New Zealand Listener - May 26, 2018

10 LISTENER MAY 26 2018

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It hasn’t quite plumbed the depths reached by the

founder of The Opportunities Party, who called

one of his candidates a pain in the arse, described

Winston Peters as “an Uncle Tom”, and dismissed

various Twitter critics as idiots, doormats or nutty.

But, Thursday’s Budget rhetoric aside, there’s a

growing practice among ministers to be as boorish

as possible towards particular sector groups – to the

point where one begins to suspect there’s some sort

of prize pool.

We’ve had Shane Jones telling bureaucrats

they’re menaces who’ll be drop-kicked if they

keep getting under his feet. David Parker’s threats

to double proposed water charges, disenfranchise

Nimbys and de-cow the dairy industry without

compensation, are the mark of a politician out to

do things to people rather than for them. Clare

Curran has slighted the IT sector by re-advertising

the new job of Government tech adviser because

she says “Christmas busy-ness” meant no one good

enough applied the first time.

Now there’s Iain Lees-Galloway, who says

employers who can’t afford to pay staff living- and

minimum-wage increases should expect to go out

of business. He styled this as the business taking

“the opportunity to transition” – mean-

ing, transition out of business.

The political wince factor

here is off the charts, given the

importance to both economic

growth and employment of

small and medium enterprises

(SMEs), which are the most

at risk from increases in wage

bills. Few of them can minimise

labour costs by way of technology or

automation. All those tradies, niche

transporters, cafes and boutique man-

ufacturers that might have switched

allegiance to Labour could only take

Lees-Galloway’s comment as a “don’t

care” from the Government.

The trouble is, he makes a fair

point. If you’re in the biscuit-tin

business and the price of stainless

steel goes up, you need to be able to

absorb that cost or pass it on to cus-

tomers; if you can’t, you’re in shtook.

The price of labour should be no

different; it’s a cost of doing business.

Except, of course, our years of wage

stagnation show businesses have

compensated for other cost pressures

through savings on staff. Perversely,

although our national productivity

has stalled, many – probably most –

employees are doing more work, but

for no more money.

SMEs feel highly vulnerable to

the minimum wage, as it can’t

be negotiated down, and the

moral momentum towards the

more ambitious living wage

is growing, too. Yet instead

of highlighting Government

plans to compensate SMEs for

social wage policies through

the tax system as promised earlier,

Lees-Galloway has given them the

political equivalent of dog doings

through the letterbox.

HIGHWAGE MANTRA

Still, when even Mike Hosking

says it’s time New Zealanders were

paid more, it’s a sign that attitudes

are changing. The Government’s

mantra continues to be about

transitioning to “the high-wage

economy”. This certainly sounds a

lot jollier than the “bust-business”

economy, the “buy-water” economy,

the “dead-cow” economy or the

“squashed-bureaucrat” one. Certain

ministers ought to spend this

parliamentary recess in a residential

charm school.

Call him unambitious, then, but

Primary Industries Minister Damien

O’Connor is abstaining from the tact-

lessness competition – even though

there’s no tactful way to tell a farmer

whose herd is infected with Myco-

plasma bovis what’s got to happen

next.

O’Connor has nicely boxed

National in by refusing to blame

farmers for failing to comply with the

National Animal Identification and

Tracing programme (Nait) because,

as he fairly argues, it’s a poorly

designed system, and farmers already

have their hands full complying

with the bureaucracy of Livestock

Improvement, which has confusingly

overlapping purposes with Nait.

The minister blames National for

failing to take the biosecurity and

animal-movement risk seriously

enough. This leaves National rather

feebly blaming the Government for

G

areth Morgan didn’t make it

to Parliament, but the Gareth

Morgan School of Confronta-

tional Persuasion seems to be

here to stay.

POLITICS

Tactlessness has its place; the trick is in knowing when tact is needed.

To put it bluntly

JANE

CLIFTON

Iain Lees-Galloway: wince factor.

Perversely, national

productivity has

stalled, but most of us

are doing more work

for no more money.