national/act government

Categories under national/act government

Ryall sacks DHB Chair

Written By: - Date published: 5:47 pm, February 17th, 2009 - 31 comments

Health Minister Tony Ryall’s decision to sack Richard Thompson as Chairman of the Otago District Health Board on the grounds of historical fraud by a staff member has a nasty whiff of political interference to it. Considering the fraud began before Thompson became Chairman and it was caught and stopped under his watch the case […]

So much for democracy

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, February 17th, 2009 - 21 comments

The Greens have released advice from the Ministry of Justice confirming that the Government’s rushed RMA changes will prevent legitimate cases going to court and undermine fundamental justice rights. According to the leaked cabinet paper: ‘the [financial] risks associated with security of costs can act as a barrier for those with legitimate cases but little […]

“We are all socialists now”

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, February 17th, 2009 - 21 comments

“We are all socialists now”, or so says the cover of the latest Newsweek. And to be fair, you’ve got to start wondering when the United States is in the process of nationalising the means of exchange and a Tory Prime Minister of New Zealand is looking at effectively buying out a chunk of one […]

Boots and all

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, February 16th, 2009 - 51 comments

Tracey Watkins reports that National has announced details of its Boot Camps policy: “The military-style camp programme would target the 40 most serious young offenders and consist of up to three months’ residential training, using army type facilities or training methods.” 40? I thought this was going to be some massive project turning the next […]

Sold out

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, February 16th, 2009 - 26 comments

According to the Dom Post Judith Collins is preparing legislation to reintroduce private prisons into New Zealand’s corrections system. The arguments against privatisation are manifold and many of them have been covered at The Standard before. Bottom line for me is that the right to take an individual citzen’s liberty comes from a compact between […]

Sugar rush

Written By: - Date published: 6:37 am, February 13th, 2009 - 24 comments

John Key and Tracey Watkins have both (completely by coincidence) said we must avoid responding to the recession with a ‘sugar rush’ of spending. They’re just making excuses for National’s hopelessly inadequate policies for dealing with the recession but they are right about the need to avoid a sugar rush we don’t want to just […]

What we should be doing

Written By: - Date published: 4:25 pm, February 11th, 2009 - 17 comments

As IrishBill has said, National’s so-called ‘kick-start’ is pretty underwhelming – bringing forward a few more roads and a bigger bridge so that a couple of times a year those Aucklanders that can afford to holiday in the Coromandel won’t create such a big traffic jam, 69 new State houses in six months (= bugger […]

Minimum wage rise a small but important victory for the Left

Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, February 10th, 2009 - 20 comments

Great, through concerted pressure the Left managed to force a 9-cent an hour real increase in the minimum wage from National/ACT. A 9 cent an hour real increase is not much but it’s a hell of a lot better than freezing the minimum wage at $12 an hour and letting inflation eat it as National/ACT had planned. The decision […]

On the minimum wage referendum

Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, February 10th, 2009 - 46 comments

The Unite Union has reacted to the Government’s miserly adjustment to the minimum wage by initiating a referendum on tying the minimum wage to two-thirds of the average wage. The principle behind the referendum is a good one. Indexing the minimum wage to 66% would be a huge step towards making sure our lowest paid […]

More than words

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, February 10th, 2009 - 33 comments

I see the Maori Party has come out saying the increase in the minimum wage to $12.50 an hour isn’t enough, and that they still support both a $15 an hour minimum wage and a tax-free bracket up to $25,000 (about the full-time minimum wage income). Pity they didn’t do something about it when they […]

Control group

Written By: - Date published: 5:04 pm, February 9th, 2009 - 38 comments

I’ve got to admit there are days I wonder whether the National Party really have swung leftward. I mean I know they are a party of spin and I know they have enacted some nasty rightwing legislation but when I see them putting the minimum wage up, dancing with drag queens and hobnobbing with iwi […]

Labour calls for $13 minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, February 9th, 2009 - 34 comments

Phil Goff has come out strongly in anticipation of today’s minimum wage announcement from the Government with a call for an immediate increase to $13 an hour, rising to $15 over three years. As he points out, if National only increases the minimum wage from $12 to $12.50 an hour as the DoL suggests, that […]

Who cares if it’s just PR?

Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, February 9th, 2009 - 34 comments

There is a rumour in the Dom Post and the Herald that the minimum wage will be announced today and the Nats are going to increase it to either $12.50 or $12.40 depending on whether it’s Fairfax or APN you’re reading. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was true as John Key knows full well […]

Govt to sell your kids junk food

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, February 5th, 2009 - 102 comments

Education Minister Anne Tolley has just put out a press release announcing the following: ‘As part of the National Government’s commitment to reducing compliance for schools, I have decided to remove the clause in National Administration Guideline (5) which states ‘where food and beverages are sold on schools’ premises, to make only healthy options available’. […]

Clown incites lawbreaking.

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, February 5th, 2009 - 56 comments

Clown Rodney Hide is the Minister of Local Government. He is also the lead clown of the long-time opposition circus that is the ACT party. It appears that he has the two roles confused. He is advocating that people ignore the law on gaining building permissions. Local governments enforce those building regulations. Those regulations are […]

Better than nothing

Written By: - Date published: 2:37 pm, February 4th, 2009 - 28 comments

I’ve just had a read of John Key’s speech today announcing measures to help small and medium businesses through the recession. And my first reaction is ‘that’s it?’ 5% less provisional tax, whoopie. At the end of the year you get back any excess you’ve paid or have to pay any underpayment. At the end […]

Does that make sense?

Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, February 4th, 2009 - 10 comments

I know when I write a post that if two statements in the post seem to disagree someone will quickly point out the apparent logical inconsistency to me and I’ll either have to explain it or fix it. Which is all well and good. So, I thought I would do the same for Vernon Small […]

Does raising the minimum wage really hurt employment?

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, February 3rd, 2009 - 23 comments

National’s excuse for illegally* failing to complete the annual review of the minimum wage is that it wants to ensure any increase doesn’t cost jobs. So, it seems pertanent to ask, does raising the minimum wage result in job losses? Every year, the Department of Labour, presents the Minister with a regulatory impact statement with […]

Splits and divisions on minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 3:53 pm, February 2nd, 2009 - 28 comments

So Cabinet has deferred its decision on the minimum with John Key simply promising “it won’t be very far away at all”. Now that’s just shoddy. In tough economic times we need strong government leadership. Now is the time for certainty and action, it’s not the time to dither and umm and ahh. But we […]

No room for Roger

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, February 2nd, 2009 - 8 comments

Roger Kerr from the Business Roundtable is full of advice for the Government’s upcoming jobs summit in today’s Dom Post. Which is unfortunate for Rog’, because according to my sources he won’t be getting an invite. Neither will Alasdair Thompson, the mildly unhinged chief executive of EMA Northern who famously lost his rag against Trevor […]

Nick Smith stays mum

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, February 2nd, 2009 - 6 comments

The Sunday-Star Times has an article on National’s proposed RMA changes. Unfortunately, it’s just Nick Smith describing the changes. And, surprise, he doesn’t mention changing the definition of environment, the crucial change (we discuss the consequences of the change here). Fortunately, it’s all online here. You can read not only the changes that National wants to […]

The Standard wager

Written By: - Date published: 5:41 am, February 2nd, 2009 - 34 comments

Today, Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson will be presenting a paper to her Cabinet colleagues regarding the minimum wage. The Department of Labour recommended a fifty cent an hour increase. Word is, Kate Wilkinson will be recommending no change. But John Key was forced to commit to unspecified increases on the campaign trail, so most expect […]

A key birdshit shortage

Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, January 30th, 2009 - 9 comments

Our economy depends on other key resources apart from oil. For instance our farming sector still depends heavily on using phosphates to increase soil fertility. Since our farming sector provides at more than half of the export income, it got a little disturbing to read about the limited security of supply. For most of last […]

Thank God somebody’s awake at Granny Herald

Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, January 29th, 2009 - 32 comments

Surprise, surprise, it’s Garth George. “The economic situation is without a doubt the most urgent of predicaments to be dealt with, but so far this year all John Key and Co have offered is a talkfest scheduled for next month. Now we all know that the one thing that one does these days when one […]

Walk the walk

Written By: - Date published: 7:07 pm, January 28th, 2009 - 8 comments

Parents around the country are counting down the days until school starts for the year – but for some the NZHerald had some alarming news, stating “cuts in government funding [from MSD]could force 24 after-school care programmes run by Kidicorp to close….The after-school School’s Out programmes run in Auckland, Taupo, Rotorua, Taranaki and Hawkes Bay […]

Bureaucracy cutters call for more bureaucrats

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, January 28th, 2009 - 33 comments

Today on Radio NZ, Health Minister Tony Ryall’s razor gang for the health sector was discussed. One of its proponents argued there was bound to be bureaucrats to cut, problem is there is insufficient measurement of productivity. He said Stats NZ should invest in measuring health sector productivity better… Hmm, seems to me he is […]

Biz NZ opposes minimum wage increase

Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, January 28th, 2009 - 32 comments

As we reported on Monday, the Cabinet is set to review the minimum wage. The Labour Department recommended maintaining its purchasing power by increasing the mw from $12 an hour to $12.50. Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson will propose keeping it at $12, a cut in the real value of the mw (many expect there will […]

Paving paradise

Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, January 27th, 2009 - 46 comments

We have received information that National’s plan to change the definition of ‘environment’ under the RMA in their 100-day legislation roll out will consist of removing the legal protection of a range of important parts of NZ’s environment, such as eco-systems, amenity values (e.g. the look and appearance of a landscape or townscape) and the […]

Wage for minimum wage workers set to drop

Written By: - Date published: 6:22 am, January 26th, 2009 - 46 comments

In the Bay Report in December 2007, John Key was quoted as saying “we would love to see wages drop“. Inexplicably, the media at the time refused to accept the report of their small town colleague. Instead, they accepted Key’s various, contradictory excuses – ‘I was misquoted’, ‘I was joking’, ‘I was talking about Australian […]

A pointless symbolic distraction. At best.

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, January 23rd, 2009 - 17 comments

I’m the last person who’d criticise freezing the pay of our MPs but John Key’s cynical opportunism is at best a piece of pointless and time wasting PR and at worst a signal to attack Kiwi wages. Now before any of our regular right-wingers claim I’m reading too much into this it might pay to […]

Still swilling the small beer

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 am, January 23rd, 2009 - 52 comments

John Key has written to the Remuneration Board imploring them not to increase wages for MPs and judges in the annual review later this year. Now, I’ve stated my view on this issue – on National Radio the other week and last year in this post. I reckon MPs’ wages, along with the minimum wage and […]

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