class war

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All reward, no responsibility

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, November 5th, 2012 - 37 comments

The bosses justify their huge pay packets by saying they’re the elite, the wealth creators. They get the money because their genius makes sure things work. But, when it all goes to hell it’s the minions who get blamed. While the CEO gets a $100K bonus when she quits after 11 months! Nice work if you can get it, which is why the bosses congratulated themselves with a 10% pay rise this year.

A lesson for the Secretary of Education

Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, November 2nd, 2012 - 50 comments

Buried in Audrey Young’s puff piece on Secretary of Education Lesley Longstone is an interesting insight into Longstone’s thinking on poverty and education. Longstone tries to downplay the link. Ignorance, or overt right-wing agenda?

Aotearoa to little America

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, November 1st, 2012 - 28 comments

As National cuts services, incomes, and pushes more Kiwi’s into the gutter, their real agenda it seems apart from creating an underclass is removing them from the Government tit, and after that supporting them with charity. Corporations see charity as tax free advertising, with the added bonus of being able to lobby & pressure the Government of the day.

From Sugarbags to Foodbanks

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, October 31st, 2012 - 60 comments

Sugarbags are a symbol of self-help in the 1930s Depression.  Foodbanks are a symbol of the failure of consumer capitalism.  Should the left reclaim Labour’s original core values?  What are those core values, and are they still relevant today?

World class education

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, October 31st, 2012 - 34 comments

The Secretary for Education has drawn the wrong conclusions from data on educational performance, and a bunch of commentators (including a particularly egregious anonymous editorial in The Herald) have been quick to follow. We certainly have a world class education system. The fact that not every child can take advantage of it is our real failing and our shame.

Poverty Watch 9

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, October 27th, 2012 - 13 comments

Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, a party that wants to help, and a party that doesn’t.

Business NZ threatens members will violate human rights over PPL

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, October 25th, 2012 - 19 comments

Here’s Business NZ’s shill on extending paid parental leave: “Employers who have been forced to bear considerable replacement costs, or to find those amongst their other employees willing to provide cover, may well think hard before again employing a woman of child-bearing age”. 1) that makes no sense 2) it’s illegal under the Human Rights Act.

Adventures in the slave trade

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, October 22nd, 2012 - 74 comments

Slavery was abolished in the 19th century, wasn’t it? From wage-slavery to human-trafficking, modern day forms of slavery have many faces, all in the interests of profits for the few.  What are these different faces, and what impact do they have on the lives of ordinary people?

Tax fraud, benefit fraud, proportional response

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, October 22nd, 2012 - 38 comments

A Victoria University study shows that tax evasion is costing the country at least 25 times what welfare fraud is costing, while welfare fraud is punished more harshly in court.

Sunday Reading

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, October 21st, 2012 - 5 comments

My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. This week: plutocrats, the New World Order, benefits and solving slavery and extinction.

Poverty Watch 8

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, October 20th, 2012 - 18 comments

Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, “International Eradication of Poverty Day”, and the tragic link between poverty and child abuse.

Let’s sing it! Songs for ‘ordinary’ people

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, October 19th, 2012 - 109 comments

Revolutions, political movements and protests are fueled by songs.  They bring people together in common cause, draw attention to devastating conditions, reassure the oppressed that they are not alone, and inspire people to take political action. What songs have engaged, inspired, or motivated your political conscience and compassion? Update: : The winner is…

The ‘there’s no class war in New Zealand’ monitor

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, October 18th, 2012 - 48 comments

There’s no class war in New Zealand. It’s not class war when the company that is laying off workers boosts its directors’ pay by 28%. It’s not class war when rich Tories who have given themselves massive tax cuts deny people on benefits are in poverty. It’s not class war when a rich Tory makes up numbers to oppose extending paid parental leave.

Local Bodies: Our Vulnerable Less Safe Under National

Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, October 16th, 2012 - 7 comments

Dave Kennedy (bsprout) at Local Bodies writes on crime statistics and the vulnerable in our society.

Poverty Watch 7

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, October 13th, 2012 - 6 comments

Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, three good pieces on the recent Children’s Commisioner’s report, the Nats dither on food in schools, and much more…

The race to the bottom

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, October 11th, 2012 - 21 comments

Youth rates are an admission of economic failure.

Herald promotes cheating and tax evasion

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, October 8th, 2012 - 223 comments

I was surprised this weekend to see The Herald come out with a strongly stated piece in favour of cheating and tax evasion.

