Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, May 24th, 2012 - 48 comments
As expected Bill English has served up a budget with no greater focus than reducing a government deficit that really doesn’t matter much at all.
Of course he’s doing this at the expense of a whole lot of things that do matter – our kids’ education, our families’ health, our retirements.
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, May 20th, 2012 - 37 comments
Not content with selling your assets off, National has put aside $120,000,000 of your money to tell you that you should like it.
And, just to add more salt to the wound, Bill English has described the cost as “low by market standards”.
Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, May 15th, 2012 - 125 comments
Remember when John Key said he’d love to see wages drop? Yep? How about when Bill English claimed our low wages were our competitive advantage. Uh-huh.
Well the changes they’re bringing in to undermine working Kiwis’ bargaining power will do exactly that.
Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, May 11th, 2012 - 54 comments
The tories are all puffed up about finally getting their secret ballot law passed. It’s about freedom they say, they’re on the side of the working man.
Thing is it’s not. And they most certainly aren’t.
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, April 28th, 2012 - 208 comments
It’s been revealed that Banks took fifty thousand dollars for his campaign from Kim Dotcom. Given the subsequent furore around Dotcom, the would be slightly embarrassing in its own right but it’s been considerably exacerbated by the fact it came in two separate payments – as requested by Banks so he could keep the donation anonymous.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, April 27th, 2012 - 188 comments
Remember way back when the government were changing the law to take rights off film workers and increase tax breaks for Warners? It was all about keeping Kiwi jobs they said.
Well it turns out that at the same time they were doing this they were also making promises to Peter Jackson that those Kiwi jobs would be given to imported workers.
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, April 21st, 2012 - 94 comments
If anything has marked John Key’s tenure as PM it’s his use of his personal brand to run his cabinet.
But what happens to his control as that brand runs out of steam?
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 pm, April 19th, 2012 - 69 comments
Alistair Cameron is heavily tipped to become Labour’s Chief of Staff. That’s a change that would signal even bigger change to come.
Let’s hope that bigger change is done openly and with party members’ input.
Written By: - Date published: 6:43 pm, April 12th, 2012 - 114 comments
Ports of Auckland has called for facilitated bargaining.
How might this play out?
Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, April 5th, 2012 - 80 comments
Darien Fenton has a bill in the ballot designed to put public ports back on the OIA.
It’s about time – there’s been no accountability or transparency at our ports for too long.
It will be interesting to see the government’s response.
Written By: - Date published: 6:55 pm, April 2nd, 2012 - 46 comments
It looks like Collin’s has got herself into a bind with her defamation case and Key’s not gonna get her out.
And why would he? Her flailing offers an excellent distraction from the real PR damage of this dispute – the fact his government is only interested in looking after its mates.
Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, April 1st, 2012 - 33 comments
While the PoAL dispute has been raging a thousand meatworkers are entering their fifth week of lockout at Talleys-owned AFFCO.
There’s a war on workers on across the country at the moment but you can help fight back.
Written By: - Date published: 10:02 pm, March 29th, 2012 - 50 comments
The people named as Bronwyn Pullar’s support team seem to be the same people that helped John Key into the National Party and then into the leadership.
Like they say – it’s not what you know…
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, March 27th, 2012 - 36 comments
After months of attacking the media and bringing the weight of the state against a freelance cameraman, John Key is “turning the other cheek”.
What a jerk
Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, March 22nd, 2012 - 167 comments
Despite the court making them return to the bargaining table, PoAL Chair Richard Pearson seems to fail to understand some basic principles of employment law.
His comments on morning report suggest he’s either ignorant of some basic legal issues or still has no regard for good faith bargaining.
I’d suggest that either case indicates there’s a need for the council to step in and put some responsible adults in charge of this company.
Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, March 16th, 2012 - 64 comments
The reshuffle announced yesterday effectively made Steven Joyce the new Minister of Labour.
