Author Archive

Starving the beast

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, March 17th, 2009 - 60 comments

Before the election National promised that the public service would be capped, not cut. That promise was betrayed a long time ago, but what hasn’t been known up til now is the extent to which they are cutting it. You’ll recall a month back Consumer Affairs Minister Heather Roy let slip that across-the-board cuts of […]

National’s blitzkrieg

Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 43 comments

The government’s first hundred days are up and they’ve decided that this signals the start to a multi-pronged political offensive. They are now moving rapidly to make a slew of legislative and policy changes that were either not announced or mentioned only briefly before the election. The Herald has noticed too, writing: “the Key Government […]

National to increase foreign ownership

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 39 comments

Newstalk ZB reports: The Prime Minister is keen to open the door to foreign investors. In a speech to the Act Party conference today, John Key said a review of the Overseas Investment Act will be announced by Finance Minister Bill English next week. The review aims to create an overseas investment screening regime that […]

Campbell on the nine day fortnight

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 33 comments

Gordon Campbell’s pretty scathing of Key’s nine day fortnight scheme in his latest article at Scoop, describing the announcement as a sign workers will have to bear the brunt of the recession. Plainly, workers are going to be the first people over the side of the lifeboat during this recession. The main policy idea to […]

CTU busts ACC spin

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 7 comments

Over the last week or so the Government, and Nick Smith in particular, have run a dishonest PR campaign to undermine ACC and soften up the public for cuts and eventual privatisation. In response, the Council of Trade Unions has put together a helpful fact sheet to set the record straight and bust some of […]

Dom Post: Fail

Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 31 comments

The Dominion Post has this column on Fridays called the Diary [offline*]. It’s written by some anonymous staffer and is supposed to be a witty and irreverent take on minor happenings over the last week. We’re clearly getting under someone’s skin there, because this week they’ve taken a potshot at us over Trevor Mallard commenting […]

About right

Written By: - Date published: 6:54 pm, March 12th, 2009 - 3 comments

Good to see Emerson’s back in form.

Sealord email campaign

Written By: - Date published: 3:34 pm, March 12th, 2009 - 10 comments

The Service and Food Workers Union has launched an online email campaign to urge Sealord Chairman Robin Hapi to reconsider axing 180 workers in Nelson. The other 400 have have been threatened with pay cuts or else they’ll face the sack as well. And this is after Sealord had the gall to attend the Prime […]

Experts: National lying over ACC

Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, March 12th, 2009 - 46 comments

The wheels are starting to come off National’s PR campaign to undermine ACC as more and more people notice the gap between their spin and the reality. This morning’s Dom Post has an interesting article [offline*] where the managing director of actuaries Eriksen & Associates refutes Nick Smith’s lies about the “cost blowout” and the […]

Strawman

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, March 11th, 2009 - 56 comments

I’m always amazed at the intellectual hoops the neoliberal right will jump through to try and deny low income workers minimum wage increases. David Farrar has a piece up today highlighting the case of Honduras, where they’ve apparently raised the minimum wage by 60% in one go, causing higher unemployment. This, he says, highlights the […]

Shafted

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, March 11th, 2009 - 17 comments

This is good. Here’s what ACC’s ads might look like once National’s had its way with it: [Hat tip: Clarke in the comments]

Sick

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 pm, March 10th, 2009 - 48 comments

ACT MP David Garrett is quickly becoming a sick joke. Asked today about the fact more prisoners will be assaulted or raped by their cellmates if the Government brings in double-bunking, he replied: “The fact is if you don’t want to be assaulted – or worse – by a cellmate, avoid prison by not committing […]

Environment Ministry cut

Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, March 10th, 2009 - 21 comments

The National/ACT Government’s axe has fallen on the Environment Ministry today, with staff being flown to Wellington to discover a raft of environmental programmes introduced by the last government will be scrapped. With them will go at least 18 jobs, making a mockery of the Government’s election pledge to merely “cap” rather than cut the […]

Private prisons and the ‘tough on crime’ lobby

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, March 10th, 2009 - 31 comments

One of the features of a privatised prison system is the potential for corruption of the political process by the commercial interests of private prison operators. Thanks to Tom in the comments it’s come to light that GEO Group, the company formerly known as Wackenhut and main contendor for National’s privatised prisons, has funded ‘tough […]

Fail

Written By: - Date published: 5:10 pm, March 9th, 2009 - 32 comments

So, ‘Crusher’ Collins has failed in her high profile campaign to have Barry Matthews sacked. How embarrassing, what with her staking her entire political reputation on it and all. I doubt John Key will be particularly happy about being dragged into this whole sorry affair either. Less than two weeks ago the Herald reported: The […]

Reminder: Pay Equity Faxathon

Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, March 6th, 2009 - 10 comments

Quick reminder – today’s Pay Equity Faxathon Day, your chance to have a go at State Services Minister Tony Ryall for his decision to cancel two enquiries into pay equity for women. According to Ryall, getting rid of gender discrmination would “generate an additional form of remuneration pressure that is unaffordable in the current economic […]

665 jobs lost since Jobs Summit

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, March 6th, 2009 - 28 comments

If you believe the Government’s spin, protecting jobs in this recession is their number one priority. They even held a big fancy Jobs Summit to convince us they had it under control. But while that’s all very nice, I’m more interested in concrete actions that keep people in jobs. And right now I’m not seeing […]

ACT’s dodgy backroom deals?

