Posts by Julie Fairey
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Someone else here is likely to have way more knowledge of this than I do, but my recollection was that at the time that the HoS was being set up there was some activity going on by APN that was pretty close to union-busting. I have no idea of the membership levels of the EPMU at the HoS now.
Craig I agree that people should be asking some hard questions of the HoS about how they handled this as employers. Hence my entire last paragraph in the post you are responding to.
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Sorry for the double-post, having some problems with the site and missed the edit window, could someone please delete one of them and this? Thanks mod!
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Wow, defensive much?
There is a clear difference in my mind to the actions of the employer (the HoS in this case) in deciding to send reports to Kuariki's house and the actions of individuals when faced with a difficult situation once there.
For all we know the reporters who were sent may have been told to get a good story or else. They may not have been as free to leave as some suggest.
And frankly there is no right way to respond to that kind of thing. It's not a decision we get to make, as observers well removed from the situation, that these journos should have done X or Y, and if they hadn't then they are somehow culpable in what happened. Which is the undertone of some of the early comments. It's good to see many commenters more recently stating they dont' think that, and I thank them for that clarification.
In my experience people tend to have one of three responses in situations of stress, and they are pretty predictably fight, flight or freeze. My own observation of employment situations of stress is that freeze is by far the most common.
For myself, in a job I used to do years ago I often worked with a 3IC who used to ah rearrange himself frequently whilst talking to me. I never mentioned it to anyone else I worked with, and despite being hideously uncomfortable and embarrased never said anything to him. He seemed to be unaware that he was doing it, although it seemed impossible to me that that would be the case (male readers may care to indicate whether this could be true, although that might be too gross for this space!). We got on quite well, he never hit on me or asked me out or showed any particular interest beyond a friendly level, but he kept doing it. Even when we weren't working together anymore and I bumped into him a while later he did it. Ignoring it seemed the best option, which fits into the freeze category. I did try flight a bit, but that wasn't always possible because he was management, or he would call me back and delay me from going. Nice guy. Just wished he would stop putting his hands in his pockets when we spoke.
None of this lets the HoS bosses off the hook. I think it is totally right to be asking questions, as many commenters have, about the decision-making process behind seeking this interview (particularly if media contact for Kuariki was verboten under his release conditions). We should also be asking what guidelines and training reporters are given for dealing with difficult situations of this nature, and what debriefing happens afterwards too.
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Those interested in the weirdness of Act candidates might also want to consider Peter Tashkoff, number 7 on Act’s list in 2008, who considered a candidate survey genuinely seeking feedback from candidates such as himself “spam”
(Nevermind that all the Parliamentary parties sent responses, it was too much for Mr Tashkoff to reply to properly)
Or Ted Howard, who seems like a lovely chap, but also thinks we should pool all the world’s resources into inventing a machine that can make anything. Number 36 on their list in 2008.
And as for the craziness being about individual members/candidates rather than the party, how about a good look at their social welfare policy for the 2008 election. It’s all about the DPB and it is a total and utter compassion FAIL. It included requiring the Government to drain the father’s future superannuation before paying out a cent from the tax payers coffers to a solo mum. Sadly it's not available online anymore so you'll have to take my word for it.
Also, while I feel more than the average amount of sympathy for Bailey Kuariki no woman (or man) is ever asking for what happened to those journalists, which seems to be the subtext of many of the comments here.
If the Tea Party ever get swept to power I expect they'll name a library after him.
But assumedly not a public library HORansome?
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A bit up thread Deep Red asked if the PPTA or NZEI had a presence at private schools. The answer is no.
I'm not an expert on private schools (despite attending one for a couple of years, oops) but my understanding is that some have staff associations, which are basically small in-house unions, and at others the staff (not sure if maybe just teachers?) join what used to be called ISTANZ (Independent Schools Teachers Association) and was renamed recently ISEA (Independent Schools Education Assn). Grant Gillon, former Alliance MP, heads up ISEA I think. There may indeed be some at which there is no collective staff body for employment issues at all, places like Middleton Grange perhaps?
Again with the caveat that I don't know all that much about this, I believe that the collective employment agreements they have are pretty much based on the CEAs that NZEI and PPTA negotiate in the public sector, usually with some kind of percentage on top in terms of pay (e.g. the base scale plus 10%), and other various idiosyncracies that have come about through historical stuff (e.g. everyone gets their birthday off because the staff got peeved when they found out that happened at the Warehouse in the 1990s and petitioned the Board/whatever). Other PAS commenters may know more about this than me.
Also, I blush at you Jackie, look forward to seeing you next week!
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Thank you Russell. (I work for NZEI so will resist the urge to comment further!)
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Gotta love a badass who carries around a picture of his father.
Ah, do other people not carry around pics of their parents? Isn't that what that bit in the wallet is for?
Although somehow I doubt me flashing a cute pic of my dad cuddling my son is going to have the same impact as Craig getting up in someone's grill...
I think Deborah has a really good point - what you call yourself, how you identify yourself, should largely be respected, but when you are affixing a label to another you need to be more cautious with the language you use.
Having said that I did once get very short with someone who proclaimed themselves firmly pro-choice and then went to on to explain that the choice was choosing whether or not to have sex...
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Thanks Craig and Sam. I really like what you wrote Sam, and would encourage others to do something similar too :-)
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On the Paul Henry thingy, I've picked up on an idea from PAS's own Craig Ranapia, and got together some info on how people can pressure Breakfast's main advertisers. Please do give it a go, if you too are concerned about Henry's behaviour, it will only take you about two minutes, and the more people who do it the more likely success becomes!
It's a low risk strategy - the worst that can happen is we still have Paul Henry on Breakfast being the way he is now. The only way is up!
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And I note that banner ads to support Plain English are running on this site.