human rights

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The power of compassionate politics

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, March 20th, 2019 - 205 comments

Jacinda Ardern has shown over the past week that she is one of the country’s best leaders.

Chinese Herald changed Herald articles to be more China friendly

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, January 15th, 2019 - 70 comments

Stuff has reported that its opponent, the New Zealand Herald, has via its Chinese version amended stories to make them more acceptable to the Chinese Government.

The Taxpayers’ Union* responds to the Clark and Thompson spying fiasco

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, December 24th, 2018 - 9 comments

* not a real union.

How To Get There 16/12/18

Written By: - Date published: 6:55 am, December 16th, 2018 - 216 comments

Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.

 

Praying for Grace

Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, December 11th, 2018 - 153 comments

There will be vigils for murdered tourist Grace Millane over the next few days. The grief we have shown over her death reflects the best of NZ. However, the routine violence inflicted on so many other women and children here in Aotearoa is our real shame. What are Kiwi men going to do about it?

TERFed Out: UPDATED

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 pm, November 29th, 2018 - 327 comments

Labour MP Louisa Wall has written an opinion piece in response to Herald columnist Rachel Stewart’s attack earlier in the week on the trans community and their LGBTIQ+ allies. It’s very good.

UPDATE: Rachel Stewart, as predicted, has blocked me on twitter. But not before going full on racist.

Pride and police

Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, November 26th, 2018 - 110 comments

A guest post by Joel Walsham on the decision of the Auckland Pride Board to request the police not to march at the Pride parade in uniform.

Academic freedom and relationships with China

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, November 26th, 2018 - 108 comments

A number of prominent academics and researchers have signed an open letter to Jacinda Ardern urging her to take the allegations of Chinese involvement in crimes against Professor Anne Marie Brady seriously and to make a clear statement in defence of academic freedom in New Zealand.

KiwiBuild doesn’t fly.

Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, November 2nd, 2018 - 215 comments

More than that, it needs to be torn down before it makes a serious bid at flight.

Kiwi values

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, October 1st, 2018 - 106 comments

New Zealand First at its conference on the weekend passed a remit to calling for immigrants and refugees to “respect New Zealand values” which are founded on Christianity.

Paranoia, Bullshit and Ordinary Lives.

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, September 14th, 2018 - 125 comments

It seems that for some, trashing out the lives of ordinary people is fine, because “Russia bad”. It’s not fine…

Litigation and equal pay – a history of the 1950’s equal pay campaign

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, August 28th, 2018 - 3 comments

Forward In 2016 I wrote the below dissertation as part of my History Honours degree at Victoria University.  This dissertation explores the 1950s equal pay campaign, and specifically looks at the Jean Parker Case. Jean Parker was a PSA member employed at IRD, who like Kristine Bartlett 60 years later, won a landmark equal pay legal […]

Free Mike Treen

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, July 31st, 2018 - 72 comments

Unite Union’s Mike Treen has been arrested in International waters by Israeli forces for being part of a flotilla that wanted to deliver medical supplies to Gaza.

Redeveloping Public Housing

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, July 26th, 2018 - 116 comments

The Government is getting ready to battle the most rapacious economic force in this country, real estate capitalism, for the good of people.

The UN is shocked by NZ’s child poverty rates

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, July 22nd, 2018 - 89 comments

Earlier this year the United Nations expressed shock and concern at New Zealand’s rates of child poverty, homelessness, incarceration and violence.  What is this Government doing to address these issues?

My Little Eye…

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, July 21st, 2018 - 17 comments

Something beginning with…wtf?!

Free Speech.

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, July 11th, 2018 - 179 comments

It’s a principle.

The free speech coalition that is actually quite expensive

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, July 11th, 2018 - 168 comments

The Free Speech coalition, formed to protect freedom of speech for the far right, has amongst its members some whose views on what freedom of speech actually is are unusual.

Cake makers and fascists

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, July 10th, 2018 - 412 comments

A Warkworth cake maker has refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.  The situation raises the question should she be allowed to discriminate against others on the grounds that she is exercising her rights of religious belief.

Far right Canadian activist wants to come to New Zealand to insult local communities

Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, July 6th, 2018 - 292 comments

Far right journalist Lauren Southern wants to come to New Zealand to give a speech which will no doubt insult various communities. Should we let her in?

Full retreat

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, June 27th, 2018 - 13 comments

The United States Supreme Court decision to upheld Trump’s travel ban is but the latest example of bad news for international human rights we have had over recent times.

immigration profiling

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, April 10th, 2018 - 43 comments

A data modelling programme that includes race and ethnicity as factors for consideration is a bad idea.

Labour speaks up.

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, April 8th, 2018 - 5 comments

Partial transcript of a speech as reported in “The Independent”

Hallelujah Parliament to pass law allowing for wiping of convictions for engaging in homosexual behaviour

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 3rd, 2018 - 13 comments

It is predicted that today Parliament will pass a law allowing for the expunging of convictions of adults for engaging in homosexual behaviour.

The manufacturing of a narrative

Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, March 31st, 2018 - 606 comments

The past week has seen the Herald focus on issues concerning Clare Curran to the almost exclusion of anything else, including the perilous state of our Health system and Kim Dotcom’s successful appeal against the last Government’s breach of his rights of privacy.

Marama Davidson – Te Pire Haeata ki Parihaka – Parihaka Reconciliation Bill – First Reading

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, March 23rd, 2018 - 10 comments

“I will apologise to the people of Parihaka who are here, while I do recount some of the important history that they have heard and know and live and breathed, but that still today, too many in our country are not aware of and are not familiar with and so I seek to put it on record in the House as part of my contribution.”

Painting by George Clarendon Beale (1856–1939)

Labour ban letting fees

Written By: - Date published: 6:33 am, March 23rd, 2018 - 134 comments

A good start from Labour on rent reforms, but will their bigger plans be enough?

Tell the Health Committee: Make our cannabis law fair for those in pain

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, March 18th, 2018 - 10 comments

“The Health Select Committee is about to consider the government’s changes to medicinal cannabis law. This is your chance to tell politicians they have not gone far enough.” 

The Greens have a handy online submission form that you can send as is or add your own thoughts. Submissions close on Wednesday.

Food security in New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 6:12 am, March 14th, 2018 - 28 comments

The Standard regular commenter Macro takes a look at the state of food security in NZ

Good Witches Hunting

Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, March 6th, 2018 - 114 comments

With the publishing of another misogynistic cartoon, it’s time to ask who were the witches and why are so many men still afraid of them?

Respecting our Rights and the New Zealand Constitution

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, February 27th, 2018 - 35 comments

The Minister of Justice and the Prime Minister teased a little bit of constitutional change yesterday. Let’s look at what that could actually mean, and how it could upon up old laws for review by Parliament.