Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, July 16th, 2020 - 127 comments
The Auckland Central electorate will elect a new MP in September. The Greens have a responsibility to make sure it’s the Labour candidate.
Written By: - Date published: 11:02 pm, July 11th, 2020 - 21 comments
My view is that neither big nor small unions function particularly well in the modern-day workforce. There are many notable exceptions to this where both do very good work. But few have found the balance of good local support for members, tackling national and international issues and crucially not wasting considerable time and resource fighting another rival union encroaching on their patch.
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 am, July 11th, 2020 - 4 comments
On the day of the council vote, we organised for the effected Citi-Ops workers to sit in the public gallery in the Council rooms wearing their High Viz’s and work gear. I was one of three speakers for the union, expressing opposition to axing these jobs. The Council debated the issue for about 30 minutes. Those councillors in favour of making the workers redundant argued that they should not interfere with management decisions. Those against the decision felt that management did not have the mandate to make this decision. The vote ended up being 7-7, so Green Party Mayor Celia Wade-Brown used her casting vote to uphold management’s decision to outsource these workers jobs. The Citi Operations staff were sitting in the room, so Celia and the councillors were looking at these workers as they made them redundant.
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, July 6th, 2020 - 15 comments
Sure to form, Paul Swain along with Regional Council Chair and another former Labour MP Fran Wilde proposed tearing down the trolleybus wire and increasing the city’s carbon emission. This was to then promptly followed by re-tendering all the bus routes having redesigned all the bus network so that bus companies could then compete over routes and undercut each other. At one council meeting in mid-2016 Swain was questioned about the possibility of protecting drivers jobs and employment conditions. After a few questions, he lost patience, slammed in hand on the table and ended the meeting. This was the extent to which Swain and the Greater Wellington Regional Council considered supporting bus drivers during this process.
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, July 3rd, 2020 - 55 comments
National Backbench MP Hamish Walker has claimed that Queenstown is to be invaded by people from India, Pakistan and Korea when the reality is the Government is considering using empty Hotels for quarantining returning kiwis.
Written By: - Date published: 5:44 am, July 3rd, 2020 - 6 comments
20 days after being elected President of the Wellington Tramways and Public Passenger Transport Employees Union (we just called it Tramways), drivers at Go Wellington were locked out. The City nearly ground to a halt with thousands unable to get to work and traffic congestion a nightmare. Certain journalists were quick to call this a communist conspiracy.
Written By: - Date published: 3:11 pm, June 19th, 2020 - 8 comments
Is it time to completely rethink how we deal with unemployment? We face a tsunami of job losses not seen in generations. Two ideas — social insurance and a job guarantee — are gaining prominence as ways to change how we deal with the problem. One provides income protection for those who lose employment, the other aims for something bolder: the elimination of unemployment. All welcome; register here.
Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, June 18th, 2020 - 215 comments
Michael Woodhouse has recently had a difficult ethical dilemma. He received information suggesting that there were major weaknesses in the Covid quarantine system. Should he do the responsible thing and point out these weaknesses to the authorities or should he play Gotcha politics?
Written By: - Date published: 4:51 pm, June 12th, 2020 - 31 comments
…is the US sharemarket roaring away – up 44% – while economic recovery prospects are grim?” ANZ’s Sharon Zollner’s answer on Tuesday was the Fed printing money, but worried markets were turning a blind eye to the bad news. The bad news hit today as the sharemarket nose-dived. Wolf Richter’s answer was more to Kim’s point: “Fed bails out the wealthy while America convulses in pain.”
Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, June 9th, 2020 - 16 comments
To assist with the emergence from the Covid19 crisis it is time to build firms like Air New Zealand into social institutions of democracy, accountable to citizens and not subject to a takeover by the private interests of capital.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 1st, 2020 - 65 comments
National’s new job-creation scheme appears to be inconsistent with their desire to fully re-instate the 90-day trial period.
Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, May 29th, 2020 - 19 comments
Borrowing heavily from Monty Python’s Life of Brian Labour MP Deborah Russell sets out what the Government is doing for small business in these Covid 19 times.
