It appears that an Australian union clique has almost singlehandedly (it has had some help from Helen Kelly of the CTU in New Zealand) destroyed New Zealand's film industry. It seems that The Hobbit will be lost to New Zealand and will now be made offshore. But this is not a one-off--New Zealand has now been branded as a risky place to make films.
A press release by Peter Jackson says it all.
"WELLINGTON – Thursday, 21 October 2010
The lifting of the blacklist on The Hobbit does nothing to help the films stay in New Zealand. The damage inflicted on our film industry by NZ Equity/MEAA is long since done.
Next week Warners are coming down to NZ to make arrangements to move the production off-shore. It appears we now cannot make films in our own country - even when substantial financing is available.
The spectacle of NZ Actors’ Equity suddenly cancelling their Wellington meeting, because film workers wanted to express to them their concern at losing The Hobbit, exemplifies the pure gutlessness of this small, self-centred group. They don’t appear to care about the repurcussions (sic) of their actions on others, nor are they prepared to take responsibility for decisions made in their name. NZ Equity constantly refer to ‘good faith’ discussions but they have never acted in good faith towards our film.
Four weeks ago NZ Equity (the local actors' union), represented by the Australian trade union, the MEAA, urged several international actor's unions to gang up on our production in an attempt to bully us into illegal collective bargaining. MEAA's representative, Simon Whipp, admitted in a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, that it was his intention to use The Hobbit as a way to 'unionise other productions' in the New Zealand film industry - presumably whether we want it or not. This unilateral decision, made by an off shore union, we assume with Equity's blessing, is the reason why our film industry is now in dire jeopardy.
NZ Equity's unjustified industrial action against The Hobbit has undermined Warner Bro’s confidence in New Zealand as a stable employment environment, and they are now, quite rightly, very concerned about the security of their $500m investment. Unfortunately lifting the blacklist does nothing to help the situation. This will be the start of a domino effect, as word of NZ's unstable employment environment, registers with film investors and studios, world-wide.
Nobody denies Equity's right to represent their group of actors, but incredibly, this industrial action was taken without consultation with their own membership. These clumsy, heavy-handed tactics have put at risk the livelihoods of thousands of workers and jeopardized a potential investment of a billion plus dollars into the NZ economy.Seemingly overnight, NZ Actors’ Equity shredded the reputation of a burgeoning industry, which has been over forty years in the making.
Remarks on television by Helen Kelly of the CTU, demonstrated a total lack of understanding of the film industry. Nothing she had to say about The Hobbit and film financing was remotely factual. Why she has suddenly become the NZ Equity spokesperson is unclear, it appears to be a case of the blind being lead by the even-more-blind.
We will continue the fight to keep the film in NZ, but ultimately this decision belongs to Warner Bro’s. We are however, hugely heartened by the incredible show of support from Wellington actors, technicians and crew. It is a reflection of the terrific pride NZ film workers have in their industry and their very real fear of losing their jobs. " (Hat Tip: Keeping Stock)
Unions would rather destroy every shred of commercial success than relinquish their madcap and destructive marxist class warfare. The Hobbit, and all the thousands of New Zealand working people that would have benefited from it being produced here are just so much cannon fodder. Kelly has shown herself not just to be incompetent, but ignorant of how commerce works in the world. She is so insular it is frightening.
We could not help laughing cynically as her feeble attempt at blameshifting: the reason we are losing The Hobbit, she suggested, was that Warners had found plenty of other jurisdictions where the level of government support was far higher than our own. And therein lies a tale. If only the government would use more tax payers' money subsidising the film, we could have retained it--implied Kelly. In other words, Actors Equity blackmail should be easily offset by government largesse to Warners, with our money. Sub-text: the gummint is to blame.
The tale turns cautionary when we consider that film has been a state subsidised, government picked winner from the get-go. The original idealistic idea was that the government would "seed" the industry; it would build itself into a centre of global excellence, then it would go from strength to strength without state support. Kelly and her ilk want it permanently on the taxpayer teat. They need it there so that the class warfare warriors can continue their fight. The caution in the tale is this: industries that require state subsidisation to get off the ground will never be allowed to stand on their own feet. There will always be too many greedy envious snouts in the trough.
One wonders how long working people will allow themselves to be sacrificed as cannon fodder in unionist ante-diluvian class warfare.
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