Matt McCarten: It's the Nats' birthday - so how about some presents for the workers?

Congratulations to the National Party on their 70th birthday this week. Their leader is about the same age as I recall. But as seems obvious from Don Brash's missteps this week, it won't be long before he gets his retirement watch. But let's not talk about that on their birthday.

A friend of mine who is in the National Party went to her local branch meeting to celebrate. The gathered stalwarts were dished up cheap plonk and lukewarm sausage rolls and endured a meandering speech from their local MP. The highlight was when a 90-year-old life member told the gathering that she had joined the party when it formed to meet a prospective husband. She never did get married, so she obviously has standards. Then the chatter among the oldies turned to reminiscing about the good old days when National was the natural ruling party and Labour was the Queen's loyal opposition. There were no other pesky parties in Parliament and you certainly never needed to share power. There was a collective sigh at their loss.

Their fond memories aren't quite the same as mine. I was raised, like most New Zealanders, to see the Nats as the party of farmers and bosses and the Labour Party as the party for workers. I've always thought of the Nats as very class conscious. I've always been impressed by their determination to represent their class interests whenever they got into power. I'd have to concede that they are far more loyal to their constituency than Labour ever is.

The birth, in 1936, of our modern National Party was in direct response to Labour's electoral rout of the Reform and United parties. The seeming threat of socialism, yes, Labour really was a proud left party then, mobilised employers to force the right-wing parties to form the National Party. It took 14 long years before they regained government, but then wasted no time in showing their anti-worker agenda.

In 1951 the National Government went into a conspiracy with the port owners to destroy the watersiders' union. Once the bosses got the sign-off from the Nats they made a series of deliberate provocative demands to their workers. When the workers couldn't immediately agree to these ultimatums the bosses locked them out of their jobs. In probably the worst misuse of state power in this country, the Nats passed laws that these workers were to receive no state support in any form and made it a crime, punishable by jail, if anyone gave any help whatsoever to them or their families. The Nats made membership of their union illegal and by legislation created a government-sponsored scab union. Thousands of police were put on the streets to follow these workers. They arrested any citizens who gave them or their starving children food. The media were censored by the state. Several people who tried to put the workers' side of the story went to prison. One old watersider told me that they used to print their leaflets in a city cemetery at night but got caught when the coppers heard the clanking of their printing machine. After 151 days the workers inevitably collapsed before this onslaught. Many were blacklisted by employers and were never able to work in New Zealand again. Workers should never forget the role of the Nats in this shameful episode. Mind you, Labour weren't much better, claiming at the time they were "neither for nor against the workers". No wonder Labour stayed out of power for years.

Wayne Mapp's Bill to permit employers to arbitrarily sack any new worker in their first 90 days of employment merely reflects the long history of National's anti-worker actions. I can't think of one single benefit for workers ever supported by National. In fact every attack on workers' rights has come from National. Workers that vote National obviously don't read history.

But to be fair, the Nats have never pretended to be anything but pro-boss and conservative on any matter.

For example, in the 1960s they sent more than 50 young New Zealanders to their deaths in Vietnam to support United States' interference in a national liberation war. In the 1970s they sent thousands of police to arrest Maori who were "occupying" their own land at Bastion Pt. It took Labour to set up the Waitangi Tribunal to get justice for people who had their land pinched. In the 1980s the Nats supported apartheid and called Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Shamefully they won an election on the backs of the 1981 Springbok Tour. When Mandela visited New Zealand it was hard to keep a straight face when the National Cabinet ministers lined up to fawn over the great one. Remember in the 1980s when the whole country thought supporting nuclear weapons of mass destruction was an insane idea? The Nats still insisted on having nuclear warships come visit us. I was particularly amused when the National Party leader at the time referred to anti-nuclear opponents as criminals.

In the 1990s they really came into their own by skimming a billion dollars off poor beneficiaries and using it to bail out a bank. Then, just to ensure we were under no illusion over what side they were on, the Nats changed employment laws to give all workers "choice". Since then, workers' incomes have dropped by almost a third in real terms while private profits have soared.

But let's not be churlish. It's the National Party's 70th birthday. It's time for giving presents. But could I suggest they could give workers a real birthday treat and retire?