Written By: - Date published: 12:48 pm, May 27th, 2012 - No comments
A couple of good BBC articles: what have the Romans done for us? and can we have a society that doesn’t depend on us becoming ill with our fatness? And Kim Hill’s excellent interviewee Steve Keen.
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 pm, May 25th, 2012 - 35 comments
This afternoon a couple of ‘hidden treasures’ have come out of the budget. In changes not announced, but discovered 1122 teachers could be losing their jobs and changes are being made to the assets old people are allowed to keep once in residential care. Sneaky, Bill, sneaky…
Written By: - Date published: 1:58 pm, May 25th, 2012 - 4 comments
The 3 most expensive items in the Budget: 1. $10.24 billion: Superannuation, 2. $3.69 billion: Debt Servicing, 3. $3.32 billion: National Land Transport Agency (Roads of National Signficance etc) – up $334 million. National are prepared to sack teachers, raise prescription costs and pick paperboy’s pockets to defend their roads that make no economic sense.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 pm, May 23rd, 2012 - 32 comments
So Key is ‘surprised’ that David Shearer, the local member for Eden Park, accepted tickets to a local game, and doesn’t feel beholden to corporate interests? He can accept hospitality and still criticise a company is somehow shocking? I think this tells us more about John, than it surprises the rest of us about David…
Written By: - Date published: 4:34 pm, May 23rd, 2012 - 8 comments
Bill English has introduced a number of stealth taxes over his time in office, to partly balance the loss his tax cuts for the rich has generated. The latest in this budget will be prescription costs and raising the price of Early Childhood Education (again). We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if …
Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, May 22nd, 2012 - 16 comments
The government has correctly bowed to pressure and banned foreign-flagged fishing boats from operating in our waters.
We don’t have too many posts praising this government, and to have 2 today may surprise some. But credit where it’s due.
Written By: - Date published: 5:27 pm, May 17th, 2012 - 41 comments
John Key is doing his best to keep poor people from coming to his electorate. Whilst it’s not like he visits there often himself, he’s still aiming to keep poor people committing the “economic vandalism” of living in a nice suburb – where apparently only the rich should reside.
Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, May 10th, 2012 - 73 comments
Here’s a quick way to reduce your carbon footprint: don’t have kids and save 80 years worth of human greenhouse gas output per child… This is my Voluntary Human Extinction Movement post.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, May 9th, 2012 - 37 comments
The government has a $1.8 billion income shortfall. But it’s alright, it’s not their fault… Their policies don’t affect the economy. Unless they need to take credit. 6.7% unemployment? Nothing to do with us, and nothing to do with our tax shortfall…
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 pm, May 8th, 2012 - 83 comments
At first glance it seems strange to have Sue Bradford, a former Green MP, against what is a very ‘green’ policy – free contraception. But she has a point when she talks about beneficiaries feeling forced into sterility they don’t want. Meanwhile, what’s with the right’s obsession with targeting women having babies while on a benefit?
Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, May 3rd, 2012 - 28 comments
The unemployment rate has jumped to 6.7%, as National delivered only 20,000 of the 36,000 jobs promised last budget. Last quarter there were 12,000 more jobless.
Where’s our recovery John? Have you sold that off too?
Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, May 2nd, 2012 - 15 comments
A very interesting article on the BBC – the financial formula that ruined the world. Well, that’s a bit sensationalist, but it’s a formula that allowed intuition to be taken out of “options” trading and computers to move in. And with the “understanding” of the maths of futures there was a move into more and …
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, May 2nd, 2012 - 25 comments
For the first time under this National government, average wages and salaries actually rose (2%) faster than inflation (1.6%), so in the last year people are ever so slightly better off – I think congratulations are in order!
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, April 19th, 2012 - 5 comments
Join the Hikoi against Asset Sales, 24 April – 4 May. If you’re anywhere near Auckland on Saturday 28 April, be at Britomart 3pm to send a message against this Government’s Asset Sales.
