Little if any I'm thinking...  You've got an organisation that is old and proud that has not been upfront with it's members i.e. Master Plumbers - who have shares and at least partial ownership of three training companies - how are they ever going to be impartial in any argument about the benefits of the current CPD regime when they want to feed off the profits.  So while hailing the benefits of having an upskilled industry they are leaning around to your back pocket and helping themselves to your wallet.  Is this why there is a rift between MP and certain suppliers?  Suppliers who won't allow MP to solely deliver their upskilling becasue they want to make it free for all plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers?

We have suppliers working against their customers - lobbying the minister for compulsory upskilling (some of which was done at MP behest) - and working against us, their customers - the people who pay good money for their products and then have to PAY for the privilege of listening to them market their products under the guise of an upskilling programme.  Some add insult to injury by teaching you how to do stuff a first year apprentice can do.

On top of this we have a Minister who is like the "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" monkey - who will not front, and when he does recycles the same rhetoric that all he can do is hire and fire the PGDB members - which is has been doing as a nauseating speed - all with little effect.  Oh, let's not forget the mighty Output agreement he has with the Board which they, and the Minister (along with their chums at Master Plumbers) think they are making great progress on. (Contd next post)


Linkback: https://www.plumbers.nz/master-plumbers/66/what-hope-is-there-for-a-united-industry/765/

Finally - just so this post doesn't end on a negative - I think we all need to get in behind the Petition for a Commission of Enquiry into this industry as soon as it comes off the presses.  I think this call should go across the barriers - it shouldn't matter if we are Master Plumber members, Federation Members, Certifiers, Licensed, Trainees or just interested in this industry.  Your families should sign it, your neighbours, your friends, your staff, their families, neighbours and friends - let's get the signatures and present it on the steps of Parliament to let Government know, once and for all, it's time to have fairness, equality and transparency in this industry, it's time to stop raping and pillaging practitioners, it's time to have a transparent training regime, a transparent system for charging and some common sense when it comes to requirements for licensing and discipline.  Maybe it's time to do away with the PGDB all together - or maybe it's time they were restructured.  Maybe it's time the Minister stopped hiding and actually fronted - and stopped wafting his output agreement like it was the sword of Joan of Arc - and maybe, just maybe it's time that pigs flew...

hi guys/jax, you are right,who is running this petition. I like the bit about `Joan of Arc` we all know what hppened to her, i bet hazel armstrong did`nt realize that the `output agreement` with the minister was her getting replaced on the board,cheers

JD - at a local level you couldn't get a better bunch of guys as Master Plumber colleagues.  I carefully separate my atittude to my local association from the politicking at head office level.   MP does do a lot for its members - but politically I do not agree with the stance they have taken on a number of things.  I am ashamed that Paul Gee was left in the cold by this organisation - I am shocked that MP owns CPD Ltd and its generaly membership I believe have no idea - I am also shocked that MP has lobbied suppliers to lobby the Minister around CPD and the RRC - and that they cannot see that flashed up sales courses for suppliers is not true upskilling.   The average MP member probably disassociates themselves from the head office goings on and just gets about his business, talks to his local colleagues who are usually to be counted on 100% and feels powerless about the high cost of running his business in regards to anything the PGDB do. 

hi guys/barry, i hope you are right. `The PGDB was under extreme pressure to prove they controlled the industry` where did this pressure come from and why? they should be held responsible and exposed,cheers

hi guys, yes Barry Minister Williamson only announced in parliment recently that he had an output agreement with Hazel Armstrong, then in the next breath he replaced her,cheers

Impartiality is not a word that appears to be understood, believe me I been there Jax, I got the tee shirt........... and the bloody photos, its laughable when you go through it all, thinking of writting a book about my experiences, thinking of calling it..... COWBOYS AND IDIOTS, What do you think, a best seller , ITS A BLACK COMEDY

hi guys, this is from the Nelson Mail. The former boss of embattled Takaka plumber and gasfitter Paul Gee has been found guilty of faulty work practices on a number of properties in the Nelson region, which placed public safety at "significant risk".

Mr Gee said yesterday he was "fuming" but not surprised that his former boss John Darnley was found to have broken industry laws, but it proves he was right in trying to warn the industry of wrongdoing. He was not sure if it bodes well for his appeal against two industry charges of which he too was found guilty.

The Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board said in a decision issued yesterday that it had found that Mr Darnley breached the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Act (1976) when he carried out gasfitting work on four properties in the Nelson area between 2003 and 2005.

He was found to have caused a "significant health and safety risk to the public" in relation to work carried out on the four properties and has been fined $1800 and ordered to pay $8780 in costs.

Mr Darnley, who now lives in Waikanae, said he was appealing the decision which he described as "completely ridiculous".

You can read it all in the Nelson Mail on the net: