Social issues

Categories under Social issues

We’ve Lost Australia

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, May 12th, 2025 - 38 comments

New Zealand was once in a sustained Australasian partnership. Now, with New Zealand tracking further and further into policy extremes, Australia – and our children – are leaving New Zealand behind.

Get ready for the Regulatory Standards Bill

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, May 11th, 2025 - 21 comments

Following on from the undermining under urgency of the current Pay Equity scheme the Government intends to introduce the Regulatory Standards Bill which if passed would have a significant adverse effect on collective rights and environmental action.

Vale David Parker MP

Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, May 8th, 2025 - 20 comments

David Parker’s Deputy Leader ‘s speech in 2014 at the Wellington Labour Party Conference was the best I ever heard from a Labour Leader. Vision matched values in intensity and scope. Parliament now loses one of its very best.

It’s Time — To Fight.

Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, May 8th, 2025 - 18 comments

Pay Equity Amendment Bill passes through all stages under urgency late last night, destroying decades of progress and putting men and women alike back.

Lies damned lies and Pay Equity Repeal excuses

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, May 7th, 2025 - 27 comments

Christopher Luxon yesterday tried to claim that budgetary considerations were not the reason for repealing the Pay Equity Legislation even though David Seymour had said that the monetary savings from the bill would save the Budget.

National wants to make voting harder

Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, May 6th, 2025 - 9 comments

luxon sheep

National’s recent announcement that it will take away voting rights from all prisoners may be nothing more than a distraction from its real intent, screwing the electoral scrum by making it harder to vote for some of us.

National yet again wants to take away prisoner voting rights

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, May 1st, 2025 - 9 comments

Despite the prospect of it being struck down by the Courts being very high the Government has announced a plan to reintroduce a prisoner voting ban.

Culture wars and the Waitākere Ranges

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, April 29th, 2025 - 20 comments

Claims have been made that Auckland Council is giving away rights to the Waitākere Ranges to local iwi. But the claims suffer from that important characteristic of not actually being true.

Tory Whanau leaves Wellington mayoral race for Māori ward

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, April 29th, 2025 - 59 comments

Smart move by Whanau and great for the green and the left.

On Gallipoli and Gaza

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, April 27th, 2025 - 11 comments

Gallipoli was then. Gaza is now. Gallipoli was a disaster, driven by arrogance and incompetence. Gaza is an atrocity, driven by unconscionable evil.

ANZAC Day.

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, April 25th, 2025 - 15 comments

ANZAC Day.
Never Again.

Did someone mention “class”?

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, April 23rd, 2025 - 55 comments

The “Win the Wealth Tax” group offers a welcome return to Labour’s political and policy roots.

Farewell Pope Francis

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, April 22nd, 2025 - 10 comments

“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change. The system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”

The National MP and the religious sect

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 pm, April 20th, 2025 - 19 comments

National MP Hamish Campbell has been the subject of a media pile up recently for being a member of the Two by Two Christian Sect. But the treatment appears at this stage to be an overreaction.

Spare a thought for poor Nick Mowbray

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 pm, April 16th, 2025 - 12 comments

Nick Mowbray, who has supported and promoted a number of right wing causes, finds himself losing out big time because of Donald Trump’s tariffs. And is complaining.

Why Write (and Read)?

Written By: - Date published: 12:24 pm, April 12th, 2025 - 10 comments

Art has political power and every voice counts.

The Trump Shock: Why the US President Crashed the Global Economy

Written By: - Date published: 3:28 pm, April 11th, 2025 - 19 comments

There is a method to Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff madness. The chaos and confusion is deliberate; the aim is nothing less than the controlled disintegration of the world economy, writes Elliot Crossan. The eyes of the world are on Donald Trump once again. The world’s most successful attention-seeker has us all transfixed. It’s a story […]

Tamatha Paul on BHN

Written By: - Date published: 4:07 pm, April 8th, 2025 - 1 comment

The Sensible Sentencing Trust’s free publicity, and what defunding the policy means.

All they are saying is give War a chance

Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, April 8th, 2025 - 78 comments

At a time when the need for increased spending in health, education and the environment is so pressing the Government wants to spend a further $12 billion over the next four years on rearming.

Aotearoa take a bow

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, April 5th, 2025 - 27 comments

The Justice Select Committee has returned Act’s odious Treaty Principles Bill to Parliament. And in its report it has noted that the overwhelming majority of submitters opposed the bill.

Go Phil!

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, April 4th, 2025 - 14 comments

Phil Goff doubles down on criticism of Trump’s lies.

NZ Leftist Collective March 2025

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 pm, March 30th, 2025 - 17 comments

Samah Huriwai-Seger, Shane te Pou. Craig Renney, Kieran McAnulty, hosted by Pat Brittenden

What Tamatha Paul Really Said

Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, March 28th, 2025 - 22 comments

Tamatha Paul’s comments on policing have been criticised by Luxon as “insane” but a closer look at what she really said shows how much her comments have been taken out of context.
Meanwhile, National’s law and order track record is only deteriorating.

But her emails

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, March 28th, 2025 - 17 comments

Recent events in the US involving the use of Signal to discuss top secret military news and accidentally including a reporter in the chat suggests that the US of A is currently resembling a dark satirical cross between Monty Python and The Thick of It.

Reasons for Optimism

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, March 22nd, 2025 - 14 comments

We’re good, but we know we want better leadership.

Then they came for the Doctors

Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, March 22nd, 2025 - 45 comments

It seems that the National Act Government is looking at what is happening in the US of A and thinking that the rolling out of fascist restrictions of freedom of speech is a good thing. And they are starting with health professionals.

The Libelle liquidation

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, March 20th, 2025 - 20 comments

The first liquidator’s report on Libelle Group Limited suggests the company was hopelessly incapable of performing its role in providing the National-Act Government’s version of school lunches.

The World Turned Upside Down (again)

Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, March 19th, 2025 - 73 comments

The world is in turmoil as political and economic uncertainty grow, and as conflict spreads. How the Left prepares for the next decade is a pressing challenge.

Cuts to Disability Services Are Part of a Class War

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 19th, 2025 - 14 comments

Over the last year, the Coalition has unleashed a series of cuts which have been devastating for the disabled community. These cuts are part of a class war — and it’s time to organise and fight back, writes Elliot Crossan.

Is NZ as Stable as Luxon Claims?

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 pm, March 15th, 2025 - 13 comments

By pursuing cuts, selling off assets to multinationals, enabling ACT’s attacks on the Treaty and cutting back on climate commitments, Luxon is guaranteeing that NZ will not be stable for long, writes Elliot Crossan.

Does the Government not like Māori and Pasifika?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 15th, 2025 - 17 comments

Health officials advised the Government “significantly” more lives could be saved if it lowered the bowel cancer screening age for Māori and Pasifika further than the rest of the population. But it refused to accept this advice. Why?