Archive for July, 2008
Lightening the load
Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, July 18th, 2008 - 12 comments
A universal student allowance of $350 isn’t going to happen. It’s too expensive and would bar major new spending in any other area. But more relief from debt would be welcome. There’s an increasing recognition that student loans are locking young people out of the housing market, making them perpetual cash-cows for the property speculators […]
PSA rips Bagrie report
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, July 18th, 2008 - 7 comments
Good piece in the Herald yesterday (and the Dom Post the day before) from PSA national sec Richard Wagstaff critiquing ANZ National chief economist Cameron Bagrie’s woeful report on public sector ‘waste’. Wagstaff takes aim at the underlying assumptions of the report about ‘productive’ versus ‘non-productive’ public sector spending, then proceeds to rip through some […]
Key moves to shut down hard questions
Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, July 18th, 2008 - 31 comments
Part of the Crosby/Textor MO is to avoid any hard questioning or real investigative journalism from the media. Step one in this process is be matey with journos. They’re people too and they can fall for charm. When that fails and something embarrassing comes out, attack the journo. Key did this over the “we would love […]
Follow through
Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, July 18th, 2008 - 34 comments
Over at Kiwiblog David Farrar has found an amusing error made by the Herald online in its politics section which has listed several stories from 1999 as current. Good for a laugh I thought and so I had a look. Two stories in particular got me thinking. One of them was headed “Clark’s mission: clean […]
Nats’ ACC policy all about ideology
Written By: - Date published: 6:23 am, July 18th, 2008 - 13 comments
National’s ACC privatisation policy is another of its one page wonders (this time with three page backgrounder skimming the history of ACC and restating the policy in longer sentences with no more detail). In the policy documents and in the interviews by National and its allies, no evidence has been provided that privatised ACC will […]
Not ready for prime time
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, July 17th, 2008 - 28 comments
John Key tries to reassure us that National’s policy to privatise ACC would keep the scheme’s principles intact. Here’s how he defined those principles on Radio Live: ‘no fault, 24 hour, no fault, blah, blah, blah.” Sorry, but that doesn’t fill me with confidence in our wannabe PM and his policies. [Update: gobsmacked points out […]
CTU rips Nats’ ACC policy
Written By: - Date published: 2:07 pm, July 17th, 2008 - 50 comments
The Council of Trade Unions has put out a detailed, devastating critique of each of National’s arguments for privatising ACC. I’ve copied it in full below: National Party: ‘National will: • Investigate opening the Work Account to competition. • Conduct a full stock-take of the various components of the ACC scheme, evaluate progress to full […]
On the fourth estate
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, July 17th, 2008 - 39 comments
Francesca Mold on National’s ACC announcment: ‘What’s interesting is the way they’ve put this out under the radar, perhaps showing how sensitive they are to how voters might react. And they’ve done that with a number of policies recently. Although, I have to say, it’s not hurting them in the polls’ a) It won’t hurt […]
ACC and the rhetoric of ‘choice’
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, July 17th, 2008 - 23 comments
National says its ACC policy will provide ‘choice’ on accident compensation, but choice for who? Employers will be able to choose between a variety of competing (mostly private) insurers, but for the likes of you and me we’ll have to take what we’re given and pay the consequences of our employers’ bad choices. We won’t […]
Spinbusting: NZF’s donations are Labour’s business
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, July 17th, 2008 - 52 comments
National is calling on Helen Clark to investigate alleged donations by Owen Glenn to New Zealand First (which, if they happened, were perfectly legal). Consider what that means: National is advocating for the leader of a political party to be able to delve into the internal finances of another political party. That would be a […]
Previewing the Nats’ work rights policy
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, July 17th, 2008 - 25 comments
The biggest protests during this term of Parliament were against National’s 90 Day Bill when it came up as a private members’ bill. In protests all over the country, over ten thousand workers turned out to oppose having their rights stripped. The Bill was defeated but National has not given up. National has signalled that the […]
Nats’ ACC plan only good for insurance companies and lawyers
