Hobbit Law showdown inches closer
National desperately want to revive the Hobbit Law victory they had last time against Actors Equity that delivered John Key such an enormous political victory.
Last time, National claimed the Unions were destroying the chance to have the Hobbit movie filmed here in NZ and while it cost millions in corporate welfare and us actually changing our employment law for a transnational, it gifted National a huge win against Labour and the Unions.
This time around, reforming that bullshit law SHOULD have been pushed through in the first 100 days after it magically appeared in the post negotiation discussions when the new Government was formed.
Unfortunately, it was allowed to wait and wait and now it’s an open target.
National are waiting for the Hobbit reform legislation to begin in Parliament so they can kick up a new stink by claiming the LOTR TV series won’t get filmed here.
Today the first announcement that at least one of the 5 seasons will be filmed in NZ has been hinted at…
Amazon reveals ‘Lord of the Rings’ writers
There’s still no update on where the series could be shot.Previously, New Zealand was tipped to become home to Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series.
Head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke told Deadline that, while planning was still in its early stages, it was possible that “one big series” would be filmed in New Zealand, where the director Peter Jackson made the original LOTR trilogy.
…here’s how this will play out.
Once the Hobbit Law reform is booked in, suddenly the LOTR TV series will be happening here at the exact same time as Peter Jackson and WETA workshop start screaming Labour’s new law threatens it.
National will swoop in with the narrative that Labour and their Union buddies are once again threatening the Hobbit being filmed here, the population turns on the legislation and Labour are forced into an embarrassing backdown.
The predictability of it all is the depressing bit.
This should have been passed in the first 100 days.
tie a string round Keys ankles what u got? a hollywood style Tampon
Cmon Bomber-
Helen Clark changed laws in 1999 for LOTR.
If you dont mention that you could come off as slightly keft biased…
“Helen Clark changed laws in 1999 for LOTR”
Huh?? The law turning workers into “contractors” wasnt enacted until 2010, for “The Hobbit”. Aka, “The Hobbit Law”. That was a gift from John Key and his fellow bootlickers pandering to Peter Jackson and Warner Bros.
If you have info to the contrary, feel free to share with us. Otherwise its fake news, or better still, plain bullshit.
Warner Bros and family being the main consideration for key and Jackson being a convenient excuse.
The silence is deafening…….
Radio NZ is currently investigating the potentiality illegality of “contractors” who are actually employees (couriers, etc). The workers under the “Hobbit law” may well fit in with this, especially as their right to organise collectively was taken away at the srroke of a pen without any democratic input through usual select committee process.
The law change was undemocratic. That is what the Coalition should highlight.
yep, the new govt. should have gone in hard and repealed the “Hobbit Enabling Act” immediately, obviously the industry lobbyists did ‘go hard’ to secure a hiatus, and the current apparent wobble of commitment on the matter from the Minister
the thing is, there is very little traditional left spine or analysis in the Labour Caucus, Rogernomes ruled from 1984 on, and though their toxic influence is lessened now, the new crop are not by any stretch battle hardened class fighters! so they need constant lobbying and pressure from activists to have any chance of thorough rather than diluted results on most issues