Philippa Branthwaite

What is it with this government and its attacks on primary and secondary teachers, teacher aids, social workers, midwives, dentists, allied health, care and support workers, advisory and knowledge workers, mental health and general nurses, and doctors?

Yesterday, more than 100,000 people took part in the biggest industrial action in decades. You would have seen many of them on the streets of Whakatāne with homemade signs asking for a fair deal.

And how does this National, Act and NZ First Government react? They seem to be having a war against public servants, rather than sitting down and trying to work through issues with them. These are the very people a government depends on to implement their work programme.

Simeon Brown, Minister of Health,  called doctors unethical because the strike would affect patients – a bit rich coming from the government that gave tax breaks to tobacco companies, rolled back changes to stop people smoking, is happy to have unlimited alcohol shops in at risk communities, and is providing the lowest health funding per head of population ever. I call that unethical.

Just a few months ago, many of these workers had their pay equity claims and settlements severely undermined by the Government changing the rules retrospectively, and this has had a significant impact on their take home pay. I call that unethical.

Judith Collins, Minister for State Services who has agreed to buy five helicopters for $400 million each, said the country was not earning enough to afford more than the 1 percent per annum pay increase offered by the Government. She has written a public letter to all of us making the disturbing claim that all the PPTA wanted to talk about was Palestine. She “forgot” to add that this was at a regular meeting with the Minister of Education, (later cancelled by the Minister) where they were specifically asked not to raise the negotiations for pay and conditions. The PPTA put AI marking, NCEA, and oh, Palestine on the agenda. Isn’t that lying by omission? I call that unethical.

Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister, falsely claimed that the unions taking action were affiliated to the Labour Party - none of them are. He then repeated Collin’s claims in radio interviews, calling the strikes politically motivated. I call that unethical.

Attacking public servants is politically motivated. Taking peaceful, legal strike action when the Government offers are below the rate of inflation, are for three-year terms or more, have attacks on key worker conditions,  and ignore attempts to provide safer more effective service is doing your best to keep New Zealanders educated, looked after, healthy and safe.

And this strike action is also about trying to keep New Zealand workers here in this country, not catching the next plane to Australia where the pay rates are much higher, conditions are better, and where the government doesn’t attack you for standing up for your legal rights.

The Government argues it can’t afford it to meet the claims. The same Government that found $23 billion over the past two budgets for tax cuts for high income earners, and tax breaks and write offs for landlords, tobacco companies, and businesses.  It is all about priorities, and this Coalition Government is choosing not to prioritise the essential services and workers we all depend on.

By every cut to the health, education and public service, every broken promise, every move to put profit before people, the National, Act, NZ First government has shown us what it is really about - austerity, privatisation and private profit, and short term thinking.