Written By: - Date published: 5:22 pm, July 16th, 2008 - 51 comments
National has confirmed it intends to privatise the ACC scheme starting with opening the work account to private competition. This would see private insurers cream off large and low-risk employers with special deals, leaving the taxpayer to shoulder the burden of the rest (which would, in turn, be the basis for privatising of the remainder). […]
Key comes out against wage increases
Written By: - Date published: 2:27 pm, July 16th, 2008 - 25 comments
This morning on Sunrise, John Key said “wage inflation” is a problem causing inflation and needs to be reduced. Wage inflation is a businessman’s way of saying pay increases. John Key opposes Kiwis getting the pay increases they need to cover the rising cost of living. This fits with his statement that “we would love […]
National adopts Labour’s arts policy
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, July 16th, 2008 - 30 comments
So National has adopted Labour’s arts, culture and heritage policy essentially unchanged. Good. The flourishing of New Zealand’s arts and culture we’ve seen over the last eight and a half years hasn’t come about by chance, it’s been fostered by generous and targeted funding to give talented people the opportunity to get their work out […]
Anti-abuse law in action
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, July 16th, 2008 - 40 comments
A front page story on Stuff at the moment is about a woman who systematically beat her child and has been successfully prosecuted and placed on home detention. According to the story the Tauranga mother’s initial excuse was that she was disciplining her child: When spoken to by police in February, Nelson admitted she sometimes […]
The same dream
Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, July 16th, 2008 - 5 comments
Some people don’t seem to understand that being of the Left does not mean being soley allied to Labour or the Greens or the Progressives. It means fundamentally holding beliefs that are fundamentally also held by Labour, the Greens, and the Progressives, a common thread of principles that binds the Left. 08wire.org explains with the […]
On infinity
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, July 16th, 2008 - 9 comments
[more ‘Tom The Dancing Bug’ comics here]
Crosby/Textor line de jour
Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, July 16th, 2008 - 82 comments
Every Wednesday, John Key does his round of interviews. Breakfast TV makes a nice soft start with interviews on Breakfast then Sunrise. Then he’s on KiwiFM with Wammo and bFM with Mikey Havoc, neither of whom are political specialists but are increasingly asking good questions. Every week, Key comes prepared with two or three lines, […]
90 Day No Rights policy, why?
Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, July 15th, 2008 - 139 comments
Why does National want to remove the right of workers to appeal against unjustifiable dismissal in the first 90 days of employment? The reason National gives us is that workers having the right to sue for unjustified dismissal has a chilling effect on small businesses. Supposedly, they are afraid to hire workers because if they […]
It’s not just the polls
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, July 15th, 2008 - 41 comments
Jordan Carter posted a month or so back (a little controversially) on how much easier life might be for some on the left if they didn’t believe it was necessary to give due moral regard to others – selfishness certainly seems simpler. New research suggests that Jordan may well be right. The study has concluded […]
Tearaway on election ’08
Written By: - Date published: 12:41 pm, July 15th, 2008 - 37 comments
A reader just alerted us to the fact that Tearaway’s latest issue features a piece on election ’08. Gotta love the question about what each leader would do with a billion dollars. Damn, where are C/T when you need ’em…? (Click the image for a larger version)
Inflation up but interest rates must come down
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, July 15th, 2008 - 18 comments
Inflation was 1.6% in the last quarter, 4% annually, the highest in 13 years. Petrol is driving inflation. By itself petrol accounted for a 1.2% increase. Food is the other big increase, also accounting for a 1.2% and that is itself being driven by international oil prices. The price of oil is beyond our control […]
Some policy coverage, too much to ask?
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, July 15th, 2008 - 63 comments
Yesterday, Tracy Watkins wrote something I found a little confusing – “National is winning the war over wages and the price of cheese”. I’m wondering in what way National is winning on wages and food prices. It’s not in terms of policy. National doesn’t have a policy on raising wages or lowering food prices. Indeed, […]
Shouldn’t you be dead by now?
