finsec petition

i'm feeling too lazy to post anything very serious today, so i'll just link to other stuff.

first is the finsec petition to keep banking jobs in nz, rather than having them outsourced to cheap labour overseas:

No one can deny the important role banks and finance companies play in the economy. That is why taxpayers are supporting the banks in these difficult times by guaranteeing their deposits and wholesale funding.

Despite this guarantee of their business, banks has made no such guarantee to their staff about job security. While the banks made combined profits in excess of $2.5 billion and CEOs recieve salary packages of more than $2 million each, banks continue to cut jobs and offshore work.

please download the petition from here (pdf) and get people to sign it. funny how the big job summit didn't come up with simple ideas like this for saving jobs. but OMG, that would mean some kind of regulation to keep those jobs in nz, and we couldn't possibly require big business to put the good of the nz economy & nz workers ahead of profits, could we?


also, the 11th down under feminist carnival is now up at whyi'mbitter's blog. looks like some really good reading, with a few posts from the hand mirror.


and finally, farewell to hon michael cullen (well, from parliament in a month's time). i've been a fan of his for many years, and i think there are few politicians who have his intellect, wit, courage, compassion and foresight. he left the country in a very good position to face the recession, and we might have survived in much better shape if he had been there to truly protect jobs and focus policy on those who needed help the most.

i know the house (and especially question time) is just not going to be the same without him. i think the best description i've heard of dr cullen was in an introduction by hon marian hobbs, who described him as "a great lover of the house". that sums it up nicely.