Short term the Government has to be focused on deflationary spending, mid term economically we need radical climate change adaptation, long term they need to start navigating a post growth economy.
The best way to push those values is via the Public Service Culture and processes.
For essential state service workers like teachers, like police, like Drs, like nurses, like ambulance and Firefighter services, we can match the rising inflation in wages, but the focus needs to be on expanding capacity, expanding State responsibility and expanding quality of work experience.
It is insane that our Ambulance Service is privatised, and the State should nationalise it immediately. As first responders, their obligations and responsibilities will only climb as society continues to rock from the shockwaves of Covid.
Professional Firefighters must be expanded to acknowledge the danger we are under from climate change and fire seasons.
Rather than compete with inflationary wage rises, focus on better conditions. 11 weeks paid holiday each year, 4 day weeks plus housing projects where subsidised rentals are available for houses.
We also need to start bonding Teachers, Drs and nurses with free education in exchange for bonded work around NZ.
We shouldn’t be looking to slash public servants, we need more!
ACT want to amputate 5 Ministry’s while Luxon is promising to slash 14 000 jobs!
That is ideological vandalism, that’s not an actual plan!
Covid showed us the need for a strong State with capacity to step in and with the climate crisis here, we will continue to need a strong State with capacity!
The Right’s never ending march to amputate and slice down the State is so that the people don’t get used to a well functioning public service and so will politically agree to starve it of funds via tax cuts.
Global free market capitalism is dead, hyper regionalism is here. We need a bigger State with actual capacity rather than the threadbare barely regulated joke that it currently is.
We shouldn’t agree to cutting public services, we should fund their capacity and infrastructure rebuild while making the working conditions for those there a better quality!
Where should we get that money? Windfall taxes on the corporations and banks!
We need better conditions for those workers and the values of working 4 day weeks, extra holidays and housing solutions are aimed at making better working conditions as opposed to never ending inflationary wage pressures.
We need a sustainable bureaucracy rather than 7 figure technocrats who see their own fiefdoms and glass palaces as the measure of public policy achievements.
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We need more, nurses, Drs, ambulance drivers, and likely more firefighters too (not sure about teachers, we just need to get the kids back to school and improve literacy and numeracy rates). And we need to pay these publis services a lot lot mor (especially health professionals.
We need to pay the bureacrats less and I don’t care at all if we loose five ministeries. Who will miss them? Feed the poor instead.
Bulk funding and paying better teachers more, is better than an across the board rise for all teachers.
ACT is all about better getting performance for taxpayers money.
Labour and the Greens spent willy-nilly.
ACT and National will have a consistent 20% tax and then invest in education on merit, not across the board.
Surely the police shouldn’t get paid more, while youth crime rates are so high?
Let’s give police pay with incentive bonuses.
The lower the youth crimes, the more we pay the police.
Lower Labour’s crime rates, get better stories and more pay for cops.
I think giving Police an incentive bonus is a really really bad idea. I see it as leading to rush to arrest and charge people to get the bonus, rather than doing good police work.
Do you seriously believe that the police cause youth crime? Martyn has often explained that youth crime is a result of wrong or insufficient state support from decades ago that has resulted in low home ownership levels, education not functioning for those who need it most, lack of secure jobs that enable people to support a family, etc. I am not always a fan of the police but your suggestion would only incentivize the worst police practice & lock a lot of people up (some of them innocent) with any crime reduction being only temporary.
This Government’s has just legislated for new Plain Language Officers in every government department and agency, for example.
Will they be abolishing ridiculous joke jargon like ‘pregnant people’, perchance?
Ada. Actual Legislation requiring all public servants to use ‘ plain language’ sounds rather Orwellian. It might be necessary as policy where immigrants without the best command of English are employed, but a blanket requirement for all government employees to be overseen by Plain Language Officers seems controlling. If I were required to use words like “ dickhead”, which Prof Joanne Kidman does, I would not be comfortable doing so.
If it is to stop workers speaking to each other eg in Samoan, excluding other colleagues, then this should be a simple department policy. Such happens.
Presumably this legislation contains a definition of what constitutes ‘ plain language’, and one would hope that it was formulated by qualified linguists.
In past times when public servants had to have at least the standardised New Zealand School Certificate as an entry requirement, one could assume that they possessed good basic language skills.