Govt defends tax haven

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, October 8th, 2012 - 31 comments

So, it turns out that our ‘foreign trusts’ regime is being exploited so that billionaires from developing countries can avoid tax in their countries. We’re a tax haven. And the Government sees nothing wrong with that. It’s legal, so it’s OK. Yes, we’re helping a foreign elite avoid paying their fair share and rip off poor people, but hey, this is a National Government – that sounds like paradise to them.

Poverty Watch 6

Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, October 6th, 2012 - 7 comments

Welcome to Poverty Watch, a weekly update on National’s lack of response to the urgent and growing issue of poverty in NZ. This week, immigrant Pacific Island families in poverty, and a thoughtful and challenging piece on the role of philanthropy in NZ.

Meanwhile back on Planet Earth

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, October 5th, 2012 - 18 comments

It’s now clear that National are unfit for office anywhere but Planet Key. Which is unfortunate, because here on Planet Earth, things aren’t going so well. We need new ideas, we need action, we need results. We aren’t going to get them from National.

National Day of action against Bennett’s welfare reforms

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 5th, 2012 - 128 comments

Today there have been protests around NZ, against Paula Bennett’s punitive welfare reforms.

Updates: Include ODT article link and extract, photos of Henderson protest, and links to several news articles.

‘Children of the Poor’ 1934 – 2012: Social Security for the Future?

Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, September 30th, 2012 - 176 comments

Split Enz once sang, “History Never Repeats”…  Or does it?  Destructive prejudices separating  ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor have been around a very long time. When the likes of Paula Bennett pander to such ill-informed vindictiveness with punitive social welfare reforms, they will damage large numbers of children – our future citizens.

Bennett’s fantasy world breaks down

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, September 24th, 2012 - 45 comments

Paula Bennett on Q+A: “I don’t think that every child actually needs to be in early-childhood education” says Bennett. There will be cases where parents can do just as good or better job for their child. Yet, her policy is to take away half the incomes of parents and children on benefits who don’t go to ECE. The gap between Bennett’s spin and what she is actually doing has never before been so clearly revealed.

It came from Planet Key

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, September 22nd, 2012 - 39 comments

John Key on the impoverished Chatham Islands, holding a huge crayfish. He says ‘big as a horse, freshly cooked, $80 a kilo.’ He kisses the cray, then looks at the camera and says ‘jealous?’ Christ, what a cock. Those 270,000 kids aren’t jealous, arsehole. They’re hungry. The fact he knows the price of cray off the top of his head but not how many Kiwis are unemployed tells you all you need to know.

Return to Planet Key

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, September 20th, 2012 - 17 comments

Does anyone have the number for John Key’s supplier? Because when he answered a question in the House yesterday about poverty and low pay by saying that in his paradise, Planet Key, there would be no toilets and no jobs, my first thought was ‘man, that guy is on some good drugs’. My second thought was he’s gone and made that Planet Key tease into a meme that’ll haunt him.

Banks and Dunne vote down minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, September 20th, 2012 - 51 comments

David Clark’s private member’s Bill to increase the minimum wage was voted down 61 to 59 last night. Shame on John Banks and Peter Dunne.

Journey to Planet Key

Written By: - Date published: 6:40 am, September 19th, 2012 - 58 comments

In the House yesterday, Metiria Turei threw National’s ‘Planet Labour/Planet Green’ line back at Key, asking if ordinary people get to break the law too or if that privilege is reserved for ministers on Planet Key. Like all little bullies, Key couldn’t take it back. He lashed out and, like Romney’s fatal gaffe the same day, it exposed something of Key’s real world view.

Abdicating our global responsibility

Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, September 17th, 2012 - 175 comments

With proposed ETS changes National is abdicating our responsibility on the world stage, and sending the bill to the taxpayers. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment calls it ‘a farce’. It’s cowardly, it’s weak, and it’s shafting the working Kiwi.

Here we go again at PoAL

Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, September 16th, 2012 - 42 comments

Things are going to get tough at the Ports of Auckland again.

Which means two things – the workers will win again, and they and the people of Auckland will pay the price.

In the meantime the has-been corporate warriors who are trashing the port will walk away with their bonuses.

Champions for Children

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 pm, September 11th, 2012 - 33 comments

The Greens have started a new programme – Champions for Children. We should all sign up. We need to make alleviating child poverty the election issue of 2014.

Nats in denial about education and poverty

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, September 11th, 2012 - 57 comments

Shearer’s speech on Sunday has sparked the discussions that this country needed to have about education, about poverty, and about the sad link between them. With every statement the Nats show how deeply in denial they are about these issues.