Author Archive

The best country money can buy

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:35 pm, October 28th, 2010 - 97 comments

Today, the Hobbit Enabling Act will be slammed through Parliament by National removing the right of employees working in the film industry to get employment rights if their contract calls them a contractor. It’s the latest in a series of anti-democratic laws that show National is the party of big business, not democracy and ordinary Kiwis.

Harawira off foreshore committee

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:06 am, October 28th, 2010 - 7 comments

Select committees are very important. They take Bills after first reading, hear submissions, and recommend alterations. Ministers do not (usually) sit on them and they are not meant to be mere rubber stamps for the government. But Harawira’s removal from the foreshore committee shows this government doesn’t care about good lawmaking.

Gillard gives Key the finger

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 27th, 2010 - 13 comments

It’s highly unusual for a new PM to meet a foreign leader of the opposition before she meets her fellow leader. But Julia Gillard’s direct snub of John Key is a fair payback for the leaks by the Key Government to try to help his mate Tony Abbott win the Australian election. Key didn’t set up the Gillard-Goff meeting. But his actions certainly cleared the way.

The State Housing review

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:35 am, October 26th, 2010 - 20 comments

It’s not surprising that the Housing Shareholders Advisory Group came to the conclusions it did. Despite its name, the group included no state house tenants. It was a group packed with private social housing providers, hand-picked to deliver the conclusion that these groups should be given control of state houses.

Mana campaign heating up

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:20 am, October 26th, 2010 - 55 comments

The Mana by-election campaign has largely been missing from the national political news in the last few weeks, due in part to bigger stories but also because National is purposely running an under the radar campaign. John Key is spending a lot of time in Mana, hoping to surprise Labour and the media. Time to fight back.

Why they burn cars in France & we protest peacefully

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 22nd, 2010 - 31 comments

Vernon Small had an atypically disappointing piece in the Dom yesterday concluding that everyone must be happy in NZ because the 20,000 protesters who turned out on October 20th did so peacefully and legally, whereas in France there is rioting in the streets. I/S explains why people have to take to the streets to get affect political change in France.

The Hobbit ‘crisis’: cui bono?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, October 22nd, 2010 - 171 comments

Does anyone believe that a $660 million project moves countries over the ‘threat’ of a few actors wanting better standards? Would Jackson really betray NZ when Weta is based here, the casting is underway, and Hobbiton is built? Cui bono, this talk of ‘crisis’: how much will the Government fork over to appease the threat of foreign capital flight?

Nats find freedom of speech offensive

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:30 pm, October 21st, 2010 - 72 comments

National’s bully-boy tactics continue. Young people are trying to voice their concern to the select committee that is looking at the extension of the Fire at Will law to all workers. The Nats on the committee don’t want to listen so they’re bullying submitters and refusing to even accept submissions that don’t toe their line.

The deaf and dumb government

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, October 21st, 2010 - 11 comments

In just two years, we’ve had three protests eclipsing anything we saw under Labour. What will the next year bring? What would a second term see as the public reacts to an agenda of privatisation and public service cuts that go well beyond the ‘back office’? Will this deaf and dumb government ever wake up and hear the concerns of New Zealanders?

National day of action for work rights

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:51 pm, October 20th, 2010 - 115 comments

Thousands of workers are now leaving their work places to attend one of the 27 protests taking place today from Kaiatia to the Bluff against National’s draconian anti-worker policies. This one could be big. This is the day that Kiwi workers stand up and say that they have had enough of this government attacking our wages and work conditions. Update: 5-6 thousand at Parliament.

I’ve had a gut’s full too, Hone

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:59 am, October 20th, 2010 - 88 comments

I get Hone Harawira’s anger over National’s pandering to rednecks over the Foreshore and Seabed new legislation. That was the same anger that led to the Maori Party being formed in the first place (ironic that they’re voting for the new law). But I can’t abide by the racist language and actions he resorts to.

Nats’ war on education: cutting wages

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, October 19th, 2010 - 87 comments

For some reason, the Nats hate public education. Even an elitist fool should be able to see that a well-educated workforce is valuable and public education is the cheapest way to achieve it. Yet National is attacking education at every level. The latest ‘offer’ to the secondary teachers would see them take 2 years of after-inflation pay cuts.

October 20th, day of action for work rights

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:45 am, October 19th, 2010 - 12 comments

Unemployment is up, wages are down. But the Nats want to put the boot into workers to keep costs down for their rich mates. They’re trying to take away workers’ rights, remove protections, cut pay, reduce holidays and diminish access to sick leave. Tomorrow is the national day of action when we fight back.

NoRightTurn: Nats let IHC burn

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:14 am, October 15th, 2010 - 20 comments

The government is refusing to step up to save IHC providers that are insolvent due to a recent court case that resulted in IHC carers being awarded hundreds of millions in back wages. The government is washing its hands, even though it is the primary funder of the services. Will the Nats let IHC collapse or will they use this to bring in their corporate mates?

Brand Key & the supercity

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 14th, 2010 - 35 comments

When you boil it down, John Key’s much-vaunted political nous is about keeping his personal brand clean. He farms out anything controversial to ministers and leaving them to it. The problem with that approach is muppets are left to run things with no oversight resulting in political cock-ups. Case in point: the Supercity.

