Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
Cash for policy
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Labour Party
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Political donations
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Rodney Hide
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Tova O'Brien
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Trade Unions
3News political reporter Tova O'Brien posted this yesterday on Twitter:
The relationship between Labour and its affiliates, the collective name for a number of trade unions is long established. But the importance of the relationship was increased significantly two years ago when Labour essentially gave the unions the casting vote in party leadership elections.
Coincidentally, Rodney Hide's column in the Herald on Sunday yesterday was about union donations to Labour. His entire column is worth a read, but here's how he began:
The true donations scandal in New Zealand politics was reported this week without comment. It's the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's $60,000 donation to Labour.
The EPMU is one of the six unions affiliated to Labour. The affiliated unions pay fees and fund the Party through donations. The donations and fees total hundreds of thousands of dollars.
More significantly, union staff campaign for Labour and the unions run parallel campaigns. For example, Labour is campaigning for the "living wage". In a parallel campaign the Services and Food Workers Union spent more than half a million dollars last year promoting that exact policy.
The union funding of Labour totals in the millions. And what does Labour provide in return? In effect the entire party. The unions get to determine the party's leader. Their say counts for 20 per cent of the vote. That's the difference between winning and losing by a wide margin.
Affiliation also buys a seat at the table. The affiliated unions have a guaranteed vice-president position on Labour's all-powerful New Zealand Council.
They also get their people as MPs. The Labour Party enables the unions to parachute members into Parliament. Labour list MP Andrew Little headed the EPMU for 11 years before entering Parliament.
Being a union boss come Labour's list selection time isn't as good as being a Maori lesbian but it's a close second.
And the unions get policy, lots of policy. In 1999 the EPMU gave $100,000 to Labour. The following year the Labour Government passed the Employment Relations Act. This act gives the unions incredible power over Kiwi workplaces as well as easy access to workers' pay packets.
The Employment Relations Act nicely closes the loop. The act was provided by the Labour Party. It gave the unions access to workers' pockets, and that's the money the unions now tip into Labour's coffers.
Indeed, in the state sector it's policy for Government to give union members a bonus to cover their union fees. You and I pay their union fees.
Unions and Labour are guilty of "cash for policy", "cash to sit at the table", "cash to decide the leader" and "cash to parachute members into Parliament".
Rodney Hide is absolutely right. As much as Labour and the Greens accuse John Key's Rich Mates of trying to buy influence, they ignore the obvious going on right under their own nose. Labour and the unions are so confident of not being called out, that they don't even try to be subtle about it.
Over the course of the next few days we are going to take a closer look at Labour's relationship with its affiliates, and just what the union influence is trying to achieve. Early indications are that businesses in New Zealand are in for a rough ride if Labour leads a coalition government after the General Election on 20th September.
Stay tuned...
