Open mike 03/05/2025
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6:00 am, May 3rd, 2025 - 46 comments
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- Albanese’s visit shows Indonesia is still a foreign policy priority
As Anthony Albanese prepares to travel to Jakarta for his first state visit in his second term, the symbolism is clear: Indonesia remains a cornerstone of Australia’s foreign policy. Since taking office, the Albanese government ...58 minutes ago - Monday 12 May
Opposition to the Government’s attacks on pay equity are gathering steam, with protests around the country and more than 65,000 people already signed on to a petition calling on the Government to reverse the changes. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says Cabinet will consider a social media ban on under-16s, despite ...2 hours ago - Naked corruption
When National passed its corrupt, Muldoonist fast-track law, they were criticised for accepting donations from fast-track applicants. You'd think that after such criticism, and the consequent effect on the reputation of our state, they might have ceased the practice - but of course not. Instead, they're still taking money from ...2 hours ago - Nicola Willis Calls Pay Equity “A Grievance Industry”
Nicola Willis pulled the sympathy and sexism card this morning in an opinion piece for Stuff/The Post.In it, claimed she had been much maligned by, well, everyone, on pay equity, and “mainstream” journalists were guilty of “sexist slurs” and misinformation against her.The offending piece was Andrea Vance’s “The girl-math budget ...3 hours ago - Rhys Williams – Arsehole of the Week
It’s time to shine the spotlight on a particularly vile specimen slithering through New Zealand’s political underbelly: Rhys Williams, this week’s Arsehole Award winner. Williams is a NZ First party activist (who didn’t renew his membership), and has carved out a niche as a homophobic, defamatory troll, hiding behind the ...5 hours ago - Bookshelf: Australia in a fragmenting and deglobalising world
Elisabeth Braw’s insightful 2024 book, Goodbye Globalization: The Return of a Divided World, has proven remarkably prescient in understanding the turbulent global landscape of 2025. While the era of globalisation promised unprecedented interconnectedness and prosperity, ...6 hours ago
- Announcing Law & Order
Poets, priests and politiciansHave words to thank for their positionsWords that scream for your submissionAnd no one's jamming their transmissionAnd when their eloquence escapes youTheir logic ties you up and rapes you!Songwriter: Sting. Read more ...8 hours ago - A counter to drone swarms: high-power microwave weapons
Military forces must prioritise a counter to drone swarming tactics with which inexpensive, mass-produced drones can overwhelm defences. What is needed is a layered defensive system that includes systems that can neutralise many threats within ...9 hours ago
- Pay equity shock to have unintended consequences
Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, May 12:The gutting of pay equity laws may force hospices to close, pushing extra patients and extra cost into hospitals, the sector says at the start of Hospice Awareness Week. Barnados’ CEO says the law change will hit ...9 hours ago - The Death of a Deer
Edit: This stuff is fascinating - and for the record you are definitely OK to disagree with me on any of this in the comments. This community rules, and you’re respectful and great even when disagreeing.With that said — this email just landed in my inbox from a Webworm subscriber ...10 hours ago - 2025 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #19
A listing of 27 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 4, 2025 thru Sat, May 10, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...22 hours ago - India-Pakistan crisis: military operations intensify before ceasefire
The past 36 hours on the India-Pakistan front have been tumultuous. Where the confrontation is headed is unclear. Although things seemed to be calming down early on Friday, May 9, intense developments followed. A series ...1 day ago
- NZ First Resorts To Dirty Politics 2.0
1 day ago
- Mother’s Day
My mama saidThat it's good to be fruitfulBut my mama saidDon't take more than a mouthfulAnd my mama saidThat it's good to be naturalAnd my mama saidThat it's good to be factualAlways on the Run, by Lenny Kravitz & Slash.Morena folks, let me begin by acknowledging that Mother’s Day can ...1 day ago - Dunedin Mayor Calls On Government To Help Homeless
Last week, a fire tore through a homeless camp at Dunedin’s Oval, destroying tents and makeshift shelters in a stark reminder of New Zealand’s soul-destroying housing crisis. This isn’t just a tragedy, it’s a predictable outcome of the Coalition of Chaos’s reckless policies, which have gutted funding for emergency accommodation ...1 day ago
- Bernard’s Soliloquy for the week to May 11
Brooke van Velden says she had proposed the repeal of the Pay Equity Act in a letter to PM Christopher Luxon as soon as she became Workplace Relations and Safety Minister in late 2023. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesBriefly in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to Sunday, May 11:PM Christopher ...1 day ago - Mothers’ Day
In honour of those who have come, those who are, and those who will come to be.Kate SheppardKate Sheppard is famous for leading the successful campaign that made New Zealand the first self-governing nation to grant women the right to vote in 1893. CorrespondenceMarilyn WaringDame Marilyn Joy Waring DNZM is ...1 day ago - Fact brief – Is the climate as unpredictable as the weather?
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is the climate as unpredictable as the weather? Climate predictions are more reliable than weather forecasts because they model long-term trends driven by ...2 days ago
- Fact brief – Is the climate as unpredictable as the weather?
