Poverty Watch 33

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, June 1st, 2013 - 12 comments
Categories: national, poverty - Tags:

It is fortuitous that this series has just finished reviewing the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCCC) 2012 report “Child Poverty in New Zealand evidence for action“. Good timing because this week the government released its response (pdf).

How has the government’s response been received? From Brian Rudman:

Free breakfast as poverty solution? It’s a joke

Last December, the Government’s expert advisory group on Solutions to Child Poverty came up with 78 recommendations. It painted a grim picture. “As many as 23 per cent of children – about 270,000 – currently live in poverty.” It said the economic cost of child poverty was $6 billion to $8 billion a year and it was damaging the nation’s long-term prosperity. For individual children it meant going to school hungry, living in a cold, damp house and missing out on school outings and sports. It led to lower educational achievement, poor health and social exclusion.

Calling for “political vision, courage and determination”, the report declared “no child should experience severe and persistent poverty, least of all in a land of relative abundance”.

Yesterday’s package was not a demonstration of that political vision, courage and determination. It was more the plucking of the lowest, and cheapest fruit in the 78-strong basket and wrapping it with the shiniest of Warehouse-quality wrapping paper. …

The Government yesterday was patting itself on the back for adopting some of the 78 recommendations of its advisory group. But the initiatives it has seized, such as the pilot scheme of a warrant-of-fitness programme for rental houses and consideration of micro-financing loans for low-income families, are just baby steps. As solutions to the problem of 270,000 children living in poverty, they’re a joke.

From Labour:

Response to poverty report a disgrace

The Government’s response to recommendations made by the expert advisory group on solutions to child poverty is an absolute insult – not only to members of the group, but to every Kiwi family struggling to make ends meet, Labour’s Social Development spokesperson Jacinda Ardern says.

“This group gave almost a year of its time, produced 24 working papers and gave 78 detailed recommendations. In response, the government has given it the brush-off.

“There are some 270,000 Kiwi kids living in income-deprived households. According to Paula Bennett the panacea to lifting them out of poverty is tax cuts and low floating mortgage rates. ….

“The first step, it [the group] said, was to introduce specific measurements for child poverty, set short and long-term targets, establish various child poverty-related indicators and ensure the regular monitoring and reporting on results.

“This government has never shied away from setting targets in other areas. When it comes to child poverty it is obviously running scared, because none of those things have been addressed in this response.

From The Greens:

Action on incomes needed to address poverty

The Government’s final response to recommendations made by the expert advisory group on solutions to child poverty is a cop out leaving the extensive work carried out by the Children’s Commission largely ignored, the Green Party said today

The Children’s Commissioner’s ‘Solutions to Child Poverty’ report called for action to improve family incomes to ensure all New Zealand children get a good start in life and can fulfil their potential. …

“The Children’s Commissioner’s expert report recommended a universal child payment as a key step towards ensuring all our children have the best possible start in life. The Government should listen to that recommendation.

“We support a universal child payment as the best and fairest way to ensure that all children, not just some, have the opportunity to have a good life, and a fair, bright and prosperous future.

“We will also instigate a national poverty measure and implement the recommendations of the Children’s Commissioner so that the right information is collected in order to be able to tackle child poverty at its source.

“We’ve got all the evidence we need for comprehensive policy to end child poverty. What will it take to make the National Government wake up and do something to save a whole generation of children?”

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG):

Group says Recommendations to Reduce Child Poverty Ignored

CPAG’s public health spokesperson Dr Nikki Turner says the government has cherry picked through the Expert Advisory Group’s 78 recommendations to focus on only a handful of issues. …

“The government has failed to respond to the EAG’s recommendations in particular to the major issue of income inadequacy for the poorest kids.”

The response of one of the leaders of the OCC report:

Govt defends child poverty moves

PM says National cares about the problem but expert panel head says key proposals in report ignored.

Prime Minister John Key has had to defend National against criticism that the Government’s response to a child poverty report fell short, despite adding a sweetener by announcing $9.5 million towards a breakfast in schools programme.

…there was criticism that the long-awaited response failed to address the key recommendations in the panel’s report. Panel co-chairman Professor Jonathan Boston said it was disappointing the Government ignored key proposals to measure child poverty and set targets to improve it, and to address the issue of low incomes by providing extra financial support such as through a child payment for those on benefits.

… very little of what the Government has done to date directly addresses the challenges of low incomes. Government initiatives are all well and good, but we have a situation where hundreds of thousands of children are experiencing material deprivation. So in many ways this is dealing primarily with mitigating the consequences of poverty rather than reducing the nature of the problem.”

I intend to go in to this further next week, looking in a bit more detail at the OCC recommendations and how the government has responded or (as is more usually the case) not.