Bolger: privatisation has failed

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:03 am, October 14th, 2010 - 100 comments

20 years too late, Spud has announced that the neoliberal privatisation agenda has been a failure. He says we sold the wrong things, sold them the wrong way, got too little money, and created private monopolies. Of course, what we should have done is hold on to our assets, rather than turning them into cash cows for foreign owners.

TVNZ golden handshake for bigot?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:15 am, October 13th, 2010 - 35 comments

If you resign from your job today will your boss give you half a year’s pay as a parting gift? No? Funny because that, apparently, is standard practice for high-paid stars. It is being reported Paul Henry received up to $150,000 from TVNZ when he resigned due to the storm over his racist remarks. And that was regarded as a good deal for TVNZ!

Carter faces the music

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:00 pm, October 11th, 2010 - 21 comments

Chris Carter faces a disciplinary hearing at labour HQ this evening. Already evicted from caucus, this meeting could result in sanctions from the Party including revoking his membership. But I don’t think it will come to that, and I don’t think it should for both principled and political reasons.

Key’s culture of impunity

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:15 am, October 11th, 2010 - 18 comments

Despite a slew of scandals, Key has not enforced any ethical or professional standards on his ministers (apart from Worth, for whatever he did). Ministers know that Key will keep his personal brand clean but won’t do anything to pull them into line. This has created a culture of impunity in the government, which has started to spread wider.

Finding the rotten apple

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:06 pm, October 8th, 2010 - 42 comments

Labour candidate for the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board Daljit Singh has been named as one of two people charged over false voter registrations. This seems a pretty crude attempt at perverting an election and a stupid one that no sophisticated political player would ever think they could get away with.

Gilmore’s fake CV

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:12 am, October 8th, 2010 - 49 comments

Aaron Gilmore became an MP in 2008 by a hair’s breadth. Something like 40 more votes to Labour and his list seat would have gone to them. His Parliamentary career has been as undistinguished as the manner in which he got in. Now, it appears his CV isn’t as impressive as he would like us to believe either.

Business wants permanent rightwing dictatorship

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:48 am, October 6th, 2010 - 26 comments

The capitalist elite is anti-democratic to its core. The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act (CERRA) is being held up as business’s ideal form of government. Ex-National staffer Richard Long says that Gerry Brownlee should use his CERRA powers to ‘sort out’ a slew of other ‘problems’. We should never have trusted them with this power.

John Key’s blue-eyed baby misdirection

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, October 5th, 2010 - 28 comments

John Key really does say some extraordinary things when he’s trying to placate the media, and often it works because journos are bamboozled into accepting what he says as fact. Yesterday, he defended the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act saying the Governor-General tests the appropriateness of each CERRA law. Dead wrong.

Wade-Brown with a chance to beat Prendergast

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:05 pm, October 4th, 2010 - 13 comments

Everyone had pretty much assumed that Kerry Prendergast was a sure thing to win another term as Wellington’s mayor. But a Dompost poll shows Celia Wade-Brown is in the hunt. With a small gap and low turn-out every vote matters – so cast yours for Wade-Brown today.

Dompost says CERRA needs to go

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 4th, 2010 - 19 comments

The Dompost has joined the chorus of outrage over CERRA (The Gerry Brownlee Enabling Act). Parliament got it badly, badly wrong in signing away its powers but it’s not too late to make things right. The Greens are calling for a review. Labour should join them.

Be rad: vote Yani and James

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:40 pm, October 3rd, 2010 - 10 comments

OK, so it’s quite up with the best campaign ad ever, but Yani Johanson and James Dann’s anti-Bob Parker rap brought a smile to my face. Yani is running for councillor in the Hagley-Ferrymead ward and James is going for the Hagley-Ferrymead Community Board, both on the People’s Choice ticket.

A brief point on union meetings

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:11 pm, October 1st, 2010 - 46 comments

Peter Jackson’s in the paper today whining about being denied entry to a union meeting.

There’s a really simple reason for that – union meetings are for union members, not for employers.

Herald against Nats’ power grabs

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:34 am, October 1st, 2010 - 15 comments

The Herald’s editorial today is a strong rebuke of National’s anti-democratic power grabs. Close on the heels of CERRA is the World Cup Empowering Act, giving unfettered powers to ministers that they don’t need. The Herald’s opposition shows, again, how badly wrong Labour and the Greens got it when they voted for CERRA.

Jackson threatens capital flight

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:26 pm, September 29th, 2010 - 36 comments

I thought Peter Jackson was an ordinary guy made good who hadn’t let success make him an elitist prick. I was wrong. New Zealand taxpayers contributed hundreds of millions to his <em>Lord of the Rings</em> trilogy and what thanks do we get? Threats of capital flight, which will probably soon be followed by demands for taxpayer subsidies.

Nat smear machine obsessed by Fa’afoi’s ethnicity

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:03 am, September 29th, 2010 - 49 comments

Ever since Kris Fa’afoi put his name forward to be Labour’s candidate in the Mana by-election, the National smear machine attacked him on his Tokelaun heritage. First it was ‘oh, they’re only going to choose him because he has a brown face’. Now, apparently, the problem is that he isn’t Pasifika enough. In truth, it’s National with the problems.

Dunedin North – David Clark

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:19 pm, September 25th, 2010 - 20 comments

Long serving Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson is stepping down at the next election. The local Labour party today selected their next candidate, the Rev Dr David Clark.