Public Private Partnerships

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Militarism and the NZ Left?

Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, February 28th, 2014 - 31 comments

Two uncritical articles in Auckland’s local press, raise questions about the role of the NZ military, and the educational and cultural impact of a military charter school.  Unstated and unquestioned, is the nature of NZ’s relationship with that of militaristic US imperialism.

John Key’s patchwork ‘job machine’: user pays

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, December 28th, 2013 - 47 comments

John Key’s great idea for job creation – his cycleway project – has produced some benefits, but is a patchwork production.  Some sections will be user pays to fund maintenance.  Meanwhile the job creation benefits have been limited.

‘That’s what the fuss is all about’

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 16th, 2013 - 22 comments

Hone Harawira challenged the Maori Party for its support of charter schools, at the expense of Maori and public education. He challenged Sharples to resign if today’s budget fails to adequately support kura kaupapa and the Manaaki Tauira programme.

Sky City, pokies and corruption

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, May 13th, 2013 - 51 comments

Key and Joyce made sure Gilmore was out of the way before they announced their dubious Sky City for (more) pokies deal.  The pokies system in NZ is rife with dubious goings on. It’s bad for low income families, communities and their children. [update: responses]

Will the real David Shearer please stand up?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 28th, 2012 - 104 comments

Many want Shearer to break with neoliberalism, clearly state his politics and a new political direction.   He became leader with a compelling, but worryingly selective, back-story.  Party members want democratic participation. What of consensus-building, coercion, public services, social security, TPP, PPPs, state assets, sustainability?

Housing crisis day of action today

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, November 7th, 2012 - 17 comments

Today is Housing Crisis Day of Action with a march on parliament in Wellington (see Facebook page).  The government’s plan will benefit private developers and property speculators, and involves risks of “cutting red tape”.  Instead, they should be building more state houses. Updates: General Debate.   John Banks heckled by protesters.

Children of Men: money or our lives

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 18th, 2012 - 28 comments

Paid Parental Leave, Charter schools, compulsory early childhood education for beneficiaries: for NAct it’s all about money, and they use ‘shonky’ figures to justify their ‘shonkey’ policies and vetos.  This is ostrich and patriarchal behaviour, ignoring the evidence of the wider benefits to communities and society of good quality child care, education and Paid Parental Leave.

Affordable Housing: the way forward?

Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, October 7th, 2012 - 29 comments

There is increasing concern about New Zealand’s housing situation, with an escalation in homelesssness, people living in totally unacceptable conditions,  and the lack of sufficient affordable housing stock.Update: Government close to unveiling plans for “cheap” housing on city fringe and ‘brownfield’ sites.

Government wastewatch: PPPs

Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, June 20th, 2012 - 4 comments

So, National is using a Public Private Partnership to build a school in Hobsonville. You’ve heard of PPPs. They, like all privatisation, are billed as somehow unleashing the magic of the market to reduce costs. But the reality is they turn the taxpayer into a dairy cow to be milked by private profiteers. And this school is no different: it’s costing us more, and the profiteers are racking it in.

Serco incompetence should put a halt to Wiri

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, June 7th, 2012 - 10 comments

A year in to its 10-year, $300 million contract, and Serco is making a real hash of running Mt Eden Prison. A second escape this week, along with two late releases, failure to meet drug testing targets and failure to report as agreed. And this is dealing with mostly only remand prisoners. Why are we spending $900m on an unneeded prison at Wiri for these clowns to run?

Are PPPs the best we can do?

Written By: - Date published: 2:47 pm, September 13th, 2011 - 8 comments

A good piece in the Herald by Max Rashbrook on the high costs of PPPs (public private partnerships) with the new Wiri prison costing over $21m before a single sod is turned or brick laid because of the complex contract negotiatons which have to cover every possible continency for the next 30 years. Earlier this […]

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