Here’s the standard footnote. Poverty (and inequality) were falling (albeit too slowly) under the last Labour government.   Now they are on the rise again, in fact a Waikato University professor says that poverty is our biggest growth industry.

Before the last election Labour called for a cross party working group on poverty. Key turned the offer down.  Report after report after report has condemned the rate of poverty in this country, and called on the government to act. Meanwhile 40,000 kids are fed by charities and up to 80,000 are going to school hungry. National has responded with complete denial of the issues, saying that the government is already doing enough to help families feed their kids. Organisations working with the poor say that Key is in poverty ‘la la land’.

The Nats refuse to even measure the problem (though they certainly believe in measurement and goals when it suits them to bash beneficiaries). In a 2012 summary of the government’s targets and goals John Armstrong wrote: “Glaringly absent is a target for reducing child poverty”…

The costs of child poverty are in the range of $6-8 Billion per year, but the Nats refuse to spend the $2 Billion that would be needed to really make a difference. Even in purely economic terms National’s attitude makes no sense.

12 comments on “Poverty Watch 33 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. AsleepWhileWalking 1
    1 June 2013 at 9:52 am

    In the wake of the hearing this week around the IWTC I am reminded of a previous court action by the same group.

    All but forgotten in the current child poverty debate is Section 70 of the Social Securities Act which allows Work and Income to deduct $28 from the main benefit (most likely DPB, Sickness or IB) for any child where the non-custodial parent has not been named – that’s $28 for each child so if you had two kids where the other parent wasn’t named that would be $56/week less than other beneficiaries in a similar situation, three kids $84/week.

    The CPAG did attempt a court action years ago on the grounds of discrimination (as the penalty rate only applies to beneficiares) but unfortunately for these kids and their parents they failed.

    It’s hard to say why people still choose to avoid naming the other parent and accept the penalty, but in the end it probably matters very little as the children have to suffer as a result.

    Worth noting is that at 2003/4 there were over 20,000 beneficiaries and God knows how many kids in this situation although back then the penality was ONLY $22 a child. It is shocking to think of how this contributed and compounded the harm done to children from these families. Around this time Work and Income sent their Investigators around to interview these parents and essentially threatening them with the increased rate of penality of an additional $6/week per child. How much of a difference it made I couldn’t say. Perhaps the parents just lied on an affidavit to stop the penalty, or maybe they made some other kind of compromise aside from integrity.

    One thing I know for sure is that parents don’t unnecessarily compromise their income. They would need a damn good reason.

    • Jenny 1.1
      1 June 2013 at 10:34 am

      Great stuff. AWW.

      As to the why. What can we presume? There are a number of options:

      The mothers are under some form of duress or obligation to the unnamed fathers.

      That the mothers are genuinely not aware of the father’s identity? It does happen. And doesn’t mean that they are not good and caring mothers to their child. In genuine cases like this, why should a child be made to suffer for a singular mistake, or accident in birth control?

      Short of genetically testing every male in the country. No matter the best intentions of the mother there is no way she can provide the identity of the father to the state.

      I have heard no moral argument why innocents should be made to suffer. It reeks of 19th century judgmental concept of sin and punishment.

      • AsleepWhileWalking 1.1.1
        1 June 2013 at 9:23 pm

        Re: Duress, yes I suspect the level of threat has a lot to do with not naming the non custodial parent.

        Legislation was changed after 2004 that meant if someone was under threat/domestic violence they would then be excluded from the penalty. Of course the BIG assumption made by the government was that victims of violence/threats would readily trust the government to take care of them if they revealed this. You know….like the government has taken care of them when they needed protection orders. The idea that they will keep everything confidential despite THAT privacy breach.

        Also, you can be excluded from a penalty rate if the child was conceived as a result of sexual abuse. That assumes that:

        – a woman can easily identify if sexual abuse has taken place. For example a man threatens to kill himself if a woman doesn’t have sex with him, so she has sex with him in order to placate him = rape. How many woman could identify that? Not many hot shot criminal lawyers find themselves on benefits I’m guessing. There are many other instances where society has a nasty tendancy to blame the victim of the rape so women are likely to feel like it was their fault even if legally it was a rape.

        – a woman will feel ok signing a written affidavit stating her child was conceived in such a way (after a detailed discussion of exactly how she was raped has occurred with one of those friendly lawyers) and then handing that document to Work and Income. FYI at least 3 people will process that piece of paper. Furthermore, while improper access is instant dismissal anyone within the ministry can theoretically access a file. The only way around this is to ask that the file is “secured”, meaning each time a manager or similar must unlock the computer record. Not sure what they do with the paper files with a secure record but they are in the system forever.

        – a woman will feel ok going through the stressful process required above to have the penalty lifted, even after ACC sensitive claims have just rejected cover based on excessively strict reading of S128 of the Crimes Act.