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is the climate as unpredictable as the weather? Climate predictions are more reliable than weather forecasts because they model long-term trends driven by ...2 days ago
- Watch Ozzy Man Destroy Some White Supremacist
Gather round, you bloody legends, and let’s talk about a true Aussie icon who’s taken a wild detour from his usual topics. Ethan Marrell, better known as Ozzy Man, has been a YouTube juggernaut since 2014, dishing out side-splitting commentary with that larrikin charm and a voice that could make ...2 days ago
- Bernard’s Picks ‘n’ Mixes for Saturday, May 10
Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy on Saturday, May 10: Protests have erupted over the Government’s pay equity betrayal this week. Abuse in care survivors are shocked the Government ignored the Royal Commission’s main recommendation.The Government has launched a review of the Waitangi Tribunal’s ‘activism,’ late on a Friday afternoon.Food poverty ...2 days ago - Cold as Ice
I've seen it before; it happens all the timeYou're closing the door, you leave the world behindYou're digging for gold, you're throwing awayA fortune in feelings, but someday you'll payYou know that you are(Cold as ice) As cold as ice to me(Cold as ice)Songwriters: Mick Jones / Lou Gramm.“My suffragette ...3 days ago - Seeking Fiscal Balance
Should we pursue a ‘Golden Rule’ where any public borrowing for consumption is temporary?This columnist is a fiscal conservative who is cautious about government borrowing for public consumption. I was not originally. The Keynesian model I first studied said borrow as much as is necessary to sustain demand. But the ...3 days ago - Taiwan’s polarised politics risks undermining its resilience and security
Taiwan’s opposition parties—including the once-dominant Kuomintang (KMT)—now wield real power in the legislature for the first time since 2012. But their recent actions have cast serious doubt on their commitment to Taiwan’s long-term security and ...3 days ago
- US Defense Secretary cancels Women, Peace and Security programs
Last week, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the cancellation of his department’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) program. In doing so, he ignored the well-established overlap of insecurity and gender inequality. When announcing ...3 days ago
- PHOTOS: NZ Protests – Again
Kiwis around the country protest: RNZ reports more than 1000 descended on Brooke Van Velden’s officeNote:The government started this pay equity process in April 2024.That’s over a year ago.Cabinet signed it off two months ago.There was no reason for urgency - and never was.The Minister for Woman was left with ...3 days ago - More constitutional vandalism
Since the national government embarked on its racist campaign against Māori, the Waitangi Tribunal has emerged as one of its chief adversaries, putting the impacts of its racist policies formally on the record so they can not be denied. National has responded by sabotaging it, replacing almost the entire membership ...3 days ago
- Nicola Grigg’s Video A Tale Of Two Women
Nicola Grigg1 was given one of the safest blue seats in the country - Selwyn, Christchurch.She holds multiple ministerial portfolios including Trade & Investment, Women, Agriculture, and ACC. Not a bad role.Last year, Grigg said she entered Parliament with Luxon and developed a strong friendship with him.This week she affirmed ...3 days ago
- Are New Zealanders Really Living Beyond Our Means?
The National-led government has been banging the drum of fiscal restraint again, claiming New Zealanders have been “living beyond our means” in another Luxon hates "wet and whiny New Zealanders" standup that is likely to tank his approval rating even further. Yet, the Coalition of Chaos' actions tell a different ...3 days ago
- Drawing Parallels.
The April 22 attacks by Kashmir Resistance (KR), a (at least tacitly) Pakistani-backed irredentist group in Indian-controlled Kashmir, in which 26 people were murdered, has some unfortunate parallels with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. Although many more Israelis died in the latter (nearly 2000) and the costs ...3 days ago - It’s a wrap: NT Defence Week 2025
Australia’s future security will be decided as much in Darwin as in Canberra. NT Defence Week 2025 made that reality unmistakably clear, showcasing the Northern Territory not as a remote outpost, but as the operational ...3 days ago
- Huge Increase In Part Time Workers Earning Nothing
New Zealand’s part-time workers are caught in a vicious cycle, ground down by a system that punishes ambition and rewards poverty. Work and Income’s draconian deductions regime ensure that every extra dollar earned by part time workers is clawed back, leaving many with nothing to show for their efforts. Add ...3 days ago
- Media Bias Over Erica Stanford’s Security Breaches
The Coalition Of Chaos’ Pay Equity Amendment Bill, rammed through under urgency, has predictably hogged the headlines. But while the mainstream media fixates on this gut-punch to women’s economic justice, Education Minister Erica Stanford’s reckless use of her personal Gmail account for sensitive government business is being swept under the ...3 days ago
- Indonesia is more important than ever: Australia must nurture the relationship
For more than decade, there have been signs that Australia is losing diplomatic access and influence in Indonesia. This is cause for concern, given Indonesia’s size and influence in the Indo-Pacific, and because of the ...3 days ago
- The Hoon around the week to May 9
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on news about climate change’s role in spreading birdflu in the United States and elsewhere, research showing marine heatwaves gathering ...3 days ago
- Government hid pay equity plans for months
If the decision to disenfranchise tens of thousands of women and men in many of New Zealand’s most important professions seemed hasty or rushed to you at all, don’t worry — it wasn’t! The government just didn’t think it was important for you to know about it.As far back as ...4 days ago - On The New Pope, And The Israeli Attack On Peter Davis
