Winston won’t protect workers from Crook Van Velden’s worksafe mutilation
Health and safety wedge drives deeper between coalition partners
New Zealand First has secured a small win amid a war with ACT over the Government’s overhaul of health and safety legislation, but David Seymour has laid the ground rules for any future coalition.
Members from the parties butted heads in Parliament last week over the future of the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill and the existence of a meeting about it.
Stuff
Don’t let Winston fool you, the War on Workers he’s enabling continues!
His shtick is that he stands for salt of the earth workers but that is a lie.
He manipulates their anger towards culture wars in the smoko room while helping the bosses in their office afterwards.
This hard right Government have for the last 2 and a half years waged an unrelenting war on workers rights. Brooke Van Veldon as Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety was an ideological stormtrooper who loved blood as much as your average Great White Shark.
Her Employment Relations law overhaul empowered bosses.
Her Removal of the “30-day rule” for new workers to be on existing Collective agreements undermined unions.
Trashing contractors to keep them weak against bosses undermined those workers.
Her WorkSafe downgrade to make workplaces less safe with enforcement changes that amounted to coddling bosses rather than prosecuting them makes a mockery of the Pike River Mine tragedy!
And her pay parity kneecapping was literally robbing the poorest workers to pay the richest.
On average 70 workers die on the job every year and another 900 die annually because of the work they do – this is 2026, not 1826, surely in the here and now, no whanau should ever be told that their family member isn’t coming home because they’ve died on the job – how does cuddling bosses instead of prosecuting them going to make that work environment safer?
Minister Brooke Van Velden, citing only anecdotal evidence from bosses she talked to, defended the Worksafe change from prosecution to advising because the bosses she had spoken to said that Worksafe scared them. How do the fears of bosses over implementing worksafe guidelines trump the actual safety of workers going home unharmed each day?
And don’t believe that Winston suddenly cares about workers…
Peters Will Betray Workers Again – He Can’t Be Trusted – PSA
Winston Peters has betrayed workers before, and he is about to do it again by voting to make workplaces less safe warns the PSA.
Parliament is about debate critical changes to workplace safety laws with the Second Reading of the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill.
“Every time Winston Peters has had a chance to stand up for workers in this government, he has folded. He voted for every single attack on workers’ rights the Government has delivered. Now he is about to vote for a law that puts workers in small businesses at greater risk of injury and death,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“New Zealand workers have seen this movie before. This last-minute hand wringing expressing concern about the Bill is all show. This will be yet another betrayal by a man who claims NZ First is the true workers’ party.
“If he truly believes the Bill is flawed, he needs to walk the talk and vote no.
“How can he look workers in the eye and support ACT and vote for a law that strips away their health and safety protections? This bill deliberately weakens the rules that keep workers in small businesses safe – the very workers NZ First claims to champion.
“Winston Peters has been an active participant in this Government which has inflicted the worst attacks on workers’ rights in a generation. He voted to axe pay equity for 150,000 women. He voted to reinstate 90-day trials. He voted to scrap Fair Pay Agreements, agreed to suppress minimum wages and voted to gut personal grievance protections to allow people to be fired at will.
“New Zealand workers can’t afford yet another Winston Peters betrayal. He should vote the bill down, but don’t hold your breath.”
PSA
…don’t let Winston fool you – the War on Workers he’s enabling continues!
All he has done here is what this Government have done to the conservation land sell off and the fishing Industry bonus, put them off until after the election and if they win, these workers rights laws, the sell off of our conservation land and allowing the fishing industry to legally rape and pillage the ocean is back on.
How sleepy are you hobbits to be tricked by such basic tricks?
Independent Media is more important than ever, especially in the lead up to the Election. TDB is the largest Left Wing Blog in NZ and we have been operating for 13 years now. We get zero funding g from NZ on Air and we don’t have no rich backers. If you can donate please do so here or directly into our account – 12-3065-0133561-56
After many decades of observation I have come to the conclusion that Winston Peter ONLY LOOKS AFTER WINSTON PETERS.
He is that Long-term Trougher on the NZ Taxpayers. He ONLY cares about himself and what he can get for Himself out of one piece or another of legislation and to Hell with NZ and NZers.
He is also a Prolific Liar and has been for most of his political existence.
I hope NZers come to their senses and Never Vote for NZ First and its MPs(and Wannabe MPs)ever again.
As most of us have realised by now, Winston “runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds”. He is there entirely for himself, not NZ or its people. How can one man be so damned self-absorbed, selfish and self-serving? Easy when you have been doing it for most of your life. He has already helped the smug ACT MP, Van Velden, to brutalise Employment Relations in NZ. If he gets in again, there will be much hand-wringing but it will be way too late! FGS NZF voters, kickstart your defunct brains now! He is NOT there for the workers or for you!