Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, May 15th, 2013 - 24 comments
Thursday’s budget is likely to make businesses central to blunting the edge of child poverty. Campbell Live is concerned about the marginalisation of skilled community organisations. Harawira has delayed the reading of his Feed the Kids Bill & argues for the state to play a stronger role.
Written By: - Date published: 6:03 am, May 9th, 2013 - 194 comments
Here are the numbers that sum up the MRP sale fail – foremost among them the $1,000 that the government has spent per Kiwi investor attracted.
Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, May 7th, 2013 - 143 comments
Breaking – The asset sales referendum petition has collected 292,000 valid signatures. It needs 16,500 more (about another 5%) to reach the threshold. The Keep Our Assets Coalition has 2 months to get the remainder – and says it will get them…
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 4th, 2013 - 192 comments
Supporters of the sale of the powercos, portray the Labour-Green NZ Power policy in terms of political strategy and game-play. They focus on the “market”, risk, profits & “fat cat hatred”. They avoid dealing with the guts of the issue: fuel poverty, income inequality & damaged lives.
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 pm, April 23rd, 2013 - 26 comments
Brokers and analysts, you’ve nothing to lose but your fees. (although there’s already been $200million from the taxpayer). Now Steven Joyce has turned to the axe-grinders for support. There couldn’t be a clearer indication that Joyce and National are on the side of investors with money to burn, while Labour and the Greens with are on the side of the consumers who worry about turning on the heater.
Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, April 16th, 2013 - 48 comments
The Greens and Labour are planning a joint announcement on their policies on power prices. Both parties want to bring down costs of electricity. The policies of the two parties will also have some differences. How will it mesh with Green Party policies on sustainability?
Written By: - Date published: 6:17 am, April 16th, 2013 - 44 comments
The Nats have spent $48.7 Million of our money “preparing” Mighty River Power for sale, and they couldn’t even get the very basics right.
Written By: - Date published: 6:08 pm, April 15th, 2013 - 8 comments
It was announced today that Government-owned Orcon was sold off last Friday.
Written By: - Date published: 6:29 am, April 12th, 2013 - 4 comments
The Wellington City Council has agreed to a review of the outsourcing.
But that review needs to be independent.
Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, April 10th, 2013 - 91 comments
Labour’s Clayton Cosgrove reveals that when selling Mighty River Power shares, brokers will get twice the commission for selling to a foreign buyer. This will send ownership overseas and drive up prices for Kiwis.
Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, April 5th, 2013 - 46 comments
Yesterday Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown cast her vote for the first stage of out-sourcing to continue with the result that the street cleaning and gardening work has been outsourced.
That’s 27 jobs gone.
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, April 4th, 2013 - 24 comments
Ryall has announced that Might River Power top brass will be receiving massive pay rises, in relation to the sale of the powercos. The directors have multiple positions, and questions have been raise about the past of one or two of them. They benefit; we pay.
Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, April 4th, 2013 - 106 comments
Hard to believe, but despite having a Green Party mayor the Wellington City Council is about to outsource work currently done by council staff. We all know what that means – redundancies, longer hours, poorer safety standards and ultimately lower pay for workers as contractors screw down wages in a bid to undercut each other […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, April 1st, 2013 - 79 comments
A raft of Tory policies have been dismantling the British welfare state: bedroom tax, privatising the NHS: NZ’s NAct government is following the same pattern of slyly changing small things, adding up to major changes that are ultimately socially & economically destructive.
Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, March 19th, 2013 - 35 comments
Profit-driven private sector cowboys are damaging the reputation of our education system. Naturally, National wants to make matters worse by subsidising foreign owners of profit-driven charter schools. Brilliant.
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, March 18th, 2013 - 50 comments
Micky savage of Waitakere News looks at John Key’s involvement in the Solid Energy fiasco. National’s undeserved reputation as sound economic managers takes another hit…
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, March 14th, 2013 - 86 comments
What if Winston Peters holds the balance of power in 2014? Just a little something for potential Mighty River Power investors to consider…
Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, March 13th, 2013 - 124 comments
David Shearer won’t rule-out asset buy back (at cost), and a great blog post on “Climate Change: The New Normal”
Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, March 12th, 2013 - 64 comments
On Morning Report this morning there was a clip of John Key (in Brazil) saying that David Shearer had signed up to buy shares in Mighty River Power – and he was welcome at the front of the queue like all New Zealanders. Shortly after there was a rushed response from a Labour spokesperson to […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:08 am, March 12th, 2013 - 81 comments
Should the parties of the Left continue to oppose asset sales? Lew At Kiwipolitico (loudly cheered on by Bryce Edwards) doesn’t think so. I think Lew is wrong. Here’s why…
Written By: - Date published: 4:41 pm, March 7th, 2013 - 21 comments
No surprise to find that Mighty River Power bosses are behaving like spoiled brats – that’s pretty much what they are.
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, March 6th, 2013 - 40 comments
Amidst the froth of predatory “excitement” about the sale of our power generation assets, it was refreshing to read in The Herald yesterday a single lone voice who was thinking long term.
Written By: - Date published: 5:24 pm, March 4th, 2013 - 41 comments
Prepare for the government’s million dollar asset sales ad blitz…
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, March 4th, 2013 - 45 comments
News Corp is selling shares in NZ Sky TV. What does these mean for the on-going decline of public broadcasting? It is possibly part of the shift away from media moguls, and towards control of news media by bankers.
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, March 4th, 2013 - 140 comments
One of the promises that Key made about asset sales was that Kiwis would be “at the front of the queue”. So why will up to 30% of the current offering be heading overseas?
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, March 1st, 2013 - 22 comments
Come one, came all to National’s fire sale! See how fast we can flog off your assets! Low prices, great returns to foreign investors!
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, February 28th, 2013 - 172 comments
If we can’t afford to buy the assets back, we should at least make clear we will regulate them severely and take the profit out of electricity companies…
Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, February 27th, 2013 - 127 comments
Unanimous decision by the 5 judges to dismiss the Maori Council’s appeal.
Written By: - Date published: 11:11 pm, February 14th, 2013 - 42 comments
The Herald reports that the Supreme Court will not meet the Government’s timetable for its decision on the Maori Council’s challenge to Asset Sales.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, January 17th, 2013 - 36 comments
Submissions for the Education Amendment Bill 2012 (includes Charter Schools) close on 24 January. The PPTA reminds us that Charter Schools are a failed idea. Even Treasury documents show they are a bad idea.
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