The election of any Pope tends to be retro-fitted in ways that make the choice seem inevitable. God’s will, no less. If the new Pope had been Italian (“Time for the papacy to return home!”) or a staunch conservative (“Time for a balance to the liberalism of Francis!”) then much ...4 days ago - A calculated policy of deceit
This week the government rammed through legislation under urgency to cancel all outstanding pay equity deals and make them impossible to get in future, balancing their books by stealing $17 billion from New Zealand women. It was an outrageous abuse of the democratic process, and since it passed, we've learned ...4 days ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #19 2025
Open access notables The post-truth era and how science education keeps ignoring it, Erduran, Science: Conventional educational strategies in combatting post-truth seem to emphasize merits of truth, evidence, and reason. Such focus misses key elements of the post-truth era. It ignores the political dynamics that engulf science as well as ...4 days ago
- Huawei drives and dominates Thailand’s digital ascent
Thailand’s rapid ascent as a 5G leader in Southeast Asia has, in part, been powered by Huawei. While many Western nations excluded Huawei from their 5G rollout over security concerns, Thailand—like several regional neighbours—embraced the ...4 days ago
- The threat spectrum
Planet A China has secured a five-year agreement with Cook Islands to explore seabed minerals. The deal, signed alongside broader economic cooperation agreements, consolidates China’s growing presence in Pacific island countries. It follows recent Chinese ...4 days ago
- Pay Equity Events
The Government using Pay Equity settlements as a way to fund their Budget is a new low. Join in rallies across the motu to speak truth to power. Below is a list of all the event’s we are aware of. If you have any other events you’d like to ...4 days ago
- The Right-Wing’s Unemployment Victory Lap
Will you look at that. The National-led coalition and their media cheerleaders, popping champagne because New Zealand’s unemployment rate (currently languishing at a grim 5.1%) hasn’t quite fully spiralled into the abyss they’ve been digging. Bravo, you absolute legends of mediocrity! The mainstream media, ever the loyal lapdogs, are fawning over ...4 days ago
- How Safe Is Student Job Search?
Note: the name of the student in this story has been changed, indicated by an asterisk.Webworm is a reader-supported publication. If you appreciate the journalism I do here, consider becoming subscriber.Hi,Logging into Student Job Search (SJS) is a right of passage for any conscientious university student in New Zealand who’s ...4 days ago - Fat Bottom Girls
Are you gonna take me home tonight?Oh, down beside that red firelightAre you gonna let it all hang out?Fat bottomed girlsYou make the rockin' world go 'roundSongwriter: Brian May.Bottom. What does that word make you think of? For the last few years, it’s been part of a familiar phrase our ...4 days ago - Sri Lanka holds its own amid economic uncertainty
In recent months, Colombo has faced two sharp blows from its Western partners. First was the surprise cut to USAID funding, amounting to approximately US$53 million. Then came a 44 percent tariff on apparel exports ...4 days ago
- Carers, teachers & nurses lose up to $17b, to fund $14b of tax cuts
The planned $14 billion of tax cuts going mostly to landlords and high earners will effectively be paid for by wage cuts for the poorest workers, almost all of whom are women. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly, in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Thursday, May ...4 days ago - A British carrier group is coming to the Pacific—with doubts looming over it
Operation Highmast got underway in late April, as the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and supporting warships embarked on an eight-month deployment, also known as Carrier Strike Group 25, to the Pacific and ...4 days ago
- World’s cargo ships to pay more for dirty fuel under new rules
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson Alandmark policy crafted in April by members of the U.N.’s International Maritime Organization, or IMO, will tax international shippers based on the carbon content of their fuels. The draft policy is due to be finalized in late 2025. The agreement ...4 days ago
- Pay equity passing is an attack on the working class
5 days ago - It’s Time — To Fight
5 days ago - India and Pakistan must manage escalation after Pahalgam attack
India has launched a retaliatory strike against the Pakistan-based groups responsible for a terrorist attack in Indian Kashmir two weeks ago. The Indian government released a press statement announcing that the armed forces had launched ...5 days ago
- Mapping a decade’s worth of hybrid threats targeting Australia
Hybrid threats, enabled by digital technologies and fuelled by geostrategic competition, are reshaping international security and global norms. Most often, states (commonly working through non-state proxies) are exploiting cybersecurity vulnerabilities and engaging in economic coercion, ...5 days ago
- Government of the 0.3%
A couple of months ago, the government held a public "consultation" on their proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. People responded en masse, and made it crystal clear what they thought of it: The Ministry received approximately 23,000 submissions and worked with a specialist consultancy to quantitatively assess support and opposition ...5 days ago
- Trump’s Tariff Tantrum Has Backfired
Donald Trump's tariff tirade, sold as a patriotic push to “Make America Great Again,” is backfiring spectacularly, driving iconic US manufacturers like Boeing and John Deere to pack their bags and head for the exits. Far from reviving the heartland, Trump’s trade war is gutting it, and the numbers paint ...5 days ago
