Archive for March, 2010
Solid Energy co-opts kids to push coal
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, March 11th, 2010 - 17 comments
Solid Energy has been caught out commissioning future leaders to pen fantasy stories in school hours. The company is inviting high school students in key coal-mining areas to submit an essay on: “The role of coal in sustainable energy solutions for New Zealandâ€.
The kneejerk and the jackboot
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, March 11th, 2010 - 3 comments
Sometimes you get a really pleasant surprise and I got one today from Garth George. Despite being a pretty old school conservative he gives a stunning rebuke of the knee-jerk authoritarianism/fascism/randianism that so often characterises the thinking of the Right these days and was recently highlighted by David Garrett’s call for sterilisation of the poor.
High unemployment helps Nats keep wages down
Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, March 11th, 2010 - 21 comments
While other countries have used their strong public sectors to steady the private sector and keep unemployment down during the economic downturn, our government is compounding unemployment by cutting the public sector, throwing people out of jobs and feeding worker insecurity.
A sign of how corporates think
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, March 11th, 2010 - 20 comments
The more I think about the ‘Wellywood’ sign the angrier I get. Who does Wellington Airport think they are imposing this monstrosity on the people of Wellington without any consultation? It’s just another example of the corporate mentality in this country – a subtle blend of arrogance and idiocy.
Open mike 11/03/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 11th, 2010 - 38 comments
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Some friendly advice for Labour
Written By: - Date published: 5:46 pm, March 10th, 2010 - 115 comments
The latest Roy Morgan poll is out and Labour isn’t moving. And while only a political noob would expect them to be making major gains this early in the first term of a new government they’re still not laying the groundwork they should be. So what should they be doing?
Carter leads on whaling
Written By: - Date published: 3:04 pm, March 10th, 2010 - 26 comments
Good on Chris Carter. He’s the only politician on Left taking some leadership in opposing the National Government’s abandonment of New Zealand’s anti-whaling stance. Today he launched an online petition against the government’s position. Carter writes: “John Key’s great plan to save the whales is apparently allowing the Japanese to hunt them commercially. This appalling […]
Reminder: Roger Award tomorrow
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, March 10th, 2010 - 2 comments
The first Drinking Liberally – Wellington of the year is being held in conjunction with the annual Roger Award. The Roger Award is presented each year to the worst transnational corporation operating in New Zealand, and the winner of the 2009 Roger Award will be announced at a ceremony in Wellington on Thursday March 11 […]
But how much did the bus cost?
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, March 10th, 2010 - 24 comments
“Tolley finds ally in school mum” screams the headline of Audrey Young’s piece today.
When National runs a bus tour the Herald is desperate in its attempts to drum up support, when it’s Labour all they want to talk about is how much the bus is costing the taxpayer.
Sovereign debt
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, March 10th, 2010 - 42 comments
The world’s economy has not truly recovered from the recession, it has just been artificially reanimated by vast injections of Government bailout money.
What happens when taxpayers get the bill? The people of Iceland just voted not to pay. This may be the first in a cascading series of failures of “sovereign debt”. If so, the next crash will make the recent recession look like child’s play.
Whaling proposal not realism, it’s a sell-out
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, March 10th, 2010 - 65 comments
John Armstrong has chucked John Key’s promise to end whaling down the memory hole and, instead, comes out swinging against those who don’t want to give up the commercial whaling ban: “the plan [will] allow commercial whaling for a 10-year period, but with big cuts in the numbers killed each year. This plan would buy […]
Open mike 10/03/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:06 am, March 10th, 2010 - 34 comments
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Joyce dumbing down education
Written By: - Date published: 11:10 pm, March 9th, 2010 - 28 comments
So Steven Joyce’s big bright idea for tertiary education (which he recently inherited from the hopeless Anne Tolley) is to punish institutions with low pass rates by cutting their funding. It’s basically the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.It reflects the typical short-term thinking of the capitalist class and its political party.
Who were the Nat leakers?
Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, March 9th, 2010 - 40 comments
Michael is dead right. The most important thing about the Hollow Men is not how Nicky Hager got the information but what the information is. It reveals National’s modern politics in all its unprincipled ugliness. Nonetheless, which Nats gave Hager the information is a subject of legitimate interest. I have some theories.
Who needs evidence?
Written By: - Date published: 1:04 pm, March 9th, 2010 - 12 comments
John Key doesn’t need evidence. He just knows stuff. John Key just knows that Don Brash’s emails were stolen by a mysterious hacker, despite having no evidence at all. The same “reasoning” underpins most of National’s flagship policies. Key just knows they’ll work, even when the evidence says otherwise…
Meanwhile, at nationalmps.co.nz…
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, March 9th, 2010 - 19 comments
Remember how a couple of months back National set up NationalMPs? It was meant to be their answer to Red Alert, Labour’s frequently raucous, unstagemanaged blog where Labour’s MPs write what they want. But the Nats’ attempt is deadly dull. Either the leadership is gagging them or the Nat MPs are dreadful bores.
