Author Archive
On Democracy
Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, August 14th, 2012 - 97 comments
KJT defends the principle of Democracy against the same old arguments. Most of the objections apply to any system which allows the public a say in Government. As again we have the party in Government telling us, “We won the election. We can do whatever we want. A dictatorship.
Darkhorse: The answers are simple the solutions are complex
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, August 13th, 2012 - 133 comments
Darkhorse writes amazingly insightful economic pieces on his ‘How Daft’ blog (the title gives you a clue as to what he thinks of the current state of affairs). The neoliberal experiment has been an abject failure by any rational measure. And there are alternatives. Darkhorse has given us permission to syndicate his posts, the originals are here.
Just a domestic?
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, July 25th, 2012 - 11 comments
It’s been 16 years since Susan Snively’s ground-breaking report on the economic cost of domestic violence in New Zealand. In 1996 the prevalence rate of domestic violence was estimated at 1 in 7 people – 301,691, including 129,556 children – with an economic cost of $1.2 billion annually. In addition 40% of all homicides were the result of domestic disputes.
Newsflash: Parker not secret reptilian shape-shifter
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, July 25th, 2012 - 49 comments
There’s been some talk around the ‘sphere about a speech where David Parker made comments that some (*cough* Chris ‘the Right’s favourite Leftie’ Trotter *cough*) thought meant he supported asset sales. That obviously caused confusion because Parker and Labour are clearly against asset sales. Now, someone’s taken the innovative step of asking Parker what he meant (spoiler: it’s not what Trotter thought).
Above the law
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, July 24th, 2012 - 38 comments
Ha ha ha! Wasn’t it funny when Judith Collins brandished a TASER at the National Party conference and said she wanted to use it on Trevor Mallard. I guess it’s alright for me to whip out an airgun or a knife next time I’m at the pub. You know, as a joke. Oh? It’s only OK when Ministers are using to further their phony tough guy brand? Must have missed that section of the Arms Act.
An Auckland view on Labour’s changes
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, July 20th, 2012 - 75 comments
Here’s a guest post from an Auckland Labour Party member with a different take on the constitutional changes. It’s interesting and challenging. Good food for thought. – Let us consider Labour’s proposed constitutional reforms in its moment. New Zealand’s progressives continue to splinter, just as conservative variation contracts. As the progressives splinter, they are also […]
What does Key’s promise mean?
Written By: - Date published: 6:11 pm, July 19th, 2012 - 49 comments
Key is already qualifying a promise he’s made on Maori water rights. Does the promise mean anything at all?
Questions on Labour leadership selection reform
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, July 12th, 2012 - 13 comments
Seeing coverage of the apparently unhurried steps towards Labour party members having a say in future leadership bids made me want to stop and ask some questions about whether they are telling the full story.
Katherine Rich on the Health Promotion Board: The next outrageous piece of Nat cronyism
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, June 28th, 2012 - 50 comments
Putting the CEO of the leading lobbying agency and industry promotional group for companies promoting sales of sugar, fat and alcohol on the Board of the public health agency supposed to prevent harm to young NZers is an outrageous act of cronyism.
Why are the fish dying, King Salmon?
Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, June 14th, 2012 - 21 comments
No-one seems to know why the fish keep dying at King Salmon’s Waihinau farm in Pelorus Sound – or if they do they aren’t telling us. Maybe it had something to do with stuffing tens of thousands of these fish into an environment that is nothing like they have evolved to deal with. It is interesting that this has not been offered up as a potential cause.
People make a mess
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, June 6th, 2012 - 15 comments
Like the character, Nick Taylor, in the movie, ‘Thank You For Smoking’, self-styled “Oil lobbyist”, David Robinson is a highly paid apologist for the fossil fuel lobby. But even he says he wouldn’t want fracking in his neighbourhood.
Why we should save TVNZ7
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, May 16th, 2012 - 36 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, May 15th, 2012 - 21 comments
A short, poignant guest post.
Teenage dreams
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, May 10th, 2012 - 56 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, May 8th, 2012 - 23 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, May 6th, 2012 - 59 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, April 30th, 2012 - 46 comments
United Future are polling the public about their support for partial privatisation. Will Peter Dunne heed his own poll?
The Gisborne rail line
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, April 25th, 2012 - 42 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, April 24th, 2012 - 52 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, April 23rd, 2012 - 190 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, April 12th, 2012 - 43 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, April 5th, 2012 - 16 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 pm, April 3rd, 2012 - 100 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, April 1st, 2012 - 28 comments
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?
Written By: - Date published: 2:27 pm, March 25th, 2012 - 15 comments
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
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, March 21st, 2012 - 15 comments
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.
Speak out for the last 55 Maui’s dolphins
Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, March 19th, 2012 - 30 comments
With just a few clicks of your mouse you can help send a message to the government in support of helping the world’s rarest dolphin – our own Maui’s dolphins.
King salmon, stealing our future
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, March 19th, 2012 - 26 comments
Imagine taking your children down to the park to find an overseas had set up a dairy farm in one corner. The shit builds up and flows onto the playground. You complain, but are told the farm is under no obligation to treat or retain their waste and the council has no powers to do anything about it. That’s what’s happening with aquaculture thanks to the EPA.
Lamington’s Stupidity (and why I hate the rent-a-crowd)
Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, March 10th, 2012 - 86 comments
I’m no fan of the people who threw the Lamington at Len Brown. They are the same crew who waltz into every social movement in Auckland, suck the life out of it and move on. But the only winner out of this lamington incident was the Port’s board and the (I’m sure) the self-image of the egotistical morons who threw it. It cost the Maritime Union. It belittled those of us who are infuriated at the Mayor’s response. And it was just plain stupid.
Labour’s diminishing vision
Written By: - Date published: 1:04 pm, March 9th, 2012 - 90 comments
Our Labour activist guest poster asks where the coherence is in Labour’s communications strategy. Having a look at the lack of narrative across the Labour parties here, in Australia, and in the UK; he points to a place where narrative is done well in left politics – it is in the USA.
Women kept out of the boardroom
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 pm, March 8th, 2012 - 19 comments
Stuff has a report telling us what we already know: an old boys’ network keeps women out of the boardroom in Australia and New Zealand. This clubbiness is just one of the reasons we’re such an unequal country. A small network of white middle-class males appoint each other to the boards of their companies, then set each other’s pay
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