- Unions launch petition to protect pay equity
Major Aotearoa unions have launched a new petition calling on the Government to reverse their proposed amendments to the Equal Pay Act and restore existing pay equity claims. Unions behind the petition are home to tens of thousands of working people who’ve experienced the life-changing impact of pay equity – ...5 days ago
- Still 34,000 unemployed under National
The March labour market statistics are out, showing unemployment unchanged at 5.1%. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. While better than expected, there's been a shift from full-time to part-time work, and total weekly paid hours has dropped - meaning people are working ...5 days ago
- Without logistics, northern defence is going nowhere
Australia must develop a national logistics plan to support combat operations in its primary theatre. Defence’s primary strategic guidance, the National Defence Strategy, has chapters on people, innovation, acquisition and partnerships. It does not talk ...5 days ago
- Luxon Isn’t Focused On The Cost Of Living Crisis
When the National Party came to power in 2023, they promised to have a laser-like focus on New Zealand’s cost of living crisis. Their pledge was seductive: tax cuts, streamlined spending, and relief for the “squeezed middle.” Yet, two years into their coalition with ACT and NZ First (the coalition ...5 days ago
- Disagree where we must: little room for military diplomacy with China
Australia’s military relationship with China is now defined by strategic competition and opposing objectives. The days of friendly port visits, personnel exchanges and survival exercises are over. As tensions grow, even dialogue with China’s military ...5 days ago
- Moment to Arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of nightTake these broken wings and learn to flyAll your lifeYou were only waiting for this moment to ariseSong by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.Brooke cancels fair pay.It’s deja vu on top of deja vu with these guys. Just when you think they might take ...5 days ago - Gordon Campbell On Surviving Trump’s Trip To La La Land
The film industry was probably naive to think it would be spared from Donald Trump’s war on globalisation. If you believe Trump, every dollar being spent on foreign film crews, FX houses and film locations, every dime being spent by “runaway” film productions on foreign accomodation and food, is money ...6 days ago
- Where’s your evidence, Brooke? Where’s your evidence?
Asked to comment on the passing of Bob Jones last week, our Prime Minister said he’s a living legend. Such is the B-bursary brain power of our leader. A dead guy is a living legend.No surprise then that all he grasped from Brooke van Velden's robot talk about vandalising pay ...6 days ago - The Coalition’s Pay Equity Betrayal
The Coalition of Chaos' latest incredibly short-sighted move sees them funnelling around a billion dollars from throwing pay equity claims into the bin into some new helicopters, supposedly for defence or emergency services. Fine, modern equipment is necessary, but at what cost?Pay equity claims, painstakingly initiated to address systemic wage ...6 days ago
- The Government Aren’t Paying For Our Defence Spend. Workers Are.
Saving money? The best budgeters recommend cutting the biggest expenses first. I have several facts to present. The earnings gap between management and workers, and particularly between CEOs and workers, has been diverging dramatically since the 80s.The public sector (nearly) matches the pay rate of the private sector for managerial ...6 days ago - The Government Aren’t Paying For Our Defence Spend. Workers Are.
Saving money? The best budgeters recommend cutting the biggest expenses first. I have several facts to present. The earnings gap between management and workers, and particularly between CEOs and workers, has been diverging dramatically since the 80s.The public sector (nearly) matches the pay rate of the private sector for managerial ...6 days ago
- China needs Taiwanese ports to take the island. Mines are the key to protecting them
If China ever makes good on decades of implicit threats to invade Taiwan, most of its ground force will have to land at ports. Relatively little of it can come over beaches, because they ‘lack ...6 days ago
- China needs Taiwanese ports to take the island. Mines are the key to protecting them
If China ever makes good on decades of implicit threats to invade Taiwan, most of its ground force will have to land at ports. Relatively little of it can come over beaches, because they ‘lack ...6 days ago
- Dropped
All charges against the Restore Passenger Rail protestors have finally been dropped. Good. But they should never have been laid in the first place, and it shouldn't have taken a jury telling the police to go fuck themselves (or the threat of them doing so again) for the state to ...6 days ago
- Cameron Slater’s Selective Outrage Over Benjamin Doyle
Cameron Slater, the once-feared Whale Oil blogger now pathetic bedroom hack, is back at it again, flogging a dead horse while the rest of the right-wing propaganda circus has packed up and left town. His latest fixation? Green MP Benjamin Doyle, whose private social media account sparked a brief, baseless ...6 days ago
- National supports sexism
That's the only possible conclusion we can draw from their decision to legislatively terminate all pay equity claims, and make future claims much harder to win: Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden announced the moves to raise the threshold for proving work has been historically undervalued to support a claim, ...6 days ago
- Vocational training can play a greater role in national security
Australia’s national security strategy has evolved significantly in recent years, expanding beyond military and intelligence domains to address cyber threats, critical infrastructure protection and emergency response. But despite its contribution to these areas, the vocational ...6 days ago
