quality of life

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Petition to forgive emergency accommodation debt

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….”

Incoherent, unfair and unaccountable

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?

Glib words and false hope aren’t going to cut it

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.

Labour would legalise medical cannabis

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.”

Little’s Healthy Homes Bill passes first reading

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, May 5th, 2016 - 22 comments

Last night Andrew Little’s Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill passed it’s first reading. Bravo to Andrew Little, Labour, The Greens, NZF, The Maori Party, and Peter Dunne, who voted in support.

The Divide (Spirit Level – The Movie)

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, April 13th, 2016 - 5 comments

Based on the breakthrough book The Spirit Level, just released film The Divide puts a human face on low wage hell. “Why aren’t we earning enough to live?”

House Tales.

Written By: - Date published: 3:01 pm, March 22nd, 2016 - 32 comments

If ‘home is where the heart is’ then what’s the story when everything’s heartless?

Glasses and Brick Walls (& woods and trees).

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 pm, March 21st, 2016 - 47 comments

The thing about not having great sight is that sometimes you don’t really see things coming.

Buying Awaroa beach

Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, February 10th, 2016 - 50 comments

“There is a pristine piece of beach and bush in the heart of the Abel Tasman up for private sale. Together we can buy it and gift it to NZ.”

Final hours for submission on voluntary euthanasia

Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, February 1st, 2016 - 1 comment

The end of today is the last chance to make a submission to Parliament on voluntary euthanasia.

Child poverty has been monitored – now what?

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, December 18th, 2015 - 104 comments

A guest post from McFlock on what we might do about poverty when the talking’s done.

Poverty’s Beneficiaries.

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, November 8th, 2015 - 68 comments

While pondering this post, I was pointed to a post from last year, in which poverty and the cost of breakfast were on the agenda. Stephanie was writing in response to the ignorance of Nikki Kaye who claimed that giving affordable nutritious breakfast to children was easy. While I haven’t taken the time to read all of the comments on the subject, I thought Stephanie proved the point quite aptly that the reality is far different than the hypothetical world of poverty in which Nikki Kaye lives.

Food Bank Charity

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, October 30th, 2015 - 97 comments

Guest post from Kōrero Pono on the politics and ethics of food banks.

Lucky Labour – disgraceful Speaker

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, October 16th, 2015 - 37 comments

Three of the four member’s bills drawn yesterday were sponsored by Labour leaders. What followed was one of the most disgusting maneuvers ever pulled by this government, justifying the headline – Nats play politics while Kiwi kids die in homes.

Medicinal cannabis

Written By: - Date published: 4:05 pm, October 12th, 2015 - 50 comments

Helen Kelly calls for the government “to get real about medicinal cannabis”. Seriously – what are we waiting for?

WMBAD: Global goals

Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, October 2nd, 2015 - 3 comments

The White Man Behind A Desk is back, looking at the big picture, why we hate politicians, and why you need to tweet John Key.

Diesel Bomb

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, October 1st, 2015 - 37 comments

Last Friday I wrote a post on Volkwagen gaming NOx emissions. This is a follow up.

NOx-ious shit all around.

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, September 25th, 2015 - 109 comments

Been trying to get my head around the implications of Volkswagen’s rigged diesel performance tests. Predictably, and unlike most stories covering this, I couldn’t give a rat’s arse for the financial woes the company might be facing.

250 to 300 Job Losses at Unitec in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, August 8th, 2015 - 84 comments

Under Unitec’s new vision students will be known as Customers. Student services will be outsourced (overseas)

Aspiration statement
To be a world leader in contemporary applied learning and an agent of positive economic and social change
.

Christchurch needs blankets

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, July 8th, 2015 - 96 comments

A Christchurch blanket bank has run out of blankets, in this the “seventh year of the brighter future”…

Auto Kiwisaver

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, May 29th, 2015 - 60 comments

Nice to see English acknowledging the importance of Kiwisaver – thanks Michael Cullen, thanks Helen Clark! I certainly support default enrollment. But – isn’t this Big Government Nanny State Gone Mad?

The Sallies do not like Government’s housing policy

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, February 10th, 2015 - 61 comments

The Salvation Army has all but ruled out being involved in the Government’s Social Housing unless it is provided with capital.  And if divestment occurs it considers that tenants should have a role in governance of the houses they live in.

A calculated feeding of the beasts within

Written By: - Date published: 2:13 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 76 comments

The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.

A Punitive Climate of Fear

Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, January 9th, 2015 - 64 comments

Whatever the reason for a person’s disability if it is to such an extent that they cannot work we condemn them to a life of subsistence living with a big pay rise when, and if, they reach retirement age to 65% of the average wage!

Songs for the New Year – summertime!

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, January 1st, 2015 - 35 comments

Happy New Year! Some songs for the times.

The future of work, income

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, November 1st, 2014 - 188 comments

Automation is changing everything – faster than we think…

Poverty and the need to belong

Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, October 25th, 2014 - 37 comments

I’ve read a couple of thought-provoking accounts of poverty lately. There are common themes – issues that the political right, which can only see “the poor” as separate from “us”, will never understand and acknowledge.

No excuse for WINZ’s mistreatment of people in need

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, March 14th, 2014 - 183 comments

Yesterday one woman’s story blew the lid on our government’s treatment of beneficiaries. Sarah Wilson’s post on her ongoing struggles just to get Work and Income to do their job properly and give her the support she needs went viral, and as the comments flooded in, more stories emerged. Stories about how humiliating it is […]

Stand up for fairness in & for NZ – TPPA, March 29

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, March 13th, 2014 - 6 comments

International, cronyist, corporate capitalism skews democratic processes in NZ, making it harder for the majority of battling Kiwis to get a fair go – harder to ensure all New Zealanders live in a society that works for them. The TPPA is a power-play between the US and other powerful countries.  There’s nothing in it for NZ. National Day of action March 29th, 2014.

UBI (3). Taxes, income and Welfare

Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, January 25th, 2014 - 68 comments

However, a UBI is a change in distribution of incomes, not an increase in the size of Government.

Progressive taxation  is the price of living in a well resourced, pleasant, and cohesive society.

Consumerism’s ‘desert of the real’

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, January 6th, 2014 - 47 comments

In The Matrix Neo discovers that his “reality”, is a virtual world that had kept him from seeing “the desert of the real”. George Monbiot cites research that shows how capitalism is eating itself and its consumers. The marketing con of “the good life” – desert of the real.