If National wins ...

[BlackPeter]

EZ, one less paying member in your team
...

Sincerely
Phil Quin

I guess he has a potentially Chinese sounding name ...why would he assume to be welcome in the Labour party anyway?

[Daytr]

Winner69, have you looked at Paul Quin's blog?
The first page has 10 posts all disparaging Labour one way or another.
So I think this letter is a little disingenuous to say the least.

[winner69]

Winner69, have you looked at Paul Quin's blog?
The first page has 10 posts all disparaging Labour one way or another.
So I think this letter is a little disingenuous to say the least.

Where's phil's blog ....assuming you meant him

[Daytr]

Haha sorry yes. Paul Quinn was a great No 7 for Wellington & Maori All Black & later became a National MP.

Here's Phil Quin's blog, I assume its the same guy?

http://pundit.co.nz/blogs/philquin

[artemis]

Winner69, have you looked at Paul Quin's blog? The first page has 10 posts all disparaging Labour one way or another. So I think this letter is a little disingenuous to say the least.

Members of any organisation come and go all the time, but a member of 30 years standing should be listened to. Not necessarily leading to a change of course.

Labour would also be well advised to listen to what 'kiwi in america' has to say on Kiwiblog from time to time. S/he was apparently well up in the Labour hierarchy before leaving the party, and posts are invariably measured and insightful even if not agreed with.

[winner69]

Members of any organisation come and go all the time, but a member of 30 years standing should be listened to. Not necessarily leading to a change of course.

Labour would also be well advised to listen to what 'kiwi in america' has to say on Kiwiblog from time to time. S/he was apparently well up in the Labour hierarchy before leaving the party, and posts are invariably measured and insightful even if not agreed with.

Labour appear to be disenfranchising their 'traditional' support base.

But heck who are they going to attract to be the new labour supporters

[fungus pudding]

Labour appear to be disenfranchising their 'traditional' support base.

But heck who are they going to attract to be the new labour supporters

They're on a winner with this one - plenty of anti-foreign buyer advocates, even though it's close to impossible to control. All they need to win the next election is a leader - they don't seem to be having much luck with that.

[winner69]

They're on a winner with this one - plenty of anti-foreign buyer advocates, even though it's close to impossible to control. All they need to win the next election is a leader - they don't seem to be having much luck with that.

Our friend Angela Vance has asked 'since I left nz has UKIP set up a nz branch'

UKIP did very well in UK elections (vote wise)

Maybe the secret weapon for Labour after all .....Little to model himself on Farage?

No ....new leader required methinks

Plenty of double-barrelled names to choose from I notice

[BlackPeter]

BP, what farm jobs in Southland & Canterbury are you referring to? Southland dairy is dominated by Filipino workers and this is something National could do something about. Migrant workers have their place, especially for seasonal work, however if its permanent jobs then they should be attracting Kiwis by offering higher wages to work long hours, getting up at 4am in quite often freezing conditions. Market forces and all that, or is the ACT philosophy of market forces prevailing not apply if it means raising wages for work in quite extreme conditions? Plenty of people have also moved to Christchurch as well for the rebuild, however it doesn't always work when you have a family to accommodate & there is no accommodation. I don't think the bottom of the South Island is the answer to all the country's employment problems in fact there is quite a drift north or would you like to reverse that? Cheers Daytr

Do you need a job?

Not sure, how much you know about our immigration rules - I used to hire staff for the last two decades (well, here in NZ). Had to work frequently with NZ Immigration service to get foreign workers into New Zealand (though admittedly higher qualified than your farmhands - I am talking electrical and software engineers and analysts). The only way to get anybody from overseas a work permit is if you can provide evidence that you tried hard to fill the job with a New Zealand resident (i.e. advertisement / how many suitable candidates did apply / ...) but failed to find a suitable candidate. Only than will they grant a work permit.

So - if you say that we have too many Filipinos working on our farms (I assume you are not just talking temps) .. than the only reason for that could be that no suitable NZ workers are available. And given that the qualifications asked for these jobs are not that special (well, maybe they are - people are actually asked to work) and given that we actually do still have some unemployed workers (particularly in Auckland and Northland I hear) do I suppose that we have here an attitude problem in the unemployed Kiwi population.

Sure - not everybody can work as farmhand in rural NZ ... but nobody suitable applying? Need to get up early and work outside, even in freezing conditions? Come on ... you can't be that soft ... Many people need to get up at 4am in the morning without asking for extra money to compensate for this "hardship". And the freezing conditions? Interesting that the filipinos don't seem to care. I myself grew up in a much colder climate like here and had for some time as well to get up early in the morning (often during the wee hours - and working outside). Believe me - if you want to work, than this is no problem at all (getting earlier to bed helps, though). I suppose they are allowed to wear appropriate clothing on the farm ?

Referring to the drift North: Yes, it seems to be a world wide trend that people flee the country life and prefer to live instead in urban slums ... and related to NZ - I don't think that as country we will have a great future if we just concentrate everything in Auckland. Already now too much traffic, too much crime and too many beneficiaries. Yes, I believe that a reversal of this trend back to many smaller centres and a revival of the regions would help the land. Will we get there? Not sure, so far none of the big parties seems to care (at least not when in power).

[Daytr]

Why don't we open up all jobs to immigrant workers from 3rd world countries? I don't think they will mind at all and take any job to earn a better living than they do in their own country. I would if I was them. No suitable people or they just aren't willing to pay enough in Southland. Perhaps you could put your hand up for minimum wage or less quite often as the hours are very often not fully paid. The Southland dairy industry relies heavily on these workers, too heavily imo & as your man Jamie Whyte would say economics solves everything. In this case, pay enough & they will come. In Australia miners have to paid very good money to quite often do quite basic, but hard & sometimes dangerous work in regions that find it difficult to attract talent. Same applies here.

Yes you are right, I do need a job, it appears there is a vacancy for a counsellor. ;-)