Archive for June, 2014

James Macbeth Dann, an introduction, and a bit about Rebuilding Christchurch

Written By: - Date published: 4:21 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 86 comments

We allow new candidates for left parties to post here, usually just as guest posts because they aren’t bloggers (and unused to the medium). However James Dann from the blog Rebuilding Christchurch has been writing some excellent posts about that city and its travails during the rebuild. So we’ve decided to give him a author login because for years we have been longing for a author who is in and who writes about Christchurch.

Polity: Herald poll

Written By: - Date published: 3:14 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 60 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity looks at the Herald poll published this morning and looks at what ground the left has to make up. Over recent polls the right vote appears to have been consolidating more and more strongly behind National over the course of this year. The formation of the Internet Mana Party doesn’t appear to have made much impact on their combined vote.  Also the various poll of polls corrected for known biases and looking at probably seat allocations don’t look good either. Some work for the progressive parties to make up over the next 95 days.

NRT: UK police spied on politicians

Written By: - Date published: 2:51 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 4 comments

Police and security forces often seem to consider themselves to be beyond the law. Their propensity towards excessive surveillance of people who are following peaceful and legal paths towards societal change without any evidence is rather legendary amongst activists on the left. The impression that most activists have is that some police just don’t like their politics. However surveillance of a councillor in the UK after they have been elected and while they are monitoring police activities as part of their job does mark a new low.

Labour’s Kiwisaver announcement

Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, June 17th, 2014 - 202 comments

Labour has released its Kiwisaver policy.  Kiwisaver will now be universal for all workers except those earning less than a to be set level.  Contributions will be gradually increased.  The $1,000 Kick-start and government contribution of up to $521 a year will be retained and will apply to all new enrollments

Auckland’s forgotten West

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, June 17th, 2014 - 107 comments

Almost a week after last week’s storm, some people in West Auckland are only just getting their power back on, while others are still without hot water. Some parts of Auckland’s west are becoming increasingly neglected under John Key’s watch, especially since the centralising-moves following Hide’s blueprint for the “supercity”.

Open mike 17/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, June 17th, 2014 - 233 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Polity: Nats’ sanctimony on tactical voting

Written By: - Date published: 5:56 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 34 comments

Poor David Farrar, he can’t write a post without getting accused of hypocrisy these days. It must have to do with that rancid stench he emanates whenever he gets on his high horse to lecture others. There’s only one political leader out there saying: “Tactical voting is a good idea for my supporters, and long may it continue, but it is a dreadful crime by others.” That leader is John Key.

Iraq and Syria

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 77 comments

The situation in Syria and Iraq is becoming dire as two separate civil wars rage on. This raises as an issue National’s and John Key’s attitude to the war in Iraq which has clearly destabilised any hope of civilised rule. He is now claiming to be an internationalist and to only be interested in multilateral action. But has this always been the case?

Polity: Internet Party: “Ban coat-tailing.”

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 26 comments

New Zealand’s democracy would better if we had a lower threshold and no coat-tailing shenanigans. Even without coat-tailing there remains the potential for blocs to make tiny gains by way of electorate deals, but it would ensure the end of manifest unfairnesses like the relative ACT / NZ First results in 2008. The reality is that National had the opportunity to do the right thing, and  chose not to for venal self-interested reasons, and are now crying like spoiled brats because their opponents are using it too.

Local Bodies: The Myth of Free Trade Agreements

Written By: - Date published: 12:38 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 49 comments

There is a false perception that free trade agreements are vital to our economy. Our open borders may make us the 3rd easiest country to do business in but that doesn’t mean that is an economic advantage, it actually exposes us to exploitation and is one of the reasons why our Current Account deficit is one of the largest in the OECD. The real fear should not about the loss of FTA’s but the real consequences of having them in the first place.

Delusional transport predictions

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 57 comments

This morning I was reading the Transport Blog on The Draft 2015-2025 Government Policy Statement released by the Ministry of Transport. This is the main starting point for a number of the transport planning documents over the coming decade(s). Somehow based on what looks like a delusional belief that people are going to start driving more as the price of petrol is going up, the MOT is planning about $17 billion dollars to be  sunk into (what I think will be) white elephant new roading over the coming decade.

Real Monetary Reform

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, June 16th, 2014 - 142 comments

The most important thing that needs to be learned is that money is nothing. Or, to be more precise, money is a tool that can be used to distribute the resources available to a society. In and of itself it has no value nor does it have a physical representation. Specifically, money is not a medium of exchange but a symbol of exchange and because of this the cost of money, usually presented as interest, should be zero.

Open mike 16/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, June 16th, 2014 - 205 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Two worlds: banksters; NZ child poverty

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, June 15th, 2014 - 253 comments

Al Jazeera outlines the dubious ethics of Goldman Sachs and the oligarchy it supports.  They don’t give a shit about the lives they damage, or the resulting increases in inequality. The Nation interviews call for increasing public pressure on politicians to tackle NZ’s appalling child poverty.