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, July 15th, 2008 - 38 comments
Australia’s ABC has a somewhat unusual online game to explain the impact of individuals on climate change to children. It’s called ‘Planet Slayer‘. The main part of the game involves answering questions (which really only apply to adults) around use of cars, house size etc to estimate your annual greenhouse gas emissions.Your cumulative emissions are […]
Murketing
Written By: - Date published: 4:36 pm, July 14th, 2008 - 18 comments
Gordon Campbell has an interesting take on the political PR we’re seeing from National in his latest Scoop column. In it he quotes Salon talking about the marketing of Red Bull to different niches: ‘ Walker noted that instead of attempting to assert the brand’s identity to a mass market, the manufacturer pursued a strategy […]
NZIER poll
Written By: - Date published: 4:04 pm, July 14th, 2008 - 37 comments
Buried away in the NZIER’s recent TNS survey on the Emissions Trading Scheme was this political poll showing a surprisingly high number of people still undecided on who they’d vote for. You should be aware it’s based on some pretty shonky methodology (basically it’s a weighted online survey), but it’s interesting to see what happens […]
Growing opposition to Immigration Bill
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, July 14th, 2008 - 13 comments
Nick Butcher has produced this excellent video opposing the Immigration Bill (which we blogged about last week and is covered in more detail here). There’s also a website and an ipetition. This really is an appalling Bill and I take my hat off to Nick and co for having the initiative to organise public opposition […]
Ambitious for NZ political debate
Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, July 14th, 2008 - 24 comments
It’s sad that Matthew Hooton passes for a political commentator in this country. If he was a blogger, he would be third, fourth tier. Surely, we can do better. Last year in his column, Hooton suggested that there would be no election this year because Labour would stage a coup. Last week on Nine till Noon, he ranted endlessly […]
So much for ambition
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 14th, 2008 - 40 comments
Yesterday on Agenda, SOE Minister Trevor Mallard said that the Government was undertaking an exploratory study to see whether the factory that currently repairs trains could also be used to assemble trains. If its economical, specialised parts would still be imported but a major manufacturing job would take place in New Zealand, building up New […]
- Final day for public feedback on Treaty Principles Bill
The legislation proposes to rewrite the treaty principles long-defined by the courts ...2 days ago - How you – yes, you! – can be a godsend to a new parent
Everyone can help lighten the load for a struggling new mum or dad. Here’s how. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today. As I recently ...2 days ago - Dame Tariana Turia to be laid to rest today
Dame Tariana died on Friday, aged 80. ...2 days ago
- ‘Man had eel in his bum’: Remembering the story that almost broke the Herald
Summer reissue: This year the Herald on Sunday celebrated a significant birthday. Hayden Donnell takes a look back at one of its most defining moments. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and ...2 days ago
- How Wellington became a cornucopia of Malaysian food
Summer reissue: Our capital is a far cry from hot, bustling Kuala Lumpur, so why is this freezing city full of excellent Malaysian cuisine? My dad once told me that there are more Malaysian restaurants in Wellington per square kilometres than there are back in Malaysia. He was completely ...2 days ago
- Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 7 January
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 7 January appeared first on Newsroom. ...2 days ago - Daily crossword, Tuesday 7 January
The post Daily crossword, Tuesday 7 January appeared first on Newsroom. ...2 days ago
- Five Pacific region geopolitical ‘betrayals’ in 2024
COMMENTARY: By David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report With the door now shut on 2024, many will heave a sigh of relief and hope for better things this year. Decolonisation issues involving the future of Kanaky New Caledonia and West Papua – and also in the Middle East with ...2 days ago - Labour should apologise to Dame Tariana Turia’s whānau – Willie Jackson at tangi
Willie Jackson was among politicians past and present paying respect to Dame Tariana today - and made the call for an apology over her treatment during the Foreshore and Seabed controversy. ...3 days ago
- ‘Ghost of Suharto’ marks Prabowo’s new phase in West Papua occupation
SPECIAL REPORT: By Paul Gregoire United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) provisional government interim president Benny Wenda has warned that since Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto took office in October, he has been proven right in having remarked, after the politician’s last February election, that his coming marks the return ...3 days ago