- Tuesday 6 May
New analysis found the clean slate law has no relevant impact on the likelihood of eligible individuals finding work. The New Zealand film sector is keeping calm and carrying on in the wake of new tariff threats on film and TV production made in non-US countries. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister “has ...6 days ago
- Bernard’s Chorus & Picks ‘n’ Mixes for Tuesday, May 6
Willis and Luxon began the year trumpeting their plan to “go for growth”, but when the Government doesn’t invest, the private sector doesn’t either. Photo: Getty ImagesBriefly, in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Tuesday, May 6: Growth in our housing-market-with-bits-tacked-on of an economy is stalling and ...6 days ago - Erica Stanford Put New Zealand’s Security At Risk
Education and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford must resign for using her personal Gmail account to handle sensitive government business...think pre-Budget announcements, visa changes, and chats with conservative think-tank mates. This isn’t just a whoopsie; it’s a screaming neon sign flashing “hack me” to every cyber-criminal from Beijing to Moscow. And ...6 days ago
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- Release: Peeni Henare takes over foreign affairs
Labour’s Peeni Henare will pick up the foreign affairs portfolio, following David Parker’s departure from Parliament. ...3 hours ago - Release: Govt better at crushing women’s rights than cars
Rehashing old laws around boy racers is not going to make our communities safer, or distract New Zealanders from the appalling decision to cut women’s pay. ...7 hours ago
- No Justice for State Abuse Survivors- Kapa-Kingi
Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau calls out the government’s decision to keep funding state abuse, turning their backs on justice and real change for abuse in care survivors. “The government has committed to throwing $744 million down the drain, reinforcing a violent regime of disrespect against the ...2 days ago
- Govt’s War on Te Tiriti Continues as Review of Treaty Act Announced
Te Pāti Māori is absolutely disgusted by the Government’s announcement to review the Waitangi Tribunal- a deliberate and dangerous escalation in its ongoing campaign to undermine Te Tiriti o Waitangi and silence tangata whenua. “The Government’s onslaught against Te Tiriti continues with this latest move to review the Treaty of ...3 days ago
- Tribunal review an attack on Te Tiriti o Waitangi
The Government’s plans to limit the powers and scope of the Waitangi Tribunal is a disgrace. ...3 days ago - Tribunal review an attack on Te Tiriti o Waitangi
The Government’s plans to limit the powers and scope of the Waitangi Tribunal is a disgrace. ...3 days ago
- Release: Labour asks why Govt is silent on Gaza
Labour is asking the Government why it is silent on Israel’s deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, saying New Zealand should be speaking out. ...3 days ago
- Release: Govt ignores the voices of survivors
Survivors of abuse in state care have a right to feel disappointed and sidelined by the Government. ...3 days ago
- Redress announcement leaves little justice for survivors
The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s decision to severely underfund financial compensation for survivors of abuse in state care. ...3 days ago
- Release: Bill launched to stop tobacco industry lobbying
Labour is launching a members’ bill to stop the Government from putting tobacco industry interests ahead of public health. ...4 days ago
- Release: Labour fights for firefighters
The Labour Party backs volunteer firefighters who are currently not covered by ACC for workplace disease and mental injury and is drafting policy to put this right when the party wins the election in 2026. ...4 days ago
- Wildlife law change a deep betrayal of public trust
The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s use of urgency to rewrite the Wildlife Act–without consultation, without an impact statement, and in direct response to a court ruling in favour of protecting wildlife. ...4 days ago
- Release: National cuts women’s pay
National has forced through a law change that will take money out of women’s pockets. ...5 days ago
- ‘Govt’s Pay Bill Entrenches Discrimination Against Women’ – Kemp
Te Pāti Māori stands in staunch and emotional opposition to the Government’s so-called Equal Pay Amendment Bill, calling it a calculated attack on working women and a cruel betrayal of the generations who have fought for pay equity in Aotearoa. “This bill doesn’t just undermine equal pay — it completely ...5 days ago
- Release: Fewer jobs and opportunities for Māori, again
In the last 12 months life has only got worse for Māori under Christopher Luxon’s Government. ...5 days ago
- Release: More than one in 10 Pacific people unemployed under National
There are more Pacific people unemployed as the rate increases to a staggering 10.8% under National. ...5 days ago
- Release: Unemployment remains high under National
Job losses remain stubbornly high under National, as their attack on jobs, wages, and women rages on. ...5 days ago
- Govt for the rich is failing the unemployed
The latest job market statistics show that unemployed people are being failed by a Government more focused on punishing the poor than creating jobs. ...5 days ago
- RSE Draft Erases Rainbow and Takatāpui Youth
Te Pāti Māori is demanding urgent changes to the draft Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) framework, calling it a dangerous step backwards for Takatāpui, trans, and rainbow rangatahi. “This draft erases Takatāpui voices, ignores whānau diversity, and delays consent education. It’s not just inadequate, it’s unbelievably unsafe” said Te Pāti ...6 days ago
- RSE Draft Erases Rainbow and Takatāpui Youth
Te Pāti Māori is demanding urgent changes to the draft Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) framework, calling it a dangerous step backwards for Takatāpui, trans, and rainbow rangatahi. “This draft erases Takatāpui voices, ignores whānau diversity, and delays consent education. It’s not just inadequate, it’s unbelievably unsafe” said Te Pāti ...6 days ago
