Letter No.31
8 January, 1996

13 December 1995

Bill Birch reveals further details of his tax cuts package. He will reduce taxes by $1 billion next year, and has signaled a further $1.1 billion reduction after the next election.

14 December 1995

In contrast to Bill Birch's statement, the Reserve Bank rules out any interest rate cuts in the next three years. This move was much tougher than the markets were expecting and triggered an immediate rise in exchange and interest rates.

There were 154,990 people registered as unemployed at the end of November, up 7025 on the October figures, including 2912 extra vacation workers.

15 December 1995

Police storm a house in Glendowie and arrest 14 protestors from the State Housing Action Coalition who had barricaded themselves inside in support of an evicted state house tenant.

16 December 1995

The US government is again locked in a budget battle between President Clinton and the Republican Congress. 280,000 `non-essential' federal workers have again been sent home on a partial government shut-down. An earlier shut-down last month sent home 800,000 federal workers.

17 December 1995

Victim support workers report an alarming rise in suicides of people in their forties, mainly men, over the past two weeks.

18 December 1995

US House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich is named as the Time Man of the Year: "For better of worse, he has changed the language and substance of American politics like no other politician in recent history..."

19 December 1995

The Justice Ministry is predicting an increase of more than a thousand prison inmates in five years time. They expect a rise from the 4,200 inmates now to about 5,300 by the year 2000.

The minimum adult wage has increased $5 a week to $255. The minimum youth wage (for 16-19yrs) has gone from $150 to $153 a week. This is a 2% increase.

20 December 1995

The New Zealand Employment Service advertises for a National Pacific Islands Employment Co-ordinator, to be based in South Auckland. (applications close 23 Jan 96)

The new fishing laws being introduced into Parliament do not extend NZ labour protections of minimum wages and conditions to foreign fishing crews. Foreigners working in NZ waters have been reported to be paid as little as $7 a day and often work in substandard conditions.

21 December 1995

The jobs of 170 King Country meatworkers are in doubt as the receivers of their Bennydale meatworks try to arrange a quick sale. The failed works was owned by King Country farmers and the Maniapoto Maori Trust Board.

23 December 1995

About 50 Maori protesters moved into an occupation of the failed Bennydale meatworks, saying that receivership deals were being made without enough consultation with local Maori co-owners.

25 December 1995

Christmas Day

26 December 1995

Opposition MPs and the Poverty Action Coalition criticise the Income Support Service for failures in ensuring all beneficiaries got their benefits paid in time for Christmas.

ACT New Zealand is looking for a new leader to replace Sir Roger Douglas, after a poor record in the polls.

27 December 1995

Peter Gresham dismisses criticisms of Income Support, reporting that all Christmas benefits were paid up, and they received very few applications for emergency benefits.

Annette King says that the government spent $138,000 telling beneficiaries of their Christmas pension or benefit details, which she believes would be "money better spent on food parcels..."

Amidst record unemployment and after four years of economic recession, the Japanese government adopts a budget for next year which includes more public works spending.

Laurie O'Reilly, the Commissioner for Children, says that NZ is facing a crisis of violence against children, with one child dying each month from murder or manslaughter.

28 December 1995

The Salvation Army reports its volunteers were abused by some people unhappy with the contents of their Christmas food parcels.

Amidst a partial government shut-down, in its 11th day, the US Treasury considers extraordinary measures to avoid an American default on its debts.

The privacy commissioner Bruce Slane criticises the prospect of widespread drug-testing of employees in their workplaces.

30 December 1995

More than two-thirds of the 1700 jobs at the Auckland casino have been filled.

1 January 1996

New Year's Day

3 January 1996

Union membership is down 33,000 members to 375,906 members last year, according to a Victoria University survey.

4 January 1996

The government has spent more than $12 million last year on computer data matching programmes to detect welfare fraud, and has only recovered $5.5 million.

The Alliance pledges to introduce legislation this year to repeal the Employment Contracts Act.

The communications giant AT&T announces it will shed 40,000 jobs and split into three companies, in the biggest corporate break-up in US history.

The credit agency Moodies predicts a credit upgrade for NZ which could save the country millions in interest repayments.

5 January 1996

Nearly 100 jobs have been axed in a further restructuring of the justice system.

The Governor of the Australian Reserve Bank, Mr Bernie Fraser, says he rejects the NZ-style single-focus on inflation as a model for bank policies, and says his bank is committed to reducing unemployment from the present 8% of the workforce to 5-6% : "The best way we can deal with unemployment is to keep the economy growing to provide job opportunities ..."

6 January 1996

The CTU says that high interest rates and companies using the tax cuts to avoid paying wage rises will largely negate the planned tax cuts.

Almost 90% of participants on Conservation Corps projects last year ended up in jobs or on further education and training, according to Youth Affairs Minister Roger McClay.