- Should I get a weighted vest to boost my fitness? And how heavy should it be?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University ZR10/Shutterstock Exercise training while wearing a weighted vest is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance. Social media posts and trainers are promoting them as a potential strategy for improving fitness and health. ...3 days ago
- Live: Hīkoi mō te Tiriti supporters invited to honour Dame Tariana Turia at tangi
The Prime Minister is visiting Whangaehu Marae to pay his respects. ...3 days ago
- How do mosquito repellents work? A chemistry expert explains
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Eldridge, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, Swinburne University of Technology kamitana/Shutterstock It’s summertime, and for many of us that means plenty of time outside – and, unfortunately, mosquitoes. The combination of the increase in temperature and plenty of water is ideal ...3 days ago
- Even calm people can fly into a rage behind the wheel. Here’s how to curb your road rage – befor...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Risk & Resilience, UNSW Sydney Marian Weyo/Shutterstock If someone bumps into us on the footpath or in the mall, we’re generally quite forgiving. We instinctively apologise or step aside, and usually don’t scream at, stalk, ...3 days ago
- Relentless warming is driving the water cycle to new extremes, the 2024 global water report shows
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University EPA/MIGUEL ANGEL POLO Last year, Earth experienced its hottest year on record − for the fourth year in a row. Rising temperatures are changing ...3 days ago
- Continental drift: why the need for critical minerals might change the way we define Earth’s zones
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rupert Sutherland, Professor of tectonics and geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Office of Ocean Exploration and Research/NOAA, CC BY-SA Continents and oceans have scientific definitions that underpin international law. The idea of dividing the world into geographical ...3 days ago
- Do natural fabrics really keep us cooler in summer? Here’s the science
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nisa Salim, Senior Lecturer at the School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology Dasha Petrenko/Shutterstock The Bureau of Meteorology has warned Australia is facing one of the hottest summers on record. As the weather warms, many of us reach for light-coloured ...3 days ago
- 3 drugs that went from legal, to illegal, then back again
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philippa Martyr, Lecturer, Pharmacology, Women’s Health, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia Peruvian Syrup, containing cocaine, was used to ‘cure’ a range of diseases. Smithsonian Museum of American History/Flickr Cannabis, cocaine and heroin have interesting life stories and long ...3 days ago
- Dreading the school or daycare drop-off? How to handle it when your child doesn’t want you to go
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Ridder, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, Murdoch University Kiefer Photography/Shutterstock You’re doing daycare or school drop-off, you’re already late for work, and your child’s lip starts to quiver. A tremble turns into a wail, a wail into heart-rending cries as ...3 days ago
- Perfectionist leaders can push their teams to meet high standards – but it can backfire and stifl...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gamze Koseoglu, Senior Lecturer, The University of Melbourne fizkes/Shutterstock Have you ever kept a brilliant idea to yourself, fearing your boss’s reaction? This hesitation is more common than you might think, especially when working under perfectionist leaders. Some of the most ...3 days ago
- 5 tips to ace a job interview – including how to prepare for the question they’ll definitely ask
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kerry Brown, Professor of Employment and Industry, School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University Photo by Anna Shvets/Pexels If you’re back in the job market, or looking for your first position after graduating, you’ll need to think about how to ...3 days ago
- Why you should treat workplace friendships like your diet – aim for balance and variety
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stefan Korber, Senior Lecturer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images The list of organisations abandoning the option of fully remote work for employees has grown recently, with the likes of Amazon, IBM, JPMorgan and Meta ...3 days ago
- Sunglasses reflect more than the light: a brief history of shades, from Ancient Rome to Hollywood
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margaret Maynard, Associate Professor, School of Communication and the Arts, The University of Queensland State Library Victoria Sunglasses, or dark glasses, have always guarded against strong sunlight, but is there more to “shades” than we think? The pupils of our ...3 days ago
- Inside the fast rise and faster collapse of the acclaimed K Road restaurant Cotto
Summer reissue: The Auckland eatery closed its doors with no warning in late 2023, prompting concerned customers to ask the simple question: what went wrong? Stewart Sowman-Lund finds out. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read ...3 days ago
