my eldest son Kris’ wedding in Greece. We had a fantastic time. The bride was stunning, the groom was as usual a charming larrikin, the weather was gorgeous and it was a very special family occasion. I’m really glad Mary and I were able to be there. Those moments are very precious.
STOP ASSET SALES
Labour is taking another step in its campaign to stop National flogging off our valuable community-owned assets to corporate and foreign buyers. Labour is introducing a new private members bill that will prevent the sale of key assets without specific public mandate.
We know that more than two-thirds of New Zealanders are strongly opposed to asset sales. Yet John Key is arrogantly ignoring public opinion. Labour’s new law would require any future proposal to partly or wholly privatise a State-Owned Enterprise or a Crown entity to gain support from 75 per cent of Parliament or from a majority of voters in a referendum.
This law would protect assets like our state electricity generation and transmission companies, NZ Post, KiwiBank, Landcorp and Solid Energy. It would also cover other strategic assets like Radio New Zealand, Television New Zealand and the Crown research institutes. These assets belong to New Zealanders. They are not National’s to sell and they do not have the right to see them against the will of Kiwis. Once they are sold they are lost forever.
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FOCUS ON JOBS
National has revealed it’s looking at a return to a lower minimum wage for youth workers. That party seems to think that lowering wages will help boost employment. It won’t. It simply displaces older workers with young workers who are paid a pittance. If young people are doing the same job as older workers, they should be paid the same.
This really raises the issue though about this Government’s failure to create jobs for our young people. There are now 62,900 young people not in employment, education or training. That is a disgrace. This Government is doing nothing to address the problem. Worse than that, they have actually cut $145 million from training budgets in the last year with intakes into apprenticeships and training schemes falling. This is really dumb when we have record levels of youth unemployment alongside a growing crisis in the shortage of skilled workers.
Labour will invest in creating apprenticeships and training opportunities for our young people and will have a strong focus on up-skilling our workforce.
BELATED CRACKDOWN ON LOAN SHARKS
The Government’s finally moving to take action against loan sharks who prey on our most vulnerable New Zealanders. But its idea of action is to set up a “summit”. This is just another gimmick and will end up being nothing but a talk-fest.
There are unscrupulous lenders out there who are ripping off the most vulnerable in our community out of pure greed. They know the loans can’t be repaid, that low income people will lose their money and possessions. This has got to stop. When Labour MP Carol Beaumont introduced a private member’s bill to tackle this issue last year, National voted against it. So it has a pathetic record when it comes to this very serious issue.
Labour is promoting two members bills targeting the problem and is working with budgeting advisers and others on the frontline to crack down on loan sharks.
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