Suddenly Marama Davidson’s desire to normalise the usage of ‘cunt’, and preschool girls being taught to reference their vulvas, takes on another dimension. The New Zealand Arts Council’s attempt to cancel thirty years of Shakespeare in the schools, on political grounds for this great exponent of the English language allegedly being an ‘imperialist’ was culturally and socially choking at the very least. A Plain Language Officer may restrict opportunity for
language to evolve and grow, which it does, and needs to.
This may explain the long wait for responses to OIA requests, public servants may be struggling to understand what the public is asking.
“”Let’s be honest about how we should treat Drs, Nurses, Police, Firefighters & Teachers in a post growth NZ”
Well that’s a fucking easy question @Bomber.
We should treat them as human beings. Some will come with husbands or wives and children, AND sometimes even parents we/they rely on to assist in raising the baggae of a family. We should house them and ensure they’re adequately fed and watered – EVEN WHILE the sophisticates amongst us swan around the world with expectations of a basic expectation of the same.
And IF we can’t guarantee that, we shouldn;t pretend we can. We shouldn’t bullshit and pretend we’re up for it, change the rules halfway through the game, ………….
So…… Ultimately…..We really are going to have to get learnings the hard way – in this space, going forward as those doctors, nurses, firefighters and others are increasingly opting for the escape hatch. I’m not sure why we’ve come to expect they should become lil ole NuZull’s martyrs as we continue to pretend we’re punching above our weight.
The sooner the better – the casualty list won’t be as bad or high in numbers
OnceWasTim. Ironically the nurses, doctors , police etc were in the front line of the pandemic and even further at risk when the Parliamentary protest was exacerbated by the politicians safely ensconced in the Beehive, watching from balconies, and escorted in and out. Whole police teams were struck down, families quarantined 2x, kids missing out on school yet again, police drafted in from other towns separated from their own kith and kin, while the politicians stayed safely ensconced in the Beehive, watched from balconies, and were escorted in and out to keep them safe. Labour, National, and the Greens fled the situation, and these are the decision makers. Small wonder they’re keen to clamp down on freedom of speech.
Taxing the banks is not the answer. Take away their right to create money out of thin air. People are correct to be concerned about the profits foreign banks are extracting from our economy. Heterodox economists show that considering the three sectors of the economy; industry, banking, and workers, over time industry has been borrowing from banks to extend their profit making enterprises, but the result is that banking and finance has expanded and become more profitable (just check the mega-bonuses they get), all the while workers share of the wealth creation goes down (even though they are not the borrowers).
Politicians have been indoctrinated by orthodox economists that just as households need to pay their debts, so government needs to keep its debts down and acheive a surplus. This is wrong as going to a government surplus takes away circulating money so people become indebted and gain a negative equity (the size indicated by the size of the surplus). US President Cleveland got a surplus and created the 30’s depression. The deficit size is comparable to the equity of the citizens. As the government is the only entity that can have negative equity and is the guarantor of the money a modest deficit is manageable. To reduce a deficit the government must take money from the people in taxes.
Banks by their licence creates money for borrowers. The economics textbooks that suggest that the money comes from depositors savings are wrong. Yes, economic textbooks are wrong, didn’t you always suspect that. The Bank of England in 2014 made a clear statement of this fact that Banks create the money borrowed. Through the normal double entry bookkeeping they create an asset for the money the borrower is expected to repay (with interest of course) not use depositors money. The German Bundesbank has confirmed this reality.
Correcting this requires a radical change.
The answer has been proposed before as the “Chicago Plan.” in the 1930s following that infamous depression. This not the program of the noxious Chicago monetarists. Fundamental to this reform is to have one government bank where all money is deposited and provide the ATMs. Something close to this was done by the State of North Dakota in the USA. Businesses will have their accounts there as well as all citizens. The old banks, ASB, ANZ, BNZ, Westpac, etc will become lenders of money they hold in their own accounts with the ”One Bank” too. They will have the money capital of their investors and money people have lent them in the usual bank loans. If someone lends money to an OldBank there will be a transfer of money to them in the OneBank accounts and a public register of the banks debt held. The OldBanks will not need their front offices for transaction activities but only the OneBank will need to do this and be able to spread agencies around cities for the convenience of people rather than competing OldBanks inefficiently having them clustered together.
