political parties

National’s refugee backdown

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:01 am, September 5th, 2015 - 82 comments

In both England and New Zealand conservative Prime Ministers are looking to urgently backtrack from recent refusals to do anything further for refugees.

Labour plans emergency bill to increase refugee numbers

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 4:46 pm, September 4th, 2015 - 67 comments

Labour plans to seek leave to introduce an emergency bill into Parliament on Tuesday to increase the number of refugees the country can receive.

Greens’ climate discussion paper

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:03 am, September 4th, 2015 - 122 comments

The Greens are attempting something remarkable, a plan that is economically credible, but set in the context of realistic environmental constraints. Did they succeed?

How much does New Zealand spend on refugees?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:30 am, September 3rd, 2015 - 54 comments

The Government is under increasing pressure to increase the number of refugees that it takes. Amnesty International’s proposal to double the number could be met by less than the cost of a flag referendum.

Emmerson – flag distraction

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:13 am, September 2nd, 2015 - 82 comments

Is Syria the first failed state because of climate change?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:31 am, September 2nd, 2015 - 172 comments

A climate change induced drought from 2006 to 2009 appears to have sparked the instability that has caused the Syrian Civil war. The mass exodus of citizens that we are witnessing may be the first of many climate change induced events.

Key is relaxed about widespread refugee crisis

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:02 am, September 1st, 2015 - 58 comments

John Key has ruled out an emergency intake of refugees and claims that New Zealand is doing its bit and that bit is enough.

The politicisation of the All Blacks

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:22 am, August 31st, 2015 - 224 comments

All Black fan boy John Key opened up Parliament to allow the New Zealand Rugby Union announce this year’s world cup All Black squad on the weekend.

Black Monday wasn’t so bad, John Key is worse

Written By: lprent - Date published: 8:51 am, August 31st, 2015 - 37 comments

Black Monday on the casino Chinese stock markets wasn’t a particular problem for NZ. John Key’s short-term thinking government will be. Both us and our next biggest trading partner Australia are now heavily exposed to falling Chinese imports and falling commodity prices. That is going to hurt over the coming years.

Serco – the company that fails at providing public services

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:55 am, August 30th, 2015 - 34 comments

They were, until a few months ago, the biggest company you’d never heard of. They failed in the UK, they failed in Australia and they’ve failed here in our prisons. But they are still making good profits here. They’re a company dedicated, it seems, to making a profit while failing to deliver lots of different public services. We don’t need or want them here.

Imagine if National had not sold the shares in our companies 2015 version

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:08 am, August 30th, 2015 - 55 comments

The latest financial reports for the privatised companies suggests that the New Zealand Government has lost in the past twelve months $470 million in dividends it would have received had it held onto the shares.

Another farm death

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:01 am, August 28th, 2015 - 23 comments

Last night the Nats passed their widely ridiculed health and safety legislation. This morning a Waikato farm worker died in a workplace accident. Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

No, National shouldn’t have balanced the books.

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:30 am, August 28th, 2015 - 34 comments

Simon Louisson recently made a post about National’s profligacy, and all of the debt they have racked up. Guest poster Michael disagrees with Simon and says that “Yes, National was profligate.” and “No, National should not have balanced the books.”

Finlayson criticises Law Society but gets it wrong

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:39 am, August 28th, 2015 - 38 comments

Chris Finlayson has criticised the New Zealand Law Society for not being aware that a change to the Health and Safety Reform Bill affecting human rights introduced after submissions had been heard was itself being changed. But all this does is reinforce the Law Society’s criticisms that such provisions should have been part of the original bill.

Dita De Boni’s last column for the Herald?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:37 pm, August 27th, 2015 - 42 comments

Dita De Boni’s possibly last column for the Herald is a must read.

Watkins on health and safety mess

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:02 am, August 27th, 2015 - 17 comments

“John Key’s increasingly lacklustre defence of the shambles consists of answers that sound more like satire by the day.”