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, May 29th, 2020 - 68 comments
Holy hyperbole. Todd Muller has claimed that most kiwis are unemployed although they do not realise it yet. Although in one case he may not be wrong …
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, May 27th, 2020 - 24 comments
National has released a social media ad suggesting that New Zealand’s per head of population Government debt figure will be worse than Greece’s by 2014. But the data used presumes the effects of Covid 19 in New Zealand’s figure but no effects of Covid 19 in Greece’s figure.
Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, May 25th, 2020 - 217 comments
I thought we were “in this together” or some such?
Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, May 22nd, 2020 - 28 comments
Jacinda Ardern has floated the idea of a four day working week and Grant Robertson wants to change the future of work. Maybe they should get on and do it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, May 20th, 2020 - 81 comments
More than 110 nations have backed a call for the World Health Organisation to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 virus outbreak.
Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, May 16th, 2020 - 108 comments
Just when we thought liberal democracies meant real freedom was an absolute written into human rights stone, by mid-March this year almost all OECD countries had implemented the most draconian reversal of lockdowns on every single human to combat Covid19. Except Sweden. How is it working out?
Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, May 13th, 2020 - 97 comments
National has decided to play politics with Covid 19 and is opposing the Government’s attempt to pass legislation to secure level 2 arrangements. And has made the extraordinary claim that Jacinda Ardern is just like Rob Muldoon but with slogans.
Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, May 12th, 2020 - 41 comments
Dr Ashley Bloomfield has responded to allegations by Simon Bridges that the government has suspended the Official Information Act and the Emergency Response Committee has made multiple requests for information from the Ministry that it is waiting for by advising publicly there are no outstanding requests for information.
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, May 12th, 2020 - 33 comments
In this time of uncertainty when mass unemployment beckons you would expect that stock exchanges would be plummeting. But think again. Because they seem to be doing fine.
Written By: - Date published: 4:37 pm, May 11th, 2020 - 44 comments
In the ongoing press conference (RNZ): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a staggered move into level 2 starting on Thursday, with schools and bars reopening later and groups limited to 10 people. and She said retail, malls, cafes, restaurants, cinemas and other public spaces including playgrounds and gyms would be able to reopen on […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, May 11th, 2020 - 128 comments
We are heading towards decision time. Does Aotearoa New Zealand loosen up and head back to a semi normal life?
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, May 9th, 2020 - 175 comments
In a Facebook Live event David Parker has schooled Simon Bridges on basic principles of constitutional law. And it appears that Bridges demand that legally privileged advice be handed over is heading to the Privileges Committee.
Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, May 7th, 2020 - 93 comments
Simon Bridges threw two stunts yesterday, firstly threatening to try and summons senior Public Servants to publicise confidential legal advice and then by attacking Dr Ashley Blomfield for not answering emails quickly enough despite the existence of a pandemic which the country appears to be handling pretty well.
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, May 6th, 2020 - 45 comments
Low-wage essential workers are getting New Zealand through this crisis and continue to do so. They went to work when the rest of us were told to stay away – and people would be horrified to hear many of them barely earn enough to live on.
Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, May 6th, 2020 - 53 comments
The top ten things that the Covid pandemic has taught us as a country.
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, May 5th, 2020 - 261 comments
Roger Douglas has reverted to his socialist roots by going back on his pro market mantra and criticising the economic privilege and inequality that he helped create.
Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, May 4th, 2020 - 26 comments
No new COVID 19 cases today!
UPDATE: No change to Level 2, decision in a week.
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, May 4th, 2020 - 59 comments
With President Trump doing what we all expected, and killing 67,000 people and counting through chronic poor leadership, and utterly ruining the U.S. economy as well, it’s time to look at what policies the alternative candidate has on offer.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, May 2nd, 2020 - 46 comments
A Guest blog from E tū Assistant National Secretary, Annie Newman. “Democracy creates a space for the market, civil society and the government but it doesn’t guarantee a balance between these spheres. That is government’s role. Right now, there is an opportunity for our government to do more than protect the future of business; it can address the imbalance in our democracy where the market dominates the agenda.”
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