Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:39 am, March 5th, 2023 - 27 comments
To pay for recent flood damage Grant Robertson has to decide on what proportion of this will be paid by new debt, what proportion by reallocation of expenditure, and what proportion by special tax levies. Is an Australian style levy under consideration?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:25 am, February 1st, 2023 - 22 comments
Chris Hipkins has announced his cabinet reshuffle and there have been some dramatic changes.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:23 am, January 20th, 2023 - 180 comments
Jacinda Ardern has realised that she was not in a position to commit to four more years as Prime Minister and has called it quits. Recent levels of abuse and misogyny shown to her have clearly played their part.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:55 am, January 6th, 2023 - 116 comments
* or is it?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:09 am, November 17th, 2022 - 66 comments
Yesterday was a bad day for Chris Luxon. It is increasingly clear that he is not up to the job of being leader of the opposition and National’s senior management must be worried.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:40 am, November 10th, 2022 - 140 comments
So why is Labour and Ardern struggling when the economy is so strong?
Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:44 am, October 15th, 2022 - 19 comments
The political question is whether Kiwis currently losing money on paper can remember this: all investment involves risk and it’s entirely fair for our government to only manage so much of that risk and for the rest to fall on us the investor. Will irrational anxiety beat rational risk in our upcoming politics?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:19 am, September 2nd, 2022 - 52 comments
Yesterday National’s PR machine also known as Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB sprang into action to get the message out that National will not negotiate with Destiny Church over support. Even though eight days previously Chris Luxon pointedly did not rule this out.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:25 am, May 20th, 2022 - 24 comments
How was the 2022 budget? Was it the worst since Ruth Richardson’s mother of all budgets or the best since the first Labour Government gave everyone a Christmas bonus in 1935?
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:15 am, May 19th, 2022 - 50 comments
Today is budget day. What surprises will Grant Robertson announce to address the country’s many and varied problems. Will Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis be able to sound like they actually understand what is in the budget? Stay tuned for 2 pm …
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:12 am, April 29th, 2022 - 157 comments
The tide of this government is running out. There’s 18 months left in the term. What would you save?
Written By: advantage - Date published: 5:43 pm, March 25th, 2022 - 118 comments
Can Labour win a third term? Here are some pathways up, and some pathways down.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:00 am, March 17th, 2022 - 351 comments
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelinsky has made a direct appeal broadcast to the United States Congress. That will sort out the Putin supporters from the rest. And with climate change beckoning it is time to pick a side.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:46 am, January 31st, 2022 - 30 comments
The light rail route and mode decision this week shows something new. It’s in the nature of the state itself.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:44 am, December 16th, 2021 - 79 comments
As the country rebounds out of partial lockdown the Treasury’s recently released half yearly Economic and Fiscal update suggests that the Country’s accounts are in remarkably good shape.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:43 am, October 21st, 2021 - 71 comments
Yesterday National released what feels like take 16 of its Covid response plan, this one focussing on business interests and setting a hard timeline for reopening. But getting significant details wrong and rehashing failed policies previously tried in England has dampened its effect.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:12 am, September 2nd, 2021 - 50 comments
Judith Collins’ insistence that Parliament be reconvened even at a time that the country was in lockdown level 4 has backfired spectacularly.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:32 am, July 15th, 2021 - 20 comments
Minister Roberston’s recent speech to the Trans Tasman Business Circle sets out both how this government is using the pandemic to reset whole sectors of the economy, and also how it is getting its head around economic and social challenges. The points made were unsurprising, but his intended direction was unclear.
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:02 pm, June 20th, 2021 - 59 comments
One of the details announced in the budget was funding to explore a ‘social unemployment insurance’ scheme. This scheme has been pushed by the Council of Trade Unions and Business NZ, which will work with the Government in a newly set-up Tripartite Working Party. When we dig into it though, we realise it is no safety net. It’s a parachute that slows our drop, giving us time, before we hit that real net – down so far below.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:03 am, May 21st, 2021 - 61 comments
National presented a particularly glum picture in Parliament yesterday. And it was not only the realisation that Judith Collins is out of her depth. It was because this budget spells the end of Ruthenasia.
Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:37 pm, May 20th, 2021 - 71 comments
Headline change, budget is lifting weekly main benefit rates by between $32 and $55 per adult to tackle inequality and child poverty, as well as reinstating the Training Incentive Allowance.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:02 am, May 12th, 2021 - 34 comments
Some good news from yesterday. The Government has decided to walk back earlier comments suggesting a wage freeze for teachers and nurses.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:40 am, May 6th, 2021 - 45 comments
A few of us on the left have issues with the public service wage freeze announced yesterday. By setting the salary level so low, at $60,000 per annum, the threat is that previous gains for teachers and nurses will be undermined.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:39 am, March 28th, 2021 - 217 comments
Media has been abuzz with comment about how last election Grant Robertson has backtracked on a promise on not extending the bright line test. Should politicians stick to their pronouncements no matter what? Or should they change their minds if circumstances demand a change in course?
Written By: Incognito - Date published: 4:20 pm, March 13th, 2021 - 96 comments
The bright-line test is a red herring and does nothing to deter housing speculation.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:12 am, March 3rd, 2021 - 41 comments
Senior business leaders have called for more openness and clarity from the Government on its plan for getting New Zealand to “COVID normal”. But have failed to say what they would do to contribute or what they are doing to help.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:40 am, February 23rd, 2021 - 77 comments
In recent news Standard and Poors has improved New Zealand’s credit rating because of its success in handling Covid, and a vast majority of kiwis support the Goverment increasing income support for those on low wages or not in paid work. The Government has the budget space and the majority’s backing to do something about poverty.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:23 am, January 26th, 2021 - 53 comments
New Zealand is the best-managed country in the world. And currently has one of the best economies.
Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:34 am, December 20th, 2020 - 22 comments
Without much fanfare, Minister Robertson has used 2020’s crisis to bury the historic scourge of monetarism and within it the excuses of the governments that used it as a pretext to sell off our key government income generators.
Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:55 am, December 17th, 2020 - 66 comments
The Government’s finances are in remarkably good shape. Who would have predicted that dealing properly with a global pandemic would have had better results for the economy than timidly dealing with it and trying to ensure that economic activity continued? But by international levels our Government debt is already low and maybe now is the time to spend on vital areas such as poverty, climate change and the housing crisis.
Written By: weka - Date published: 4:50 pm, November 20th, 2020 - 114 comments
It’s not possible to resolve New Zealand’s housing and poverty crises from within a neoliberal frame. Change is going to have to be driven from outside of parliament.
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