Forget worm farms the Health and Safety Reform Bill proposes secret trials

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:54 am, August 26th, 2015 - 23 comments

The Government has snuck into the Health and Safety Reform Bill a provision that allows for withholding from the parties to court proceedings of classified security information and for decisions affecting their rights to be made on the basis of information they have no access to. This was not in the original bill and you have to wonder why such a contentious provision has been introduced so late.

National Ltd™’s Shane Reti Caught Out In Another Lie

Written By: BLiP - Date published: 7:12 am, August 26th, 2015 - 32 comments

Shane Reti lied about the process of ratifying the TPP. In a Press Release to the Northern Advocate, Reti states “. . . the agreement comes before parliament and opposition parties and select committees for debate and modifications . . .”

National scared of farmers?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:07 am, August 24th, 2015 - 41 comments

As the worm turns, the Nats are all over the place on health and safety. Andrew Little suggests that National is “terrified of the farming lobby”. Something sure has to explain the fact that they ended up fronting this crock.

Rob Salmond’s argument – too simplistic and wrong in its assumptions

Written By: Colonial Viper - Date published: 12:58 pm, August 23rd, 2015 - 140 comments

As Mike Smith’s post last night relates, Rob Salmond makes the case that a properly left wing Labour Party is always going to lose. Screw that. More like a Tory Labour doesn’t deserve to win.

Charter $chools

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:41 am, August 22nd, 2015 - 20 comments

Today’s Herald has an excellent piece on charter schools – School cash flows to owners’ pockets. What a surprise!

Health and safety categories – ludicrous and venal

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:07 am, August 22nd, 2015 - 8 comments

A small sample of the reaction to National’s “health” and “safety” nonsense.

Zero integrity on zero hours

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 2:53 pm, August 21st, 2015 - 4 comments

If you thought the Nats promising to sort out zero hours contracts was too good to be true — you were right.

New Roy Morgan: National 50.5% vs LAB/GR 38%

Written By: Colonial Viper - Date published: 6:45 pm, August 20th, 2015 - 138 comments

National is at 50.5%. LAB/GR down 7% to 38%. The Opposition is still struggling to gain positive traction with the voting public.

A silly act: it begins

Written By: lprent - Date published: 2:36 pm, August 20th, 2015 - 7 comments

When Parliament passed the Harmful Digital Communications Act, many people warned that it would be abused to stifle political speech. And it has, with NZ First MP Tracey Martin incorrectly accusing a political blogger (who supported a rival NZ First MP) of violating the Act. A bad first start. But it figures, the act is silly, slow and unworkable.

John Key’s brighter future is not for everyone

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:43 pm, August 20th, 2015 - 46 comments

While beneficiary numbers decrease the incidence of beneficiaries being trespassed and the numbers of pregnant women living homeless is increasing. Are we really seeing things improve or are more and more people falling through the cracks?

Nanaia Mahuta: Māori Party should stand up for workers

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:00 pm, August 19th, 2015 - 17 comments

Nanaia Mahuta is calling on the Māori Party to do the right thing for Māori workers and vote to strengthen the Health and Safety Reform Bill.

Housing selloff – obsessive secrecy and power

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:35 am, August 19th, 2015 - 21 comments

National’s selloff of our state houses is yet another example of its two main obsessions, secrecy and unaccountable power.

MSD household incomes report

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:34 am, August 18th, 2015 - 7 comments

While we devote acres of pixels to flag distractions and “celebrity” nonsense, the health of the nation goes largely unremarked. Was there any MSM coverage of the latest Ministry of Social Development report – Household Incomes in New Zealand: trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2014?

Hosking, Henry and Media Bias

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:35 am, August 18th, 2015 - 187 comments

Yesterday a debate that has occurred on the Standard about how main stream media has a right wing bias became mainstream when Winston Peters accused Mike Hosking of being a National Party Stooge. An online poll provided overwhelming support for his statement. And recently Steven Joyce attacked Rod Oram because his analytical thoughtful analysis critical of the Government displayed evidence of left wing bias.