Blog Bits
A quick roundup:
- Tony Milne at Just Left ponders how should Labour deal with the Maori Party – shoild it try to have a constructive relationship with them, or should it try to attack them and win some seats back off them? This is a big decision for Labour, with potentially very significant consequences long-term.
- No Right Turn is upset that Treasury complained about the increasing number of pages of legislation, and sees this as focusing on quantity not quality. I think what he overlooks is that the more pages of law there are, the harder it is for citizens or businesses to know what the law is to comply with. Not everyone can have a law firm on retainer. NRT has a point that it is not just about quantity, but quantity is actually important.
- Russel Norman congratulates Christchurch couple Matthew and Waveney for finishing their waste-free year. I’m amazed at how they managed it. Reducing waste is one of those win-wins generally. Better for the environment and cheaper. Since all my bills got converted to e-mail instead of snail mail, I must have saved a few trees!
- Peter Cresswell isn’t impressed with National’s RMA changes.
- Steve Pierson at The Standard speculates on what National will do with the minimum wage, with some useful numbers.
- Vibenna calls for a freeze on the minimum wage, to protect low-paid jobs.
I tend to side with Vibenna, in that this is probably the worst possible time to be increasing the minimum wage. Businesses are going under and laying off staff all over the place and the calls by some to increase the minimum wgae by 25% to $15 would be devastating to businesses already hit with reduced access to credit, reduced income and higher import costs due to the low dollar.
I wouldn’t have a problem with the minimum wage at least moving in line with inflation, and think in normal circumstances National would do at least that. However whether one can afford the likely impact on employment, when we are facing the worst recession in 70 years is a real dilemma. It is a different environment to when employment growth was so strong that any impact on minimum wage movements was minimal.
It’s also worth remembering that one can not legislate your way to improved living standards through the minimum wage. Otherwise we’d just make it $30 overnight. It all comes back to producivity.