Posts by rodgerd
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If having no DPB was to reduce crime, we ought to see less crime before 1974, and an increase over the period since then.
The exact opposite of what actually happened.
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Not wanting to get into an in-depth debate about segregated vs inclusive education for disabled children, but if the needed resources aren't applied then I guess "thrown" is fair.
The experience of one of my austistic rellies rather underlines that, what with the ongoing battle for his teacher's aid's hours to be used on his needs, rather than the principal's view that they're a freebie 20 hours to be used whereever the principal sees fit.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the norm rather than the exception, alas.
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If only!
Yes, yes, your favourite director sucks.
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All the same, you've got to wonder if MGM or Warners would touch a weirdo like Stanley Kubirck with the proverbial barge pole if he was starting out today
Artists who suffer these days are the hit and miss ones. I think that's the case across the board - TV, music, movies. Interesting-but-unreliable filmakers like Burton will get squeezed out of the game, and people will be working on heavily marketed blockbusters or personl projects that are crammed in around the "real jobs" that pay for them.
(The most disturbing aspect of a conversation I've had re: The Hobbit was the Unite staffer who seemed to be suggesting that (a) Peter Jackson is going to be "got" and that (b) it's better for actors to be unemployed than work on terms and conditions any less generous than SAG. I rather suspect the latter point isn't actually one many actors would agree with.)
And the keywords in Brian Gaynor's latest column are 'cargo cult' and 'long-term strategy'.
Oil and gas is a long-term strategy?
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Mmhhh... because he's the employer, and the contractor is the employee?
Yes, but the contractor is happy to tell the government they aren't an employee every few months when they claim a GST rebate on their lunch meetings, or DVDs, or the end-of-year payments reclaiming a chunk of the mortgage or rent from income tax.
One can hardly claim the tax benefits of a sole trader while demanding the protections of an employee.
(As an aside, some of those getting het up about wanting to be considered employees might want to be careful they don't end up with the taxman wanting all those expenses back. With interest. That was my main worry as a contractor.)
@giovanni. Then logically, to avoid the risk of another Bryson, Jackson should take a year off between projects, or completely change the entire film crew for each project.
This is what's happened in the US where "permatemps" have sued for employee status and benefits after the fact; big companies still have permatemps, but in order to avoid being stung, they simply kick people onto the dole queue for 3-6 months every year.
I am unconvinced this would represent an improvement in the lives of many folk in the film sector.
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The way Peter Jackson was targeted?
It's not like the head of the CTU called him a spoiled brat, or he's been described as a slave-owner, a feudal lord, a crap director, a shame on New Zealand's cultural landscape. And it's not like he's been targeted to try and gain leverage over industry-wide agreements he has no power to negotiate.
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He's right: the state has entered to meddle in the relationship between workers and capital on the side of capital (as evidenced by the overly broad, vague legislation being rammed through under urgency as I write).
The status quo is that the state meddles in relationships between employers and employees by making employment law something other than simple contract law; something which is, I think, all to the good. Moreover, people in the sector are self-employed; if there was a serious effort to give up the benefits of that and become employees, fine, but there seems to be a certain are of having the cake and eating it.
I'm not buying into arguments that don't acknowledge people's right to withdraw their labour in pursuit of better conditions.
Yes, but that's not actually what happened here. An executive, without any kind of mandate from a membership that represents a tiny proprtion of actors in New Zealand called an international boycott. Industrial action without a membership ballot doesn't bother you as a matter of principle?
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Do we get our money back?
What money? We're just not collecting some taxes we wouldn't otherwise get to collect.
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Hmmm...whats the difference between Hobbit tax break and a US beef subsidy. From over here? Not a lot. And here we have the Free Market playing the game that totally abhors them. Sheesh. Goosed and Gandered.
And how well did the free-market fundamentalism of 1984-1999 work for most Kiwis? How well did the less ideological approach of our Australian neighbours in the same period work?
Is it now the position of the True Left that the free market reigns supreme and interference in the market is the worst sin governments can countenace?
Personally, I'd like to see The Warehouse, Rebel Sport, Briscoes, McDonalds, etc, fuck off and die.
Anecdata: The worst employer I've ever worked for was a small, New Zealand-owned family business where one of the owners would stand in the window of the office and scream about the "asians and their filthy fucking yellow money" buying up New Zealand. The second worst was a New Zealand-owned business that, it turned out, was doing dodgy in-cahoots deals with the Burnese junta. The third worst was a joint US-NZ enterprise.
The place I've worked for that treats its staff best is a wholly-owned subsidiary of an Australian multinational.
Now, anecdata is anecdata, but it's left me not misty-eyed with love for small businesses, you know?
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Quite frankly, Trotter is right about you guys.
Chris Trotter loves racism and thinks democracy is an optional extra, to be discarded when it gets in the way of what he wants. I have a hard time taking hom, or anyone who considers him a moral compass seriously.
I also have a hard time taking anyone who considers the farming industry "good employers" while exalting the union movement. Ever hear of Massey's Cossacks?