Call me paranoid but I’m thinking that putting the Government’s bully-boy in charge of the rights of working Kiwis may not bode well for employment relations over the next few years.
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, March 15th, 2012 - 32 comments
It’s a bit rich that PoAL are claiming they’re “investigating” online privacy breaches now when it’s obvious they’ve been colluding with Cameron Slater for months.
It’s also interesting that the limited “no comment” comment PoAL has issued has been in Tony Gibson’s name rather than Richard Pearson’s.
Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, March 14th, 2012 - 168 comments
Looks like Ports of Auckland have been unlawfully passing workers’ private information to Cameron Slater.
It’s just another example of the intimidation and thuggery the port management is becoming well known for.
Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, March 11th, 2012 - 83 comments
POAL is on the backfoot industrially, legally, and in terms of public relations.
God only knows what kind of hubris made Gibson and his board think they could get away with attacking their workers like this.
It seems that no matter how many times these corporate ratbags get their arses handed to them by union members they just don’t seem to learn.
Written By: - Date published: 7:14 am, February 16th, 2012 - 2 comments
Felix recommended Denise Roche’s maiden speech and I can see why.
It’s good to see some strong left voices entering parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 pm, February 15th, 2012 - 14 comments
Haven’t had time to watch many maiden speeches but of the few I saw Andrew Little’s was a stand out.
I’m sure we’ll be putting a few more up over the next few days.
Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, February 3rd, 2012 - 80 comments
I’ve heard that POAL has private detectives following union officials around and taking photos.
I’d imagine that’s where “scoops” like this are coming from.
Written By: - Date published: 6:49 pm, January 31st, 2012 - 21 comments
…or is National’s “Ethnic Team” so tokinist it’s kinda racist in it’s own right?
I mean it’s not like there’s a facebook group for National’s Old White Men Team.
Oh wait, there is.
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, January 25th, 2012 - 84 comments
Labour’s contrition is starting to look like weakness.
Rather than reinforcing their opponents’ framing of issues they need to articulate their own progressive values with authority.
If they fail to do this the momentum gained by their new leader will be lost.
Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, January 23rd, 2012 - 43 comments
With the house due to sit in a couple of weeks John Key’s people will be weighing up their response to the POAL dispute.
My guess is they’ll base their decision on what they can get away with politically.
Whatever they do it’ll be no good for the port workers and certainly no good for Key’s goal of closing the wage gap with Australia.
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, January 22nd, 2012 - 124 comments
Labour’s internal politics is public property while National get a free pass on theirs.
This imbalance of transparency and accountability seems weird given National are the ones wielding the real power.
More to the point, what does it mean for our democracy?
Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, January 12th, 2012 - 141 comments
DPF has joined the chorus of overpaid righties calling for working people to have their pay cut.
That’s despite him being on a pretty good wicket himself.
What is it with the right and the politics of envy?
Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, December 27th, 2011 - 98 comments
Katherine Rich attacks the waterside union in an opinion piece today.
But that’s not surprising given she’s being paid to speak on behalf of some of the biggest corporations in the world.
Anyone would think there’s some kind of connection between how strong unions are and how big a slice of the pie the rich can take for themselves…
Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, December 12th, 2011 - 151 comments
Peter Dunne could stop the sale of our assets but he won’t.
Even though he didn’t campaign on selling them.
If he had it’s unlikely he’d have won his seat – let’s hope his constituents hold him accountable.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 pm, December 5th, 2011 - 163 comments
Funny how John Banks has got so much more out of his coalition deal with National than Peter Dunne did despite Dunne having more leverage than Banksie.
It’s almost like National wanted to pack all of their hard right policy into Act’s deal so they could employ it without dirtying themselves.
Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, November 27th, 2011 - 321 comments
It’s been a funny kind of election and there’s a lot to ruminate on over the next few days.
Here’s a handful of random thoughts on the matter…
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