- Release: Labour welcomes inquiry into school lunches
Labour welcomes the Auditor-General’s inquiry into the Government’s school lunches programme. ...6 days ago
- Release: Women will keep being paid less under National
This Government is taking the women’s movement backwards, ensuring women will continue to be paid less into the future. ...6 days ago
- Govt takes workplace equity efforts backwards
The Green Party has called out the Government’s latest attack on workers with the announcement that it is halting all pay equity claims. ...6 days ago
- Release: Questions over Erica Stanford’s personal email use
Erica Stanford has been misusing her personal email address to manage sensitive information relating to Budget and visa changes prior to their public release. ...6 days ago
- Greens launch Member’s Bill to close loophole allowing animal cruelty in imports
Today, Green Party MP Steve Abel has added a new Member’s Bill to the biscuit tin to ensure any product sold in New Zealand meets New Zealand’s animal welfare standards, even if it’s produced overseas. ...6 days ago
- Iwi Rights Under Attack in Government Treaty Clause Purge
Te Pāti Māori warns that the Government’s Treaty Clause Review represents the most severe erosion of iwi rights in modern legal history. “Luxon's Government is doing what the Treaty Principles Bill failed to do. They are removing every legal reference to Te Tiriti across health, housing, conservation, and child wellbeing ...1 week ago
- Release: Cuts to beds for seniors at Dunedin Hospital
After failing to be upfront about cuts to intensive care beds, it’s now becoming clear that other downgrades to Dunedin Hospital are being concealed by the Minister of Health. ...1 week ago
- Release: Labour backs workers while Govt cuts jobs and protections
This May Day Labour is standing with workers to defend decent jobs and fair pay. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Still no ferries as first of old fleet retire
Two old and ageing ferries are going to have to work double time because of this Government’s failure to get a ferry deal. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens mark May Day with Green Jobs Guarantee
The Green Party has marked May Day with a pre-budget announcement in Tokoroa, detailing the party’s plan for a Green Jobs Guarantee. ...2 weeks ago
- Te Pāti Māori: Keep the Window Open- UCOL Must Stay
Te Pāti Māori stands firmly against any moves to downsize or close UCOL Whanganui. With over 30% of students identifying as Māori, the campus is a vital lifeline for education, upskilling, and community transformation in Te Tai Hauāuru. “Matapihi ki te Ao is more than a name, it’s a promise. ...2 weeks ago
- Twice the Impact, Half the Budget: Budget 25 Must Invest in Whakaata Māori
Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Broadcasting, Tākuta Ferris, and MP for Tāmaki Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, are demanding the Government significantly increase its investment in Whakaata Māori in Budget 2025. The call comes following the release of the network’s 2025 Social Value Report at an event today, attended by MP ...2 weeks ago
- Te Pāti Māori: Denying the Right to Vote is a Breach of Te Tiriti and Human Rights
The National Party’s announcement to reinstate a total ban on prisoner voting is a shameful step backwards. Denying the right to vote does not strengthen society — it weakens our democracy and breaches Te Tiriti o Waitangi. “Voting is not a privilege to be taken away — it is a ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Closure of North Shore Women’s Centre a huge loss
Today’s confirmed closure of the North Shore Women’s Centre after losing government funding is a huge loss for women in Auckland. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Simeon Brown hid Dunedin Hospital downgrade
Simeon Brown needs to come clean to the people of Dunedin about why he hid plans to downgrade their new hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt cuts will cost jobs, health, and homes
Nicola Willis announced that funding for almost every Government department will be frozen in this year’s budget, costing jobs, making access to public services harder, and fuelling an exodus of nurses, teachers, and other public servants. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt’s austerity Budget to cause real harm in communities
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Good point from Gordon Campbell:
Three crumbling pillars seems like a potent triad. Potent enough for people to lose faith in neoliberalism? Only if you believe in the collective intelligence hypothesis, and folks who claim to believe in such a thing are always thin on the ground.
Healthy Homes update as per the required standards from 1 July.
They do not align with the approach the Green party sought – as to a warrant of fitness.
Such might cost some of the money now in the pockets of landlords since the return of the mortgage interest cost deductibility and the return to a short period 2 year bright-line test.
And remember the rules of tenancy were changed in favour of landlords by the current government.
https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/healthy-homes-theyre-paying-250-for-an-assessment-theres-no-guarantee-it-means-anything-47379
Duncan Garner wonders whether the cost of austerity is worth it.
He does carefully say, it might help the books.
NACT uses it's self inflicted budget problems (unfunded changes, such as a $1B pa from restored mortgage interest cost deductibility and the other money forgone by changing the period of the bright-line test from 10 to 2 years) to justify reducing the role of government in society (tax burden on the haves). It does not care if it helps the books or not – that is merely the notoriety of its pretence. Its cause celebre, aided and abetted by a PAC called The Taxpayers Union.
