Gerry and the film-makers – or how to grovel to keep The Hobbit from emigrating

Betcha Gerry will come up with a bigger subsidy if I threaten to stick this up him.

Size does matter, of course, and if you are big enough you can get the Key cabinet to turn all sorts of tricks for you.

Especially when Hollywood movie moguls are involved, Alf’s Nat mates are eager to perform – and to please.

Want new labour laws?

Yep. We can fix it.

Want bigger subsidies?

Yep. We can fix that too.

Another bum decision

The bundle of measures to help business people announced yesterday will be welcomed, except by constant carpers such as Labour Party MPs. But there are other things the Government could – and should – be doing.

Take a bloody hard look at the Employment Relations Tribunal for example.

Alf is no longer surprised by the daft decisions emerging from the tribunal. But he does despair at its namby-pamby view of our labour laws.

The latest – according to the Fairfax newspapers – is a ruling that when you tell your boss to “stick his job up his arse”, you are not necessarily telling him to stick his job up his arse because you are quitting.