class war

Power Corruption and Lies

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 1:04 pm, November 13th, 2015 - 78 comments

A National List MP has been snapped trying to heavy the Housing Ministry into funding a lift in her personal profile. Remember John Key’s ‘higher standards in Government’? Nick Smith’s Ministerial office apparently doesn’t care too much about about such trifles. Worse, the Housing Ministry has been caught trying to cover up for the Tories by redacting an OIA request. Here’s your Brighter Future, folks. Enjoy.

Inequality is a choice

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:10 am, November 10th, 2015 - 65 comments

Inequality is a choice. It isn’t a choice made by individuals, it is a choice made by governments. Check out Joseph Stiglitz’s new book Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity.

Poverty’s Beneficiaries.

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:02 am, November 8th, 2015 - 68 comments

While pondering this post, I was pointed to a post from last year, in which poverty and the cost of breakfast were on the agenda. Stephanie was writing in response to the ignorance of Nikki Kaye who claimed that giving affordable nutritious breakfast to children was easy. While I haven’t taken the time to read all of the comments on the subject, I thought Stephanie proved the point quite aptly that the reality is far different than the hypothetical world of poverty in which Nikki Kaye lives.

Is this our brighter future?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:30 am, November 3rd, 2015 - 44 comments

This morning’s media has reports of increased domestic violence being reported by beneficiaries and an increase of the time and resources the police are having to put into helping the mentally unwell.  And record profits earned by the Australian banks.

How America is killing the middle class

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:48 pm, October 23rd, 2015 - 11 comments

A short film from AJ+ which clearly describes what has gone wrong in the US since the 1980s.  The film is just as relevant for New Zealand.

Lucky Labour – disgraceful Speaker

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:01 am, October 16th, 2015 - 37 comments

Three of the four member’s bills drawn yesterday were sponsored by Labour leaders. What followed was one of the most disgusting maneuvers ever pulled by this government, justifying the headline – Nats play politics while Kiwi kids die in homes.

Oram on the TPP

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:01 am, October 12th, 2015 - 143 comments

Rod Oram’s Sunday Star-Times column, as made available on Facebook, is a level-headed evaluation of the TPP. He lists five points of concern…

Climate and Trade

Written By: Bill - Date published: 5:43 pm, October 10th, 2015 - 41 comments

The proposed TPP is a protection racket – not a trade deal.

The problem is child poverty not CYF

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:49 pm, September 28th, 2015 - 34 comments

The Rebstock Panel inquiry could be read to confirm that Child Youth and Family is unable to perform its job properly because of it is not properly resourced to provide the job. But it is clear that National is loathe to provide it with any more resources. And the elephant in the room is that the Government fails to understand that escalating child poverty is the cause the crisis.

The strip mining of Housing Corp is accelerated

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:16 am, September 17th, 2015 - 33 comments

Not only is Housing Corp planning to pay a $118 million dividend to the Crown this year but hidden away in its accounts is the payment of a further capital contribution of $336 million.  Talk about strip mining …

This Government’s priorities

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:52 am, September 16th, 2015 - 37 comments

In recent news it has been stated that the Government has let Serco off fines totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars while at the same time it is sneaking through retrospective changes to the law to deny thousands of beneficiaries money they are otherwise entitled to.

Anti TPP ad (Australian)

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:06 am, September 13th, 2015 - 17 comments

An Australian TV ad on the downsides of the TPP – “We just received word that Channel 9 banned our new TV ad from airing during the evening news”

2.1 Times More Likely to get a pay rise…

Written By: tracey - Date published: 7:48 am, September 2nd, 2015 - 6 comments

If you still wonder WHY anyone would want to join a union, the fact that union members are 2.1 x more likely to get a pay rise might make you wade through the anti-union propaganda. Some unions escape scorn, like the Police Union which is referred to as an Association. It’s probably an oversight though, not anything deliberate…

Tom Scott on housing

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:48 am, August 28th, 2015 - 20 comments