Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, May 19th, 2017 - 38 comments
On the issues of suicide and mental health, the choice is pretty clear. Bungling and abuse from National, a positive plan for action from Labour.
Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, May 10th, 2017 - 17 comments
according to Health Minister Jonathan Coleman
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, April 28th, 2017 - 66 comments
We won’t be able to say that we didn’t have ample warning, with a another detailed and damning report on water quality out yesterday. Does National really want to be remembered for allowing the poisoning of our water?
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, March 18th, 2017 - 66 comments
If, instead of macho posturing (like the “War on P”), we wanted to actually tackle substance abuse, we would be looking at what actually works. Interesting case study in Iceland.
Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, February 25th, 2017 - 93 comments
Being tenants in our own country is starting to look like the good old days.
Written By: - Date published: 4:21 pm, February 23rd, 2017 - 125 comments
So National’s great plan for swimmable rivers by 2040 is to allow twice as much shit in them and still call them “swimmable.”
Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, February 21st, 2017 - 30 comments
The living wage rises, and an odd argument for abolishing the minimum wage.
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 pm, February 20th, 2017 - 8 comments
We sometimes give employers a bit of a hard time on this blog, so it’s nice to occasionally celebrate a good one. Dunedin gaming company Rocketwerkz is in the headlines for all the right reasons.
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, January 16th, 2017 - 98 comments
In this glorious ‘go ahead’, ‘get ahead’ land of opportunity…
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, December 23rd, 2016 - 107 comments
Alicia Sudden reflects on Christmas at The Briefing Papers: “Yet this brief annual window excludes the elephant in the room: that this poverty is a consequence of our welfare system failing to provide the support it was intended to.”
Written By: - Date published: 2:42 pm, November 11th, 2016 - 13 comments
In the midst of the cataclysmic big stories, we should not lose sight of the small personal ones.
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, October 11th, 2016 - 104 comments
A wee reflection on our psychological fuck-edness.
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, September 16th, 2016 - 120 comments
TS regular Tony Veitch has some practical ideas as to how we insulate NZ from the ravages of neoliberalism and climate change. Readers may agree with some, none or all of the suggestions. However, whichever way you look at it, the time for hand wringing is over. It’s time for action.
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, August 28th, 2016 - 44 comments
The closure of 19 mostly rural Westpac branches is indicative of the ongoing hollowing out the regions. Neglecting Northland cost the Nats the last by election. Neglecting regional NZ as a whole might cost them the next general.
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, August 21st, 2016 - 147 comments
Extracts from a long piece by Rutger Bregman in The Guardian. Plenty to disagree with perhaps, but plenty to ponder too.
Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, July 30th, 2016 - 59 comments
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, July 26th, 2016 - 28 comments
National pays electoral homage to our vulnerable children. They talk a big game about putting “the needs of our most vulnerable children and families at the centre of decisions”. Their actions tell a different story – of under-funding at CYF and falling numbers of social workers.
Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, July 23rd, 2016 - 60 comments
“Pain debilitates you and makes you depressed and you can sort of let the depression seep over you, but if you can, get out and live your life.”
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, July 21st, 2016 - 19 comments
Nothing like a good clickbait headline eh!
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, July 21st, 2016 - 204 comments
The government is demolishing and selling state house while WINZ sends families to live in garages. This is New Zealand in the Eighth Year of the Brighter Future.
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, July 1st, 2016 - 45 comments
— Deborah Russell
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, June 30th, 2016 - 84 comments
Bill English didn’t know the cost of the parental leave bill that he vetoed on the grounds of cost, and he didn’t care enough about it to speak to the matter in Parliament last night.
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, June 23rd, 2016 - 38 comments
From the “Brighter Future”, four personal stories published recently are all well worth reading.
Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, June 17th, 2016 - 27 comments
It’s been a hard week, and many of us could do with some kindness and good news. Let’s take a moment to remember Matariki. What would Standardistas and other politically progressive people like to see for the coming year?
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, June 6th, 2016 - 30 comments
For the first time in 130 years, more young adults (18 – 34) in America live with their parents than with a partner. How long before we pass the same milestone – or have we done so already?
Written By: - Date published: 6:21 pm, May 26th, 2016 - 89 comments
There are budgets and there are budgets. And for all the presence or absence of bright ideas, there’s a budget that threatens to subsume all others…
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, May 26th, 2016 - 49 comments
Sue Moroney’s bill to extend paid parental leave passed its second reading last night – bravo to all those who supported it! The Nats’ threat to veto is profoundly anti-democratic, overriding the will of Parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, May 20th, 2016 - 18 comments
A petition: “As Minister of Social Development we call upon Minister Anne Tolley to urgently forgive all debts incurred by people who have been forced to stay in Motels as emergency accommodation….”
Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, May 20th, 2016 - 48 comments
That is how officials from the Ministry of Social Development described the emergency housing system to Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett – a year ago. What has Bennett done in the year since?
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, May 19th, 2016 - 151 comments
This is a massive market and moral failure. The problem isn’t going to go away, it’s going to get worse, and the media are going to stay on the case. Time for National to borrow some more Labour / Green policy thinking.
Written By: - Date published: 5:26 pm, May 18th, 2016 - 99 comments
On Stuff: “Little said cannabis products should be available to anyone suffering chronic pain or a terminal condition if their GP signed off on it.”
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