class war

Children’s Commissioner’s report due

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:00 am, August 28th, 2012 - 91 comments

A guest post from Carol on the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group (EAG) report, to be released today. We need a sustainable destination, not a life raft. Update: The report is out.

Half of rich still cheating on tax

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 10:19 am, August 27th, 2012 - 75 comments

Remember how National’s excuse for cutting the top tax rate from 39% to align with the trust rate at 33% was that half of the rich were dodging the top tax rate – so, they should all get a tax cut. Tax cuts for tax cheats, it was called. And guess what? They’re still cheating. Only half of the ultra-rich are paying even that slashed 33% rate. When they cheat we pay with cut services, higher charges, and more government debt.

National’s achievement: Highest ever inequality

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:55 pm, August 23rd, 2012 - 50 comments

The exodus to Australia is at record levels. Falling wages have seen social inequality rise to record levels. Good job National.

Nats lied – power prices to rise

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:08 am, August 15th, 2012 - 36 comments

Minister after Minister denied it, but it turns out that common sense is right. Private power companies charge more. Privatisation surely means that prices will rise. Is it even news when this government lies these days?

Postcards from the “brighter” future

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:36 am, August 6th, 2012 - 11 comments

Hey John – where’s our “Brighter Future”? Hey National voters – was this what you voted for?

The Political Scientist: Underneath the ‘underclass’

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:13 pm, July 31st, 2012 - 7 comments

Many of those who participate in the comments here at The Standard also run their own excellent blogs. We regularly feature No Right Turn and Imperator Fish Today we’re reposting (with permission) pieces from two other blogs that attracted some attention in Open mike recently. Here’s the second one, from The Political Scientist…

The rich get richer

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:14 am, July 30th, 2012 - 30 comments

The pay of CEOs in our largest listed companies increased at more than four times the rate of the pay of workers last year. And workers’ pay actually went backwards after inflation. Meanwhile, the average CEO has pocketed more than $1,500 a week of tax cuts from National. Meanwhile, the 150 richest New Zealanders saw their wealth increase by 18% in the past year.

$444m for road consultants, $128m out of poor kids’ mouths

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:33 pm, July 18th, 2012 - 69 comments

Never let the Nats tell you that they’re making responsible cuts in tough times. When the Greens tried to amend the social welfare bill currently before Parliament to ensure no kids would “unduly suffer”, National vetoed it saying that would eliminate $128m of the savings National’s planning to make. Get that? National’s welfare reforms take $128m from poor kids.

Australia’s sweatshop

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:29 am, July 7th, 2012 - 69 comments

The Nats have given up on catching up with Australia, and are content for us to become their low wage sweatshop instead. Their cheerleaders think it’s a great idea.

I beg to differ.

Property rights should not trump human welfare

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:18 am, July 2nd, 2012 - 9 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on Pita Sharples’ suggestion that Christchurch’s homeless squat in abandoned red-zone properties rather than sleeping in their cars.

What’s Bill smoking?

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 9:45 am, June 29th, 2012 - 40 comments

We’re getting used to the Nats running bash the beneficiary /poor /Maori /unemployed /criminal /etc distractions but it’s getting pretty bad when Bill English gets in on the act. Weirdly his idea of drug-testing beneficiaries seems to have been picked up from a Daily Show piece on how it failed in Florida – costing money, not saving it, and proving beneficiaries use drugs less than the rest of the population.

Privatisation bill passed

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 5:17 pm, June 26th, 2012 - 239 comments

They’re quite literally selling our country down the river.

Endless greed

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:09 am, June 24th, 2012 - 57 comments

It’s sickening to see rich ministers and columnists saying ‘of course we need to green the economy’ and then turnaround and promote fossil fuel extraction and agricultural intensification – things that will ultimately wreck the environment and the economy that is built on it. The truth is, we’re a hugely wealthy country already – it’s just most of the wealth is with the endlessly greedy elite.

The tax-cheating elite

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:39 pm, June 16th, 2012 - 137 comments

For 10 years, the IRD has been investigating the tax dealings of the country’s 250 richest people and their 7,500 companies and trusts. It turns out they had underpaid $500m of tax with hundreds of millions more in dispute. If you and I went into a government office and stole $10,000 of stuff, we would go to jail. But ripping us off for $500m was all just a mistake, apparently.

Can you jump a shark in that pool?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:52 am, June 14th, 2012 - 34 comments