Author Archive

Māori politics – “don’t believe the hype”

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:42 am, January 24th, 2017 - 81 comments

Totally unexpected in an election year, but Te Ururoa Flavell is making a play for the Māori seats. Morgan Godfery has some thoughts on the hype.

Starting out with an obvious lie

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, January 23rd, 2017 - 195 comments

The Trump / Spicer claim that the inauguration crowds were “the largest audience ever to witness and inauguration, period” are such an obvious lie that it seems unhinged. But there could be method to the madness.

(Update: Apparently in Trump speak these are “alternative facts”.)

Predator free NZ – how are we doing?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:00 pm, January 20th, 2017 - 30 comments

It has been 6 months since the announcement that New Zealand would be predator free by 2050. But is sounds like nothing concrete has happened yet.

Dodgy foreign trusts – will English take action?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:43 am, January 19th, 2017 - 24 comments

Matt Nippert continued his excellent work on foreign trusts yesterday in The Herald. Will Bill English clean up the mess that John Key was determined to ignore?

How do we increase voter participation?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, January 17th, 2017 - 218 comments

Fewer people, particularly young people, are voting. How do we turn this around?

Oxfam on wealth inequality in NZ

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:32 am, January 16th, 2017 - 36 comments

Oxfam’s report on wealth inequality in NZ has some staggering headline numbers.

Spinning ‘social investment’

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:32 am, January 14th, 2017 - 54 comments

Bill English has co-opted the old term “social investment” to replace another old term “targeted welfare”. Simon Wilson (writing at The Spinoff) has bought into the spin and written a deeply confused piece about it.

100% Pure takes another hit

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:22 am, December 18th, 2016 - 85 comments

Stuff this morning: “Lord of the Rings actor says NZ tourists shocked by polluted ‘sewer’ Middle-earth”

What Paula is proud of

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:36 am, December 17th, 2016 - 76 comments

Apparently it’s “getting homeless people into homes”. Given the ongoing explosion of homelessness, just think how much scope she has to make herself proud next year…

“Social bonds” fail – blame the officials!

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 3:09 pm, December 16th, 2016 - 31 comments

A scapegoat for the failure of the Nats’ first “social bonds” programme has been found. Turns out it was the fault of government officials! Shocker!

Taxing multinationals

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:58 am, December 15th, 2016 - 53 comments

In March the Nats were still rejecting the idea of a crackdown on multinational companies’ tax avoidance. But there has been – in large part due to the work of Matt Nippert in The Herald – a partial back-down. Another Labour policy adopted!

This pattern of Kiwi’s exploiting migrants is shameful

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:17 am, December 14th, 2016 - 88 comments

A depressing feature in The Herald this morning explores the exploitation of migrant workers. The same pattern as the private sector’s treatment of foreign students. This paints a shameful picture of New Zealand. Greed has made us forget who we were.

Govt response to poverty report will tell us all we need to know about Bill English

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:04 am, December 13th, 2016 - 264 comments

The 2016 Child Poverty Monitor Technical Report is out today. As usual it paints a bleak picture. What will Bill English’s government do about poverty – evasions, words, or actions? Update: Bill fails.

Time for cross party accord on super

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 1:24 pm, December 12th, 2016 - 87 comments

English is not making the same stupid pledge as Key, to let superannuation consume the future. Time for a cross party accord. Take it off the table as a political football and solve the damn problem.

Out with the old – in with the old

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:18 am, December 12th, 2016 - 110 comments

Bye John, out with the old. And in with the old. Shortly the Nats will anoint the chosen one, Bill English. A pre-failed leader. Mr 21%. The greedy double dipper. The boring, conservative choice for a boring conservative party.

Hickey on surpluses and Key’s bullshit

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:17 am, December 4th, 2016 - 36 comments

Bernard Hickey: “It is extraordinary for the Prime Minister to call the Treasury’s short and long term forecasts a “load of nonsense” and yet rely on the medium term ones to promise all manner of riches to voters on the eve of an election.”

Labour landslide – media roundup

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 6:12 am, December 4th, 2016 - 169 comments

Audrey Young: “The Labour leader has described the win as ‘a bloody nose for National’. It is more like a bloody nose, a black eye and broken jaw.”

Update: As of 11am not a single story on Mt Roskill appears on the online front pages of either The Herald or Stuff. What a surprise!

Labour sticks to the high road

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:44 am, December 3rd, 2016 - 128 comments

As the confused media pile-on to Labour continues, it’s good to hear that the party is planning to stick to the high road.

Labour moving “too far to the left” – Andrew Little responds

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:02 am, December 2nd, 2016 - 264 comments

According some Legget guy that no one has ever heard of, Labour is moving “too far to the left”. Andrew Little responds, in the kind of unguarded human moment that we seldom see from our politicians.

Dire warnings of the bleeding obvious

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:57 am, December 1st, 2016 - 14 comments

Warnings from the government and the Reserve Bank that first home buyers are taking on too much debt. Prices are too high, wages are too low, interest rates are rising. These warnings are effectively telling the average first home buyer to give up.

Everyone has advice for Labour!

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:17 am, November 30th, 2016 - 148 comments

In which pundit r0b has a wee rant about media pundits. Yeah I know…

Housing “affordability” blowout

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:31 am, November 29th, 2016 - 9 comments

Andrew Little was on RNZ this morning talking housing affordability. “The amount people are having to borrow for their first home has increased 43 percent in the last two years.”

Child abuse and poverty – still with us

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:32 am, November 28th, 2016 - 33 comments

As topics like Trump and the quakes take the limelight, the slow tragedies unfolding in NZ carry on in the background.

Why no leftie fake news?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:11 am, November 28th, 2016 - 161 comments

Fake stories were widely shared by Trump fans before the election. Why is leftie / liberal fake news much rarer? A fake news writer explains.

Treasury predictions – not good

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:08 am, November 27th, 2016 - 66 comments

Brian Fallow in The Herald summarises the take-home messages from the latest Treasury report. National have us on track to disaster.

Audrey Young on resurgent unions

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:39 am, November 26th, 2016 - 13 comments

Audrey Young writes on growing union numbers, strengths, and wins for their members. Excellent!

National better late than never on pay equity

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:04 am, November 26th, 2016 - 5 comments

A 2015 court decision forced National’s hand on pay equity. This week the equity working group reported back. To its credit National is accepting the recommendations, and unions are hailing a big win. But the final form of any law is not yet clear.

What skills do we need in the age of fake news?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:19 am, November 23rd, 2016 - 131 comments

Revelations surrounding the role of fake news in the American election have been stunning. And the critical thinking skills that democracy needs to survive this trend are under attack in our education system.