In fact the longer what it is doing fails to work, the longer it keeps doing what it wants to do – cut public spending again and again. It uses the budget problem to justify undermining long term capability in the public sector (such as laying off those involved in research and limiting wages to professionals who have other options worldwide).
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener/opinion/duncan-garner-is-nicola-willis-risking-pushing-nz-back-into-recession/PRQZVNA56ZFKZL6YHKMYJQI6ZI/
https://archive.li/PXK82#selection-1209.17-1225.65
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/16-08-2022/the-side-eyes-two-new-zealands-the-table
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/23/an-ode-to-lord-breen-of-seymour/
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/16/an-ode-to-king-luxon-6/
What I've never understood though, is how can starving the plebs in anyway address the lack of productivity this country allegedly suffers from? You know, that productivity that enriches big businesses. If the worker bees have been killed off, then all their tax breaks and labour law lobbying won't help them.
And who will clean the politicians toilets?
Its relatively simple to understand this, the meaning of productivity used is highly effed up.
The actual biggest loss of productivity is anybody unemployed (in the true sense that they would rather be employed) because the result is them not adding any product.
Institutions like the productivity commission (recently renamed) on the other hand often push for elevated unemployment to surpress worker barganing power and the weakening of employment rights. This mostly detaches remuneration from the employees earning it via their productive efforts. You can call this productivity but what it gains for employers it takes from employees so its not helping the country as a whole.
Yeah but I talked to Max Rashbrooke after an event he was appearing at in Wanaka a couple of weeks ago, and he said he didn't support a Wealth Tax.
how come?
Rashbrooke seemed to think it wasn't such a bad idea (as part of major tax reform) a year ago. Wonder what’s changed his mind – maybe the suspected “support crumbles” thing?
That explains why? His reasoning is is not about the merit, or the need for it, but a wariness of it not being an election winner. Thus would rather look at other options.
A cgt is a poison chalice now thanks to national being wankers , but just put the bright line back at 2 years, same but different
Changed his mind when he bought a house. ?
Perhaps a tad unkind, but
Ha ha no not really I'm unlikely to ever sell ,I think a cgt should be on all property just at a low rate, making it un dodgable. But it's just a bat national beat labour with every election.
The bright line is already there, so just tweak it and if possible make it permanent.
Either that or get elected and then just say we've been forced into a cgt because national have left us such a terrible mess
income is income.
How can that proposition not be true. However capital gain is wealth and should be taxed as part of a wealth tax; and of course we wouldn't have to wait until a property is sold before a tax can be levied, since property itself is wealth.
They appear to define 'working' as the government getting back into surplus. That's the fallacy of the household analogy of the economy. But unlike households, governments can't cut their spending without adversely affecting their incomes. Thus their actions deepen the problem they are purportedly trying to solve.
It's worth noting (as you have), that the resulting doom loop produces something they find quite ideologically exciting in a creepily fanatical way, i.e. perpetual cuts to government services. I have always thought that their apparent belief in the myth of the household analogy is a matter of convenience not conviction.
And as soon as economic growth improves the budget position of government they offer tax cuts to their base (those with children in private schools and with private health insurance as well as landlords), despite knowing that this is not affordable across the economic cycle.
The sad thing is some others also vote for this because of their desperation to afford rent, save for a home or to meet mortgage payments (the OCR goes up when the economy is stronger).
For those with a maritime interest, while a little bit away from our usual topics, it's an intriguing insight to how corporations use rules to dodge responsibility.
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-files-lawsuit-against-owner-and-operator-vessel-destroyed-francis-scott
That link says what it is in the tin. Also has a hyperlink to the complaint.
Also there is this, an ABC article with worker exploitation and tax havens, favourite passtimes of the 'captains of industry'.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-28/ship-owner-in-baltimore-bridge-tragedy-vessel-banned-australia/103642216
Singaporeans are good at evading responsibility of any magnitude. Their flag-carrier accepts no liability for damage to the handles of your luggage, only the actual body of it.
Just a teriffic analysis of working class despair and the rise of US populism from Brian Easton, from which he draws tentative local conclusions:
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/are-we-paying-enough-attention-to-the-working-class
The tax credit per child for families was increased from $1000 to $2000 and then to $3600 by Biden.
It is going back down to $1000 this year, all while the Trump tax cuts of 2017-2018 are being renewed.
This and child care is where the Democrats should be making some noise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_tax_credit_(United_States)
You can watch the Australian results roll in tonight live on the ABC.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-03/federal-election-2025-live-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton/105245936
Rotting from the head down.
.
When U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled in April that Trump administration officials could face criminal contempt charges for deporting migrants in defiance of a court order, the blowback was immediate.When Elon Musk shared an online post that mischaracterized the work of Judge Boasberg’s daughter, some of his followers responded on X with calls “to lock her up."
The president’s supporters unleashed a wave of threats and menacing posts. And they didn’t just target the judge. Some attacked Boasberg’s brother. Others blasted his daughter. Some demanded the family’s arrest – or execution.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s family endured similar threats after he ruled that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority in freezing grants for education and other services. Far-right provocateur Laura Loomer tweeted a photo of the judge’s daughter, who had worked at the U.S. Education Department as a policy advisor, and accused McConnell of protecting her paycheck. Billionaire Elon Musk amplified the post to his 219 million X followers.
