Author Archive

National – No Friend to Women

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 2:44 pm, November 9th, 2010 - 45 comments

The gender pay gap is increasing by about 1 percentage point each year under Pansy Wong’s watch – it’s now 13%. And a new report out shows women’s level of participation in key leadership areas is static or falling. Female unemployment had passed 7 percent for the first time in 12 years. National’s policies equate to an attack on women.

Key – War on P?

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:23 am, November 9th, 2010 - 17 comments

Do you remember when John Key declared War on P a year ago? The action has been… underwhelming. The Police have been getting on with quietly doing a good job, to be sure, but when you grandiosely declare “War” on something, you expect a bit more attention to have been paid to it.

Nasty Nats Steal Holidays

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 5:05 pm, November 7th, 2010 - 38 comments

This NAct government is so anti-worker that they have managed to re-arrange the calendar so that we get 5 fewer holidays in this government’s term than the last Labour one. And that’s before they sell off our 4th week.

National’s Privatisation Agenda Continues

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 9:17 am, November 4th, 2010 - 25 comments

National are continuing their privatisation by stealth. Hospitals services and a new prison are the current targets. Tony Ryall, Judith Collins and Bill English are the ministers currently pushing their ideology in their respective areas.

Media Matters

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 3rd, 2010 - 9 comments

A pot-pourri of a few things that have come up in the media of late, and thoughts on other media matters…

National’s Broken Promises

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:34 am, November 1st, 2010 - 18 comments

National are a land of broken promises – from GST rises and tax cuts to falling wages and attacks on education. Here’s my list – help me with any I’ve forgotten.

Tax Cuts or High Wages?

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 9:00 am, October 27th, 2010 - 17 comments

At the last election we chose tax cuts and unemployment instead of stimulus and stability – which was the more ambitious, high wage way to go?

National are not fulfilling their government’s core reason for existence: closing the wage gap with Australia. No, we’re fast going backwards on that score, and it’s predictable: high unemployment causes low wages.

Key’s Banana Republic?

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:50 am, October 27th, 2010 - 36 comments

So the question is: will John Key turn us into a tin-pot banana republic by changing employment law to suit Warners, and make one movie?

Are we going to change our laws, and remove protections every time a company demands it to invest in Aotearoa?

Granny Herald opening eyes?

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:43 am, October 25th, 2010 - 10 comments

There was an excellent piece in the Saturday Herald by John Armstrong. A large 2-page spread, fairly prominent in the paper, and not critical of Labour. Not fulsome praise; just great, unbiased reporting.

Now admittedly I shouldn’t get excited by such things, but the steadily slipping standards of New Zealand’s papers, combined with a media love-in with National at the last election, leaves good quality newspaper journalism a sight to behold.

Performance Pay Paradox

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:57 am, October 25th, 2010 - 32 comments

I’ve just been reading The Age of Absurdity, which has many good ideas on modern happiness.

One of the ideas that won’t cause happiness – but will decrease motivation and quality of work – is performance related pay.

(Consumerism and a Sense of Entitlement also causes unhappiness, but big ups to Personal Responsibility. None of that is in this post though)

National’s anti-Public Transport message

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:00 am, October 19th, 2010 - 16 comments

Different voice, same message: instead of Stephen Joyce or John Key, we now have Bill English saying that they don’t have any money for Public Transport. Just money for roads. They’ve been forced to commit to $1.5 billion of ongoing Auckland rail projects, and that’s all it’s going to get, thank-you.

Phil Goff: The Leader Emerges

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:22 pm, October 18th, 2010 - 43 comments

Phil Goff made an excellent speech yesterday. One that showed far more direction, and a lot of promise for going forward. Hopefully Labour can capitalise on this much better than they did on the excellent “The Many, Not The Few” speech. They should be able to – yesterday’s “Kiwi Dream” speech contained much more meat […]

ACT – one law for all?