- Dunedin’s secondhand bookshops, ranked and reviewed
Summer reissue: Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member ...3 days ago
- Stanford braces herself for a year of cuts – and reform
“Next year is going to be a tough year for me, because I’m going to have to make some very, very difficult decisions,” Education Minister Erica Stanford says.That means cuts. Or at least replacements.“This is the problem in education: we never stop doing things.”This leads to a disjointed system, where ...3 days ago
- Protecting our democracy by reforming Parliament
Opinion: Aotearoa New Zealand currently exists in an unstable world. Democracies are under challenge across the globe, and we are not immune.As the inhabitants of one of the world’s oldest democracies, New Zealanders are accustomed to electing their Members of Parliament every three years and we value the importance of ...3 days ago
- The Mars search for meaning
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is resolute in his determination to establish a self-sustaining human settlement on Mars and is actively developing technology to achieve his mission. It’s an intriguing prospect, and if achieved, humans would only be able to potentially survive in some kind of biodome, but it once again raises ...3 days ago
- Hīkoi mō te Tiriti supporters invited to honour Dame Tariana Turia at tangi
Dame Tariana Turia's advocacy for Māori rights was the inspiration behind the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, organiser says. ...3 days ago
- What I learned (and didn’t learn) from four years of home education
Summer reissue: For four years, Shanti Mathias learned at home, with her siblings as her only classmates. How did it affect her? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to ...3 days ago
- An insomniac’s guide to getting to sleep when it’s hot and muggy
Summer reissue: It is not easy, but it is possible. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today. Ah, sleep. Those six to eight gorgeous ...3 days ago
- ‘I need to make you suffer’: My near decade of violent harassment by a man I barely know
Summer reissue: Zeni Gibson has been stalked and harassed for nearly nine years by a man she rejected when she was 17. This is her story. As told to Madeleine Holden. Cover Stories are longform journalism supported by Spinoff Members. Support this work here. Spinoff Cover Stories are now available ...3 days ago
- Daily crossword, Monday 6 January
The post Daily crossword, Monday 6 January appeared first on Newsroom. ...3 days ago
- Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 6 January
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions. .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .entry-title { font-size: 1.2em; } .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .entry-meta { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; align-items: center; margin-top: 0.5em; } .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .entry-meta { font-size: 0.8em; } .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .avatar { height: 25px; width: ...3 days ago
- This past year saw policing get ‘back to basics’ – Minister Mark Mitchell
RNZ sat down with Police Minister and Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell for a year in review, across his portfolios. ...4 days ago
- Tangi for Dame Tariana Turia welcomes figures from throughout the motu
Visitors and dignitaries from around the motu have been welcomed onto Whangaehu Marae, near Whanganui, as the tangihanga for the co-founder of Te Pāti Māori enters its second day. ...4 days ago
- Countering Foreign Interference Bill A Dramatic Attack On Free Speech And Rights
We know that the impact of this kind of legislation is to silence legitimate political activity. In particular this is likely to be the case where people are advocating for policies that are contrary to the position of the current government. ...4 days ago - Abducted Gaza doctor’s life in danger due to torture – call for immediate international interven...
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor The fate of Palestinian Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was “arrested” by Israeli forces last month after defiantly staying with his patients when his hospital was being attacked, featured strongly at yesterday’s medical professionals solidarity rally in Auckland. ...4 days ago
- The Wāhine Māori leading NZ’s largest education union
Ripeka Lessels (Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Te Arawa, and Ngāti Tūwharetoa)Ripeka Lessels had been an educator for 20 years before she decided to become involved in NZEI Te Riu Roa’s Māori governance body, Te Reo Areare. It’s here she believed she could do the most good for tamariki Māori.As someone who had ...4 days ago
- Four myths of career breaks
Opinion: Why is it that whenever we meet someone new, we default to asking about their job?We could ask almost any question about their interests, background, or values, but still we ask “So, what do you do?”It turns out, this common, seemingly innocuous phrasing carries much deeper undertones of perceived ...4 days ago
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