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, April 18th, 2012 - 5 comments
Despite 22 member states signing the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement, the EU’s parliament is looking like it might reject the treaty on the grounds of it curtailing civil liberties. The EU’s first rapporteur MP on the treaty resigned in protest at the plans. The second has now reported back: “The intended benefits of this international agreement are far outweighed by the potential threats to civil liberties.”
Written By: - Date published: 5:14 pm, April 16th, 2012 - 276 comments
A day after a Sunday Star Times piece about how racism is getting worse in New Zealand comes the apparent proof.
Written By: - Date published: 12:36 pm, April 13th, 2012 - 43 comments
When even your friends are telling you you’ve got it wrong, it’s time to reconsider. So Bill: the Employers Union (EMA) and Family First want Paid Parental leave. It’s not too expensive, it’s back by all childcare experts, and the cost is even delayed. Just do it.
Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, April 10th, 2012 - 133 comments
Sue Moroney’s 6 months of Paid Parental Bill looks like being a second Labour private member’s bill that will proceed against National’s wishes.
Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, April 9th, 2012 - 112 comments
If everyone earned the same amount (including babies) across the entire world, we’d each get about $USD10,000 each. So a family of four anywhere in the world would get about $NZD49,000. That figure makes world poverty pretty hard to stomach. It’s not that there’s not enough in this world – only that some people haven’t learnt to share.
Written By: - Date published: 6:34 am, April 2nd, 2012 - 273 comments
Bernard Hickey has a great piece in the Herald on Sunday that you shouldn’t miss.
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, March 30th, 2012 - 42 comments
Judith Collins is suing Radio NZ for airing 2 Labour MPs defamation. The taxpayer will be paying her costs, Radio NZ’s costs and the court costs. Oh, and should Collins win? The taxpayer will pay any settlement…
Written By: - Date published: 4:16 pm, March 29th, 2012 - 12 comments
Bill English and Treasury adopted a “see no evil, hear no evil” approach to the Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme. And it’s cost us $2 billion. The Deputy Auditor General has delivered a damning report on a ministry used to judging others, not suffering any oversight itself…
Written By: - Date published: 4:56 pm, March 26th, 2012 - 13 comments
It appears there is something irresistible about travelling with the PM. While the fact that only 2 news organisations can send a journalist to cover our leader’s involvement in a 54 nation conference is disappointing, so is the fact that being part of that cosy group travelling with JK makes everyone a bit too matey.
Written By: - Date published: 3:54 pm, March 26th, 2012 - 45 comments
The ever-diplomatic Gerry Brownlee has got New Zealand coverage in the European press. In an effort to try and score a point against David Shearer the former woodwork teacher called the country with the best education system in the world “uneducated,” and claimed that an economy with higher GDP per capita and faster growth than …
Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, March 22nd, 2012 - 14 comments
John Key was busy last night working for the causes of Aussie miner Bathurst, “officiating” at the opening of their lobbying office, and pressuring DoC to give them concessions to the Denniston plateau and help them destroy a unique ecosystem. How much more of him can NZ’s “clean, green” image take?
Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, March 14th, 2012 - 6 comments
Emergency Council Meetings, mediation, court action – the fight continues on a number of fronts. But at the core of the dispute is the SuperCity structure National set up – to give Council company boards free-rein, and democratically elected members no say.
Written By: - Date published: 4:29 pm, March 7th, 2012 - 10 comments
With Super Tuesday closing inconclusively in the US Republican Party Presidential Nominee race, here’s a chance to laugh at the contenders…
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 pm, February 16th, 2012 - 46 comments
“The idea that ultimately the poor must help themselves as social mobility grinds to a halt is illogical; it is based on a faith for which there is scant evidence. Yet it is the one thing that has genuinely ‘trickled down’ from the wealthy, so that many people without much themselves continue to despise those who are on a lower rung.”
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 am, February 9th, 2012 - 186 comments
It’s slipped down the news agenda but is about to come back up it: The Ports of Auckland Dispute. Tony Gibson is wasting our money on his union-busting campaign that will result in reduced profits for ratepayers. Sign up to make him see sense.
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, February 8th, 2012 - 66 comments
Shame you couldn’t raise it to a living one though. The working poor will appreciate the extra $1000 per year coming this April, but it still won’t cover their bills…
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