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Out Side Left

The Arbitration Court 'no' to a wage increase—a stern put-down of sectional avarice for the sake of the national interest—has now been rubbished by everyone, including the Government. Price control is best viewed as an attempt to allay unprecedented discontent by an ineffective gesture toward an incomes policy, What is basically wrong, though, is that a decision, so basic to any kind of economic forecasting—forecasting, not planning—is not only unpredictable, but it is even against the law (contempt of the Arbitration Court) to try to predict. So all those Government Departments which, according to the papers, were budgeting for a 3(% wage increase were acting illegally.

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Did You Notice that forthright declaration by the Chambers of Commerce the other day that under no circumstances should pay and conditions in the Public Service be superior to those in private enterprise? So if you were idealistically thinking of getting away from all those businessmen when you left University by working for the Government, you should realise now that you'll literally pay for a career in the Public Service. So next time you hear some Labour Party type talk about improving the public sector, discount him—a public sector in the economy is only tolerated by business as long as it doesn't compete with capitalism. It may be a mixed economy, but only businessmen can be the mixers. (Didn't notice any protest from the PSA about all this, either).

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Heard that rumour that Walter Murphy's Salient article was better than his Listener effort? Salient will scoop the National press yet.

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Gordon Bick may be walking backwards for Xmas across the Tasman Sea—rumour is he's being recruited from Australia for NZUSA Congress.

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Notice that Dominion editorial the other day which said (inter alia) 'Mr Kirk is right' a revolution in journalistic history! Typical, though, that the DOMINION should finally take up the Labour Party when within two elections the Party will be dead.

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If You Heard about a case where a graduate was not allowed to sign letters, and had to give them all to a non-degreed superior to sign, would your union do anything? "No" said a PSA official recently. So if you do swing into that plush Bowcn State job, remember that a watchdog is watching you—the union, to see that you don't get uppity about your degree. The common workers don't have these advantages—and neither have quite a few PSA officials.