The Standard » Guest post

Why we should save TVNZ7

Guest post — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:19:34 +0000

TVNZ7, in its current form, will stop broadcasting on the 30th of June and will be changed to a plus one channel along the same lines as TV3 Plus One. Now I don’t know about you, but I could live without seeing another repeat of Come Dine with Me.

Life is what happens

Guest post — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:03:13 +0000

A short, poignant guest post.

Teenage dreams

Guest post — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:59:37 +0000

With the debate raging about free contraception for women and their teenage daughters, inevitably the conclusion is that irresponsible teenager girls are making poor decisions. Why do they get pregnant? That’s the easy part - teens not using contraception, of course. Why teenage pregnancy is an intractable problem is a much more complex question.

You can’t fix what is not broken – no need to change university councils

Guest post — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:45:50 +0000

Dr Sandra Grey from the Tertiary Education Union has a look at Stephen Joyce's proposals to changing the governance of tertiary education institutions. She suggests that he has a look at what happened in the changes to the polytechs in 2009. And also points out that his proposals don't follow what is known about good governance for universities.

But it has been apparent to readers here that Joyce prefers to be a fiddler rather than being effective..

House Price Inflation

Guest post — Sat, 05 May 2012 22:58:53 +0000

Land prices rising much faster than wages. Shares, derivatives, hedge funds or other financial instruments are designed so that banks can gamble with our money. Win or lose they always get a cut. Loss comes out of our pensions and other savings. Or, if they really stuff it up, taxpayers are expected to borrow more from them to pay for it. Banks following their own self interest and are compounding economies to oblivion. The "invisible hand" has failed..

Will Dunne heed his own poll on asset sales?

Guest post — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:48:03 +0000

United Future are polling the public about their support for partial privatisation. Will Peter Dunne heed his own poll?

The Gisborne rail line

Guest post — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:19:39 +0000

Zetetic's recent post on the Gisborne rail line generated a lot of comment. A week later a final comment was added - it deserves a wider audience...

The lucky ticket

Guest post — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:56:30 +0000

By popular acclaim we're putting this comment by rosy up as a Guest Post. Rosy describes success in life by analogy to winning various divisions of lotto...

What is neoliberalism?

Guest post — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:17:25 +0000

KJT offers a welcome refresher on the dominant economic/political ideology of our time. The one that has lead us to where we are today: Neo-Liberalism is a moral and intellectual justification for greed. A way for those few who accumulate wealth, by impoverishing many, to justify themselves, and keep those they are stealing from docile and compliant.

Ounce of prevention, pound of cure etc etc

Guest post — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:11:25 +0000

Vetoing extra paid parental leave doesn't make social sense and it doesn't make economic sense either.

Which is why National have said they'll do it.

King Salmon hand out

Guest post — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:27:22 +0000

MrSmith looks at the massive expansion of aquaculture in the Marlborough Sounds that King Salmon is planning, aided and abetted by National's 'Environmental Protection' Agency. King Salmon got a public hand-out when it was having trouble selling its product but now it wants more public property to make more salmon, the public gets no voice.

New record set in ironic racism

Guest post — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:35:09 +0000

The good people of Devonport are outraged, just outraged, about the Waitangi settlement that will see Maori moving in next door.

Queen of Thorns has more...

On incompetent management

Guest post — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:03:07 +0000

Once upon a time, decades ago now, ports were run by a person called the Harbourmaster. He used to be a highly qualified and experienced Master Mariner, who had extensive knowledge of shipping and decades of experience, at sea and within the port. All this competence and experience came at a wage, at most, five times the average wage.

The real agenda at PoAL?

Guest post — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 01:27:28 +0000

Keeping PoAL workers out makes no sense industrially.

It means the port's taking a political and PR hit without even gaining some cleared containers.

But perhaps getting the port making money isn't the endgame for this dispute...

The real Nick Smith scandal

Guest post — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 02:00:33 +0000

It's a shame Nick Smith is all over the political news at the moment for his ACC botch up because he should really be all over the news for his Better Local Government proposals. Saying "Rates are too high. They keep rising. It's outrageous" isn't enough. Kneecapping local governments' autonomy, and slowly bleeding them of the ability to invest money in anything cannot be unchallenged.