Wellywood? Welly-hick, more like
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, March 9th, 2010 - 53 comments
Wellingtonians like to think of themselves as more sophisticated than their rural brethren.
But sometimes they come out with something that shows just what a bunch of hicks they are.
Glorified holiday for Bennett
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, March 9th, 2010 - 45 comments
There are 276,000 jobless Kiwis. The seasonally-adjusted trend on dole numbers is still on the rise. Many other people fall through the gaps and are unable to get public assistance in their time of need.
What better time for the Minister for Social Development to bugger off for five weeks?
Daddy to the rescue for Slater
Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, March 9th, 2010 - 22 comments
When things got too hot Cameron Slater called on Daddy to save him. John Slater rushes in to say to cops shouldn’t be charging his son who has been getting his 15 minutes of fame exploiting sex abuse victims. The Nats think the rules don’t apply to them (cf. Heatley, English, Bennett, Jim McClay…). The law’s for keeping the poor in line, not the rich, they reckon.
Aussie wages outstripping NZ
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, March 9th, 2010 - 19 comments
In NZ, the average FTE wage rose 2.86% after inflation – $891 to $934 – over the past year. In Aussie, it was 3.6% above inflation – $1159 to $1226. When will John Key admit that he sold us a lie? When will the media call on him to resign if no progress is made on the one substantial promise of a ‘brighter future’ at he made?
Open mike 09/03/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 9th, 2010 - 2 comments
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
Brash emails hit headlines again…for the wrong reason
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 pm, March 8th, 2010 - 62 comments
The leaked emails which helped bring about the downfall of former Nat leader Don Brash hit the headlines again today, for all the wrong reasons. The story of who “stole” the emails was nothing more than a successful Tory decoy. Journalists have already forgotten the insidious tricks used by the top echelons of the National Party.
International Women’s Day
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, March 8th, 2010 - 6 comments
Happy International Women’s Day. If only there was something to celebrate.
“We are deeply concerned about the current attacks on workers’ rights that will badly impact on women,†said CTU President Helen Kelly…
Labour and Greens “stealthy” on whaling
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, March 8th, 2010 - 43 comments
You’ve really got to hand it to the Greens and Labour. They have completely defied expectations on the whaling issue. See the simple option that most political parties would go for would be to be seen to stand by their principles – loud and proud. But the Greens and Labour are too clever for that. Instead, they’ve cunningly said next to nothing!
The end of the line
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, March 8th, 2010 - 3 comments
This month there are a series of showings of The End of the Line around New Zealand. This acclaimed documentary looks at how overfishing is destroying fish populations and ultimately endangering the industries and cultures that depend on them. This is a problem we can solve relatively simply.
Outrage at Key’s pro-whaling plan
Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, March 8th, 2010 - 55 comments
The Key Government has, without public consultation or mandate, thrown decades of political consensus in the trash. They are proposing the reintroduction commercial whaling. The Nats say this will reduce the number of whales killed but no-one is buying that. When did the commercialisation of a resource ever lead to a reduction in its use?
Open mike 08/03/2010
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 8th, 2010 - 12 comments
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…
The minister who cried ‘recovery’
Written By: - Date published: 11:33 pm, March 7th, 2010 - 43 comments
Can someone at MSD please explain to Paula Bennett a season is? Our lazy minister is once again claiming victory over rising unemployment because of the seasonal drop in unemployment numbers. Worryingly, the decline between January and February was less than the average in recent years.
National Standards Mk 2?
Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, March 7th, 2010 - 14 comments
Michael Gove, Britain’s Conservative shadow Children’s Minister, has unveiled their version of National standards. Like Anne Tolley, he is sure he knows what parents want. The Times reports: ‘I’m an unashamed traditionalist when it comes to the curriculum,’ Mr Gove said. ‘Most parents would rather their children had a traditional education, with children sitting in […]
The climate change industry
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, March 7th, 2010 - 15 comments
It turns out that there is a climate change industry after all.
It is the denier industry, bought and paid for by ExxonMobil…
Recentralisation? A whole lotta nothing
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, March 7th, 2010 - 5 comments
During the neoliberal revolution, the 4th Labour Government and the Nats decided to break up the big ministries into lots of little ministries and autonomous agencies. The idea was that the ministries were like big lumbering dinosaurs that suffered inefficiencies of scale. Smaller bodies would be more nimble, better able to adapt and change, and […]
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- Panel Discussion Featuring Global Experts Will Raise Awareness About Apartheid Against Women In Iran...
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- Catholic Church Abuse Survivors Respond To Death Of Bishop Denis Browne
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- Govt Cuts Mean Salvation Army Frontline Workers Face Axe
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- Disappointment By Court’s Decision For No Maximum Water Intake For Griffin Creek
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- IVL Increase Good For MBIE, Bad For The Economy
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- Striking Social Service And Support Workers To Rally For Decent Wages
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- Shane Jones Called Out For Seabed Mining Misinformation
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Recent Comments
Unemployment is definitely up.
Unemployment is definitely up.
Unemployment is definitely up.
Unemployment is definitely up.
Unemployment is definitely up.
Unemployment is definitely up.
Unemployment is definitely up.