Open mike 15/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:55 am, June 15th, 2014 - 96 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

Poto Williams – Forestry Safety

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, June 14th, 2014 - 23 comments

A guest post from Poto Williams, Labour’s MP for Christchurch East concerning her recent attendance at the Independent Forestry Safety Review consultation and her thoughts on what is happening in relation to safety in the sector.

 

Open mike 14/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, June 14th, 2014 - 224 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

OU Vote Chat programme goes sour

Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, June 13th, 2014 - 17 comments

So it appears the intended non-partisan deeper engagement with politicians that is the Otago University Vote Chat has been taken over by the National Party.

Spot the difference

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, June 13th, 2014 - 84 comments

The latest Conservative poster has a familiar feel to it.

Polity: News from National Comms!

Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, June 13th, 2014 - 40 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity on what has landed in his mail box paid for by your GST and also close to the wrong side the permissible limits of Parliamentary Services funds. Or perhaps this is something for “NZ Taxpayers Union” to moan about wasting taxpayers money with. They won’t of course because they seem to be good little front organisation for Act and Jordan Williams appears to have about as much independence as their beloved slaves. But if you received one, then a complaint seems in order.

TPP – the expensive vanity project of NZ diplomacy

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, June 13th, 2014 - 51 comments

Wayne Mapp is worried about the possibility of Labour backing away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). If National and MFAT would like support from the free-trade advocates inside Labour, then I’d suggest that they get off their padded arses and provide some solid information not only to us, but also to the public. But all I have heard so far is some psuedo-religious Randian rants about free-trade that are about as convincing to business people as statements about the imminent arrival of the Rapture.

CTU: Why is the Reserve Bank happy with low wage growth?

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, June 13th, 2014 - 124 comments

There seems little prospect for better wage growth if the Reserve Bank is to be believed. There is a high risk that growth peaks this year without most people seeing any sign of it in their pay packets. People are being forced into the job market because stagnant wages mean more people have to work for the needs of their households. At the same time harsher rules on social welfare benefits and the low level of those benefits force people into a job market where as the bank says, there is ‘elevated unemployment’.

Imperator Fish: ACT’s new employment relations policy

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, June 13th, 2014 - 20 comments

The ACT Party today released its employment relations policy, which focuses on providing both employees and employers with flexibility in how they arrange their workplaces. “People may think they know how slavery works, but do they really? It’s an idea that has had some bad publicity over the years, but only because the right model hasn’t been tried. We believe we have developed the right model. A model that gives employees genuine choice about whether or not to become slaves.”

Open mike 13/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:50 am, June 13th, 2014 - 140 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

National’s mouthpiece on manufacturing doesn’t like details

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, June 12th, 2014 - 116 comments

David Farrar in his usual burst of hypocrisy and curious selectiveness about detailed numbers is proclaiming a headline rise in manufacturing. As is usual he is only interested in the top level numbers and doesn’t provide a link to even the summary data. I guess that is because they are rather depressing for his 9th floor of the Beehive view of employment and wage packets, which is what most voters expect from growth. There has been a slight decline in manufacturing jobs while we have a 11% growth in “manufacturing”.

The National party are in bed with the insurance industry but it’s Christchurch residents that are getting shafted

Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, June 12th, 2014 - 117 comments

The Insurance Council and National are desperately trying to pour cold water on Labour’s popular earthquake court policy.

Polity: Even non-coattail electorate deals can create unfair advantage

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, June 12th, 2014 - 21 comments

What of the deals with true minnow parties, like United Future or ACT? If a party is only polling enough to get one seat anyway, does it matter to Parliament overall whether the small party wins an electorate or its client big party wins it instead? The answer is “possibly, yes,” because we can never be sure which party ultimately loses a seat to accommodate the new minnow party in a 120 seat parliament. Say a Epsom deal as a test case

NRT: Climate change: A carbon tax in action

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, June 12th, 2014 - 5 comments

The Greens promised to scrap the gutted and ineffective ETS and replace it with a carbon tax. National immediately claimed that the sky would fall if we stopped subsidising polluters and allowing them to rort us. But where it is used it has done exactly what it was designed to do: reduce emissions while lowering taxes on ordinary people. National just likes polluters?

Murders out west

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, June 12th, 2014 - 204 comments

Four alleged murders out west in the past month have caused a great deal of soul searching.  What is going wrong?  What can we do to prevent any further tragic loss of life?

Open mike 12/06/2014

Written By: - Date published: 6:45 am, June 12th, 2014 - 109 comments

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …

No Right Turn: Electoral donations, corruption, and transparency

Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, June 11th, 2014 - 37 comments

Writing in the Herald, Fran O’Sullivan tells us what we all knew: that political donors have expectations, and want favours in exchange for their cash. She’s too polite (and Establishment) to call it corruption, but that’s what it is. Its time we forced parties to do so as well. Transparent public funding if required. If the choice is spending public money or permitting corruption, the choice is pretty clear.