Neither mentioned the daughter had left her job before Trump’s inauguration.
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/these-judges-ruled-against-trump-then-their-families-came-under-attack-2025-05-02/
Foul mouthed blondie called a black autistic kid the ‘n” word because he helped himself to a yogurt, so she’s halfway to becoming a millionaire. Rotten.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/2/2320139/-Woman-called-a-child-the-N-word-then-she-claimed-to-be-the-victim-So-far-she-raised-over-150-000
Bob Jones is dead. If only it happened earlier we wouldn't have had to put up with this:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/sir-bob-jones-nbr-column-on-maori-pulled-due-to-inappropriate-content/7OBF2BS57JQQI2C2OFG6F7ZWVU/
Good riddance, Bob.
I understand that he had to import the last couple of his "wives" from Thailand. There are some "jobs" that Kiwis won't do. I know this because I know someone who worked for him over the last few years.
Damn, that is gross. It was a good day for NZ the day Bob Jones died.
It's basically sex-trafficking for wealthy, western, white, male business owners.
Robt Jones's demise has sparked a range of comments; some people loathed him, others liked him. I suppose you could call him an activist, but he always looked after #1.
Various court cases show that side of him, including one from 1993 involving Jones selling shares in Robt Jones Investments Ltd on the quiet. The judgment refers to the company secretary being scared of Jones, who would erupt in rage from time to time.
I assume that Addison's disease, from which he suffered, accounted for much of that.
Fran O'Gilbert and Sullivan returns to that old musical chairs game in her latest column.
The call to not kick the ball to touch till 2044, but to do what Jim and Ruth did after the 1990 election (increase the age for super from age 60 to age 65 by 2000).
https://archive.li/U3Gv5#selection-3985.0-4147.80
For her edification, this is what they should have done.
Super rate benefits age 60-65, so there was not the poverty from job loss (benefit cuts and 10% unemployment) or being on a SB in ones last years.
As for the future, the time to decide is around 2030 and that still gives 10 years notice for the 2040-2050 period (age 65 to 70). And with the common sense constraint anyone age 60 to 70 on JSB or SB, still gets a super rate payment.
Someone, maybe Thomas Coughlan was on ZB the other day saying that while the long held meme that means-testing is more expensive than universality in net delivery, means-testing programs which are income based are easier for IRD to manage because they have our incomes.
I'd want IRD to be able to access not only our incomes but also our assets and make the calculation on that because we know the wealthiest people are the worse offenders in reducing their income exposure to IRD.
Surely this is one of the many benefits of a wealth or CGT. All assets will be registered.
Depends on the size of the benefit and definition of income. Income testing super – maybe. Income testing winter energy payment – less so.
$0 NZSuper for any +65 person or couple or trust with +65 beneficiaries with $3m or more in assets.
Watch all those grandchildren get house deposits real fast.
Albanese is taxing all Superfunds over $2m. It can be done.
Just had a look at today's Herald, at a guess I would say Fran changed the password on the CMS and is refusing to tell anyone what it is.
Lefties livestream on the Australian election.
https://www.youtube.com/live/l38llrCY4Qk
Labour seem to have it in the bag….consistent swings to Labour…the Green vote is identical to the last election at the moment-just over 12% which is excellent.
However the Greens look like they will lose 3 Queensland seats they held in 2022 because of Labour’s strong showing.
Under MMP the Greens would get 18 seats.
Dutton is getting creamed.
Independents are doing extremely well.
The swing maps make it easy.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-03/election-results-arrow-swing-maps/105208946
And Dutton's gone.
Good job.
Served cold.
A peak disability group has condemned the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, after he accused his election challenger, Ali France, of “using her disability as an excuse” for not having moved to the marginal seat of Dickson.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/12/peter-dutton-condemned-for-disability-excuse-slur-against-ali-france
Mahjong and Marco Polo discuss strategy and crossing the rubicon.
A journey learning the lessons of history and applying them in the modern world.
Their conclusion, when madness abounds, wall the region off from dangerous (northern barbarian contagions) influences.
(probably up as a post about foreign policy tomorrow, once Oz elections results come in)
https://archive.li/iPpDk#selection-4661.0-4661.393
Up the wahs
Man, what a grandstand finish!
Only scoring 2 points in the second half.
Thanks to Luxon's New Zealand, the crowd at Suncorp is half Kiwi.
Labor, with a likely increase in majority.
RW commenters have been telling us for months they are certain of a structural shift to the right as a response to woke madness.
UK – Labour (debatable if they are lefties at all but it is one of the most conservative Western countries out there)
Canada – Liberals (apparently unwinnable for them, they did it anyway)
Australia – Labor (again debatable if they are lefties at all, just slightly more palatable than Dutton)
The trend though is that the left is far from dead.
The UK has a stamp duty, CGT, gift duty and estate tax – this (if not the amounts) is bi-partisan.
I think the anti-woke backlash got overwhelmed by the anti-Trump backlash, same as in Canada.