Testing times for Little . . . and the party faithful

At first blush, Labour leader Andrew Little appeared to come over all Britney Spears with a “oops I did it again moment” when he was asked about his position on 90-day trials during a policy announcement at an engineering firm in Upper Hutt.

In the past, Labour has dubbed the law the ‘Fire at Will’ law and included its repeal in its first 100 days plan for the last election. Yet Little said the trial period would stay but changed to make it fairer.

There were gasps of horror at such sacrilege, not only from a Labour leader but a former union head to boot.

His first oops was back in May when Little mused about means testing superannuation, targeting workers aged over 65 who were also getting super. Within hours, Little had withdrawn and we were solemnly told that despite him talking about it at some length, it had never happened, there was nothing to see, and please move on.

Now we have the 90 days stuff. Labour is still in the throes of a broad-sweeping policy review. As a result, Little has little by way of concrete policy to talk about, beyond a provisional tax announcement and its 2014 policy to restrict foreign property ownership. Beyond that the only policy that has emerged has been the kind that appears to comes off the hoof.

The difference between means testing super and 90 days is that he has not backed off on the latter. Instead he has engaged in word games. He won’t specify exactly how far he will go to make them “fairer”, including whether he will introduce rights to sue for unfair dismissal.

But he has assured small business his fairness changes won’t be overly onerous, and he is well aware that the aspect of the trials that endears them to small business is that they don’t get caught up in employment action. He is now talking about merging the best bits of the trial period and separate probationary periods which are a long-standing feature in labour laws and carry the right to take action for unjustified dismissal.

The trade unions whose votes got him into the leadership issued a please explain. Young Labour tweeted outrage, and one person on Labour’s Te Kaunihera Maori group tweeted Little had assured him directly that Labour did still intend to repeal the 90-day law. Little later denied he had given any such assurance.

Confusion thrives in a vacuum. National is accusing him of saying different things to different people. He appears to be heading towards the same pickle his predecessor David Cunliffe got in after delivering a speech full of union rhetoric and reform promises to the Council of Trade Unions soon after he became leader, only to emerge to tell media all those promises had a silent asterisk appended: *if finances allow.

Little is putting considerable effort into trying to persuade small business that he is no union stooge and to listen to what Labour has to say. One of the few policies Labour has announced related to provisional tax to ease the burden for small business. Labour is also hosting social events to which business people are invited to meet Labour MPs. Asked about the vote by councils to try to ban smoking outside bars and pubs, Little said that would be going too far and added that for some having a smoke after a drink was “one of life’s little pleasures”. Labour is after all a party forged in smoko rooms.

Little does not want ‘Labour will scrap 90-day trials’ to be first thing those small businesses hear him saying. There is a risk it will also be the last thing they hear him say, prompting them to simply put their earplugs in again and write off Labour for another term.

Seven months into his leadership, Little appears to have taken inspiration from the Book of Job and decided to test the faith of his followers by putting through a series of tests. The means testing of super (briefly), the 90-days trials, and the Chinese surname property investor palaver which came as a shock to many Labour supporters, given the party had always made much of the need to embrace diversity.

Wherever Little is taking Labour it is not back into the realms of shower heads, identity politics and political correctness. Little is showing a pragmatic streak. In doing so, Little is asking the party membership to trust him. It could be asking too much. But just as Key did back in 2008 by agreeing to keep Working for Families and interest-free student loans, Little has to hope his followers have robust enough digestion tracts to cope with a few dead rats.