Written By: - Date published: 3:43 pm, March 5th, 2009 - 63 comments

This is interesting. From the Greens’ Metiria Turei: Last night on TVNZ7’s political show Backbenches, Rodney Hide commented that ACT had supported the Whanganui [Gang Insignia] Bill to “get Three Strikes through”. In 2006 Mr Hide was positively sneering at Chester Borrows attempt to ban gang patches. Now it seems ACT has done a backroom […]

NRT on National’s ACC antics

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, March 4th, 2009 - 15 comments

I’ve been meaning to write something about National’s attempts to beat up ACC’s costs in order to soften the ground for privatisation (see Farrar’s latest post here as an example), but No Right Turn captures it perfectly: During the election campaign, National attempted to minimise concerns that it would privatise ACC, saying merely that it […]

Fire at will causing discrimination already

Written By: - Date published: 3:42 pm, March 4th, 2009 - 32 comments

The Herald reports the fire at will law is already claiming victims, after Sue Bradford revealed a beneficiary has been denied help for his job relocation costs because Work and Income considered his 90 day ‘trial’ period to mean he was a temporary rather than a permanent worker. Work and Income said it had concerns […]

Played like a fiddle

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, March 4th, 2009 - 93 comments

Yesterday, when the inquiry came back on whether the shortfall in ACC funding should have been disclosed in the PREFU, Bill English quickly tried to implicate Michael Cullen and Maryan Street as being in breach of the Public Finance Act and told media: “The previous government knew about the funding hole and effectively hid it. […]

What is to be done?

Written By: - Date published: 5:29 pm, March 3rd, 2009 - 40 comments

Kudos to the Maori Party’s Rahui Katene for using her position to highlight the situation at Sealord in Parliament today. But it’s Paula Bennett’s response that got me thinking: Rahui Katene: Is the Minister aware that the Māori shareholders of Sealord attended the Prime Minister’s Job Summit last Friday, and what plans does the Government […]

Buyer’s remorse

Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, March 3rd, 2009 - 69 comments

It’s well known that David Garrett is only in Parliament as ACT’s payoff for their support from the Sensible Sentencing Trust. I’m guessing right about now they must be having some serious buyer’s remorse. The buffoon is in the Herald again today after the Attorney General found his three strikes bill to be at odds […]

Real choices

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 pm, March 2nd, 2009 - 13 comments

Kate Wilkinson’s attempts to defend the fire at will bill are getting increasingly desperate. She’s just put out an excited press release where she’s trying to claim that a CTU flyer telling workers they don’t legally have to sign onto a 90 day ‘trial’ period proves her absurd claim that these periods are therefore ‘voluntary’. […]

The Fire at Will campaign

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, March 2nd, 2009 - 37 comments

It’s good to see the Council of Trade Unions offering solidarity to non-union workers who are subject to National’s fire at will law by providing free legal and industrial support. As Helen Kelly said on the news last night, when the Government fails in its basic duty to protect workers from arbitrary employer power then […]

What it’s about

Written By: - Date published: 12:40 pm, March 2nd, 2009 - 101 comments

One of the most disappointing things about the debate over National’s fire at will law is how little its supporters understand the basic issues. Take Farrar’s latest post, where he says: But I would warn the unions to be careful about assuming all, or even most, dismissals during the 90 day period are ‘exploitive’. That […]

Airbrushing at will

Written By: - Date published: 7:17 pm, February 26th, 2009 - 25 comments

Via Farrar’s site I’ve come across this a lovely piece of Government spin. It’s a PDF document checking off everything National’s done in its first 100 days. It’s pretty comprehensive. Funny thing is, despite mentioning everything from bonding doctors to line by line spending reviews, they seem to have completely forgotten the unpopular 90 day […]

Roy Morgan poll

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, February 20th, 2009 - 34 comments

Well, that’s slightly better. The new Roy Morgan poll has the Nats on 48.5%, still a solid result but well down on the TV3 poll on Wednesday that had them on 60. The numbers are: National 48.5% Labour 32% Greens 8.5% Maori 3.5% ACT 2.5% NZ First 1.5% Progressives 1% United 0.5% Others 2% Obviously […]

Copyright protest pics

Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, February 19th, 2009 - 47 comments

A reader has sent in some pics from today’s protest at Parliament against the ‘guilt by accusation’ copyright law. Looks like quite a striking protest, and not a bad turnout for such short notice. You can click on the thumbnails below for full size. UPDATE: In the comments Trevor Mallard and Clare Curran report that […]

Standing up for landlordism

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, February 19th, 2009 - 89 comments

So, National has decided to scrap a raft of tenant protections proposed by the last Labour Government and tilt the deck back in favour of landlords. Clearly the new Government thinks tenants have had it too good for too long, and in hard times like these it’s the 8% of New Zealanders who own investment […]

Protest against copyright law

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, February 18th, 2009 - 17 comments

Creative Freedom NZ has organised a protest against the “guilt by accusation” copyright law tomorrow in Wellington: When: 12:00, Thursday 19 February Where: Parliament forecourt Wear: Bright colours, with a black placard. Please head along and show your support for natural justice. [Hat tip (in fact nicked verbatim from) No Right Turn] [Update, time has […]