Foreign money transactions will be done by the OneBank. There will be no settlement delays and no bank-runs. Laundering of money will be easier to check. Any financial transaction tax will be simple to apply. The government OneBank will be the only place where money is created which must be done in a regulated way as the population increases. It will lend money to the OldBanks at interest for specified activities; investment in plant and infrastructure, public housing, local body requirements etc but not for consumption or asset purchases. That and vehicle purchasing loans will have to be made from the other OldBank balances. Eftpos will be done by the OneBank but credit cards and business overdrafts will have to be funded from the OldBanks accounts. The OldBanks will not need to be bailed out by the public but will fail if they mismanage. The money lent to them for specified proper investment will as assets of the OldBanks go back to the government.
Such a change would be a large exercise and need a lot of new computer development, planning, and testing. NZ has done it very successfully before with computerization (1966) just before decimalisation, putting NZ into the world lead in bank computerisation.
Why aren’t people lining up to be teachers? Such high pay, such public esteem, respect and trust. Such visionary leadership. Years of hearing Why wonCome build on the glorious foundation
Just kidding.
Peter – Yup…so right
The teacher who was 72 years old and found guilty. of serious misconduct for removing ear plugs from a student who refused to turn off his music in class (was apparently drumming away to it) may have something to do with it.
Anker. Agree 100%. The boy refused to remove his earplugs in class, the teacher did so, and the teacher was the person found guilty of “serious misconduct “, not the recalcitrant student. What a helpful little learning experience for bad boys.
What’s more it was an experienced maths teacher, and maths is yet another subject where this country is lagging behind globally; we are failing our school students in the basics, and prioritising their “ feelings. “ The council which censured the maths teacher is a disgrace.
Quite right Cabbage, quite right. The nurses, doctors, police persons, and firefighters are the drones who exist to serve the elites. As long as Jacinda goes down and earnestly thanks them every now and then in front of the television cameras, they should be grateful, and aim at just getting home in time to rustle up a meal, do the laundry, mow the lawns, bath the kids, pack the school lunches, and try to remember to check on the aged parents worrying about their electricity bills.
Treat them as landless peasants, same as now.
The Ambulance Service isn’t privatised, in the sense of being privately owned for profit firms. It is run by a series of charitable institutions, as it has been the case ever since the ambulance service existed in New Zealand. In reality they are already almost totally funded by the state.
It is a bit like the rescue helicopter services. Also a series of local charitable trusts. Though now better co-ordinated than in the past.
Yes, you could nationalise them, but be prepared for a very strong community backlash as you break the idea of voluntary community service. Lots of people volunteer to help with their local ambulance service.
Which is why no government has tried to do this. You would get no better service, but would be buying into a whole heap of political trouble.
One thing covid demonstrated was when the merchent bankers, financial workers and other s of that overpaid type stayed home ,,,, nobody noticed.
When the cleaners, rubbish collectors, health workers, super-market workers and others not paid enough to purchase a home in the city’s they work cease work ,,,, everything falls apart.
There is a ignored lesson there ….
B Awakesky. “ When the cleaners, rubbish collectors, health workers …cease work “, they are replaced by cheap immigrant labour. It’s happening now, except perhaps for super-market workers, who are mainly high school and uni students where I live. Much of the immigrants’ accommodation is awful.
If housing does not become magically affordable, and that means reducing prices by a huge percentage, then don’t expect the situation or society to improve… quite the opposite.
House prices don’t necessarily need to be easily affordable. Having appropriate amounts of housing owned by national and local governments is a perfectly good alternative. Of course, the neoliberals in power plot against both those good outcomes.
Spoken like a true PRC shill, “Mark”.
The Right’s never ending march to amputate and slice down the State is so that the people don’t get used to a well functioning public service and so will politically agree to starve it of funds via tax cuts.
The problem I have with this paragraph from Martyn, is the well run part. Politicians couldn’t run a public dunny in a small rural town. The reason governments privatise stuff is to save money. Not because they’re greedy and mean, but because state run businesses get top heavy, inefficient, ineffective and costly. I would have no problem letting the state own and run businesses if they could. As for the fire brigade and the ambulance there’s nothing stopping the government supporting them with more finance now. So why don’t they.
For all intents and purposes, the Ambulance service is indeed privatised. It is so insular from the government that it’s crazy! This particular situation could be likened to the USA under Ronald Reagan. There’s a shortfall of around fifteen million dollars a year, that is my understanding of it.
We don’t need more nurses or doctors or firemen on better pay. We need more Neale Joneses on even better pay. Jacinda, give us more Neale Joneses now.
Bonding is good, for NZ Students 5 years, and for migrants citizenship after 10 years so they don’t fly off to Australia in 5.
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