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 10:13 am, October 15th, 2010 - 19 comments

Hillary Calvert introduced an amendment this week to change the Marine and Coastal Act. In keeping with Act’s philosophy of One Rule For All it denies Maori the right to charge for access to beaches, whilst allowing current private owners to (continue to) charge access fees.

Jobs for their mates

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 9:19 am, October 15th, 2010 - 37 comments

So John Key was unusually forthcoming to a question this morning – he was very keen to give poor Kerry Prendergast a job.

Key knows how hard his government has made it to get a job, so he’s eager to help her out.

Treasury’s Welfare Proposals

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:30 pm, October 13th, 2010 - 61 comments

Treasury have made their submission to the Welfare Working Group. Amongst the usual beneficiary-bashing and demands for privatisation, there are a couple of rare admissions that workers’ rights need strengthening. Which do we think will make it through…

Prendergast doesn’t get it

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 10:59 am, October 13th, 2010 - 40 comments

According to Kerry Prendergast, STV may cost her election as mayor of Wellington, and therefore it is undemocratic. Good doublethink there Kerry.

UPDATE: Prendergast really doesn’t get it – Celia is Mayor!… Lost by 176 votes.

‘Ask Me No Questions’ Key

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:39 pm, October 11th, 2010 - 14 comments

John Key has claimed that he doesn’t turn down many interview requests – but he turned down another one from Morning Report this morning. In fact you can count on one hand the number of times he has appeared on Morning Report in each of the last 2 years.

Digested Read – Spirit Level 6: Future Options

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 10:00 am, October 10th, 2010 - 11 comments

The last in a series of 6 summarising the argument of The Spirit Level. This post looks at how we might achieve a more equitable future.

Auckland Moves Left

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:03 pm, October 9th, 2010 - 13 comments

Len’s in in Auckland, but it’s not just the man at the top the left can be happy with. Auckland may have provided a few new seats to National at the last general election, and Hide may have done his best to set up the SuperCity for his mates to win – but the Council doesn’t look so bad either. Add in the Local Boards, and it wasn’t a big day of celebration for the right.

Growth and Money: Means, not Ends

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:40 pm, October 8th, 2010 - 21 comments

This government seems to have confused the means and the ends. Growth and money have become the ends, when they only ever should have been the means. Surely what should matter now is that we have a happy, fulfilled society, where people have the opportunity to do what they want.

People Aren’t Beans

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 8th, 2010 - 12 comments

This government doesn’t seem to have the human touch. It fails to see the personal, just the numbers. So it’s sending 3 New Zealand children to live as ‘untouchables’ in an Indian slum, without the limited access to schools or hospitals that even the locals have – as they won’t (and can’t) be Indian citizens.

Murray “The Meddler” McCully

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 2:39 pm, October 7th, 2010 - 9 comments

Our Minister for Sport now gets to pick the teams. He’s pushing out two of our best ever Olympians from coaching, because Murray knows best.

Paul Henry Asks Questions of Government

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:38 am, October 6th, 2010 - 22 comments

What future for TVNZ? Paul Henry’s words show us their current car-crash course – bigotry for ratings, price over quality, drivel over culture. Isn’t it time we asked for something better?

Ryall: Our Only Plan Is Cuts

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:41 am, October 2nd, 2010 - 12 comments

Treasury in their first year under National tripled their expenditure on contractors whilst forcing all other departments into cuts. Bill English decided against having any public accountability, and left Tony Ryall talking rubbish trying to explain it.

Digested Read – Spirit Level 5: Sustainability

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 12:58 pm, October 1st, 2010 - 16 comments

The fifth of 6 in a series summarising the argument of The Spirit Level. This post looks at how a more equal society may also be a more sustainable one.

Tax Swindle Graph

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:34 am, September 30th, 2010 - 30 comments

Danyl over at DimPost has produced an excellent graph of the gains from National’s Tax Swindle. It uses the Government’s figures, it is generous in showing average rather than median incomes…

And it doesn’t look good for average kiwis.