The money or the holiday

Some of our staff take all the holidays owing to them and more; we have to insist others take all they’re entitled to.

Those who take extra time off won’t be affected by the proposal to allow workers to choose the fourth week’s holiday or an extra week’s pay; those who aren’t keen to take what they’re eligible for will happily take the money instead of  packing a bag for a  fourth week off.

Four weeks holiday plus 11 statutory days off adds up to six working weeks plus a day off work in a year. Not everyone wants that much so now they’ll have a choice of taking the money instead.

The existing policy gives workers a vacation which many turn into a staycation, because they can’t afford to go away. National’s policy will enable them to choose a paycation instead.

It’s each worker’s choice, and if blogs are anything to go by this is clearly understood by those on the right but not on the left.

Kiwiblog approves the move and notes the fear and ignorance from opponents. 

Keeping Stock  agrees with the Herald editorial.

Oswald Bastable will be happy to take the cash and use it for his annual holiday.

Whaleoil is please the government will let employees buy back holidays.

The Visible Hand in Economics thinks it’s an excellent policy, thinks the Greens have got it wrong and has a more detailed discussion.

Monkeywithtypewriter may not consider himself politically right but he’s right on this when he says four weeks entitlement, pull the other one.

Meanwhile the sky is falling on the left where:

Bomber at Tumeke! doesn’t understand that the four week’s entitlement doesn’t kick in until a year has been worked so has nothing to do with the 90 day trial period.

No Right Turn takes a very jaundiced view  of employers.

And The Standard is doesn’t believe in good faith.

Tumeke blog rankings

Tim Selwyn has published the July rankings for the New Zealand bologsphere on Tumeke!

Kiwkblog and Public Address retain first and second places respectively.

The Standard and Whaleoil swap places at third and fourth.

Frogblog, Not PC and No Minister are steady at numbers five, six and seven and The Hive is up one place to eight.

No Right Turn is down one to nine. Tumeke!, Poneke, Inquiring Mind and Cactus Kate retain their places from 10 to 13.

Keeping Stock is impressively up 11 at 14; New Zealand Conservative has jumped seven to 15 and Homepaddock has moved up five to 16.

The Visible Hand in Economics is down one to 17, Liberty Scott is steady at 18, the Dim Post moves up 13 to 19; and The Hand Mirror is down six to 20.

Links to all these sites are on my blogroll.

Tim comments:

Apart from the bronze, the top dozen are rather static. The big movers seem to be the more right wing blogs that have picked up their traffic count and content output – the latter driving the former most likely: Keeping Stock, NZ Conservative and Home Paddock helping to displace left Labour blogs of Jordan Carter and Tony Milne.

The ranking is based on Alexa rank for traffic plus the number of posts, comments and links.

Thanks, Tim for the time and effort you put it working it all out and thanks to all of you who visit, link and comment and thereby contribute to Homepaddock’s improved place.

Changing Light Bulbs

In Parliament yesterday, Jim Anderton wanted to know how many National Party members it takes to change a lightbulb, Michael Cullen said, none because they want to keep us all in the dark.

Prog Blog gives several answers and  over on The Standard r0b  gives answers for each of the parliamentary parties.

My pick is his answer for the Maori Party: Tahi, but with full whanau support if needed. 🙂

Hat Tip: Jafapete

Blogs on unprincipled Green list manipulation

I am not alone in thinking that the Green manipulation of its list ranking to allow Russell Norman into parliament is unprincipled.

Under a heading Red Russell no longer to be CInderella  Adam Smith notes:

So ‘Red’ Russel is no longer to be the Cinderella party leader; he will go to the ball. Mike Ward has suddenly decided to play fairy godmother to the Greens Co-leader, so that his wish of entering Parliament before the election can be granted.

What a blatant piece of manipulation of the rules under MMP. Someone who none in the electorate voted for is now propelled into Parliament.  There should be a backlash and a mighty big one at that, against this unprincipled move by the Greens. Indeed, Adam would trust that there would be similar opprobrium heaped on any party that indulges in such shameless manipulation.

No Minister calls them scheming and unprincipled.

David Farrar objects to MPs resigning before their term is up for tactical partisan reasons and to changing the list after the election.

There is no way one can stop an MP resigning early, but one could have a simple law change to remove the ability for a list candidate to refuse to become an MP. They could still be elected and then resign, but that extra step might stop them from doing private deals to change the effective order of a list post-election.

Whaleoil calls it hypocrisy.

The Greens have no shame. Firstly they cynically manipulated the Electoral System to prevent or at the very least hinder freedom of speech and now they manipulate the list system so they can get more money campaigning.

Keeping Stock asks:  

The Greens – party of principle?

That’s a very good question today! We now know that Mike Ward has had a “Road to Damascus” experience, and will stand aside to allow Nandor to retire, and Red Russel Norman to enter Parliament for the last 28 sitting days of the current body!

Now what difference will that make? Well, RR will now enjoy the privileges of office, including an ability to criss-cross Aotearoa by air, and take advantage of the Greens’ parliamentary machine to get the pre-election message to the masses.

 

 Monkeys with Typewriters call them bottom feeders:

 It is bottom feeding – a self-interested, vote-catching race, and it’s simply disgusting – a disgusting retreat from principle by Labour and a disgusting return to simpering denial by National.”
says Russell Norman.

This from the Party that endorsed the Election Finance Act.

but let’s analyse the philosophical view endorsed here. It at once manages to patronise and be smug, without delivering any message of intent, while at the same time displaying an arrogance and disregard for the voter.

I can only imagine that this was after Russell Norman got the email telling him that his seat in Parliament was secure.

The Standard  is the lone dissenting voice:

Good on Mike Ward for finally seeing sense and stepping aside, allowing Greens co-leader Russel Norman to enter Parliament replacing Nandor Tanczos. Norman is rapidly establsihing himself as a very good media frontperson for the Greens; being in Parliament will enhance his role.

Only the righties were praising Ward for not stepping aside (just as they are the only ones praising the Greens for threatening to sink the ETS). Something’s not right when your supporters are asking you to change and the tories are cheering you on.

While The Hive sees a little silver lining the cloud of manipulation:

Both Kiwiblog and the Inquiring Mind have posts today on the news that the Greens have achieved their manipulation of the electoral laws to allow “Red” Russel Norman to jump up the party list so that he can enter Parliament before the election. This means more profile and more money for our neo-Marxist friend.

We are not as outraged as David Farrar or Adam Smith. We want Russel Norman’s views exposed to all as clearly as possible. When people realise where this guy is trying to take the Greens they might think twice about the wisdom of voting them back in. We hope also that the media do some thorough work on what drives our newest MP to be.

A comment from Truth Seeker under this post says it’s the list equivalent of a loyal MP in a safe seats being asked to stand aside so a new party leader can take a seat in the House”.

 

But there’s one important difference – if an MP who holds a seat stands aside there has to be a bi-election which lets the people decide. Three people who were ranked ahead of Norman on the list in 2005 had to stand aside to let him into parliament – that’s the party hierarchy playing politics not democracy.