        FFS this makes me particularly angry because being a rape victim is bad enough, but the harm is compounded by the penalty rate being added, possibly before a victim is ready to face up to the reality of what has occurred. The birth of a child conceived in such a manner imposes a time frame outside of the victims control.

    • prism 1.2
      1 June 2013 at 7:22 pm

      AWW
      This is a result of the impatience felt by the comfortably off who don’t want to accept the reality of generations – that young NZs have sex and often fall down on the needed contraception which is usually the female’s responsibility. This has been happening all through the 20th century, it’s not something recent.

      Jenny Shipley and her ilk were strong on the responsibility and morality of the matter of children outside committed partnerships. The business of deducting money from already miserly benefits and so making managing a one parent family difficult comes from this moralistic and economic resentment to welfare. The women who don’t name may be wiser than the government. They may not have realised they were sexing with trash. It only has to happen once. Then they can be tied to coping with some low-life who remains irresponsible all his life and drags the family down. But all the government cares about is getting some money back from the father. And makes a big deal about how it is important that children know their fathers, as if the government cared.

      If more attention was put into providing small businesses with incentives to employ part-time and train single parents and allow them to have a fully rounded life with dignity and knowing respect for the good job they do, and less effort put into involving unsatisfactory fathers who often end up instigating violent domestic abuse, we would have a better, happier country and less expensive social needs costs. But government actually doesn’t care about that. It likes to have the bennies to bash and the right wingers like to despise them and tut-tut about them as worthless spongers.

    • Colonial Viper 1.3
      1 June 2013 at 7:31 pm

      It was a good thing that the recent Labour Govt reversed all this stuff, understanding that cutting money off already miserly benefits was greatly increasing child poverty.

  2. Jenny 2
    1 June 2013 at 12:42 pm

    Mana Party Press Statement

    “70% of New Zealanders heard and voted to support MANA’s Feed the Kids message” said MANA Leader and Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira, as government announces an expanded breakfast programme in association with Sanitarium, Fonterra and KidsCan. “That’s what got the Prime Minister to do something about supporting food-in-schools”

    “And for that, kids can also be thankful to the many organisations who have supported a comprehensive food-in-schools programme and backed MANA’s Feed the Kids bill over the past 9 months.

    “Together we made a difference. Today we got the government to take action on the most pressing issue of our time, child poverty.

    “But it doesn’t end here, not by a long-shot” said Harawira. “While I applaud the long-standing support from the business sector, eliminating child poverty in Aotearoa is not about charity and neither should it rely on public-private partnerships. We have already seen breakfast programmes dropped in the past when profits have fallen. Our kids deserve better than that.”

    In 2011, the Red Cross was forced to end its breakfast in schools programme due to the loss of their major sponsor, Countdown.

    “Eliminating child poverty should be the highest priority of any government, and feeding the kids should be the first step in achieving that goal.

    “I am grateful to everyone for their support and thankful for the Prime Minister’s announcement today on expanding the current food-in-schools programme” said Harawira.

    “But I would ask New Zealanders to take this to the next level by urging your MP to Support the Feed the Kids bill at first reading. If the bill goes to Select Committee we get the opportunity to hear from teachers, parents, doctors, children, nurses, and child support agencies.

    “That’s what we did with the Tobacco Inquiry and we got legislation making Aotearoa smokefree by 2025” said Harawira

    “Wouldn’t it be great if we took same road to eliminating child poverty by 2020?”

    Tuesday 28 May 2013

  3. Psycho Milt 3
    1 June 2013 at 8:47 pm

    Well, yeah – National aren’t interested even in starting the kind of background work that needs doing to pin down what’s causing it, what the extent of it is and what effect current measures are having, so it’s no surprise they aren’t interested in anything more substantive. Heading off a public relationships disaster by putting some bowls of Weetbix into schools is as far as they’re willing to go, but even there the key phrase is “heading off a public relations disaster,” nothing particularly to do with child poverty.

    However, the Commission also has to cop a significant share of the blame. We’ve got a situation in which we apparently have a significantly worsening child poverty problem, but we don’t have a significantly worsening family income problem. That suggests somebody needs to be looking into why the fuck that is – if I were them I’d have started with the fact that proportion of households below the poverty line has mostly been falling or static for the last 20 years but the proportion of the nation’s kids in those households has shot up, but that seems to have been considered of little interest. Instead, they’ve thought up various ways we could fling money at the symptoms without troubling ourselves too much about what might be causing the increase. Any government would have the right to be less than chuffed with them.

  4. kiwicommie 4
    2 June 2013 at 3:28 am

    Feeling poetic today:
    Neoliberalism is (a poem)

    Neoliberalism is a beggar under a bridge,
    Neoliberalism is a teenager selling their body to afford an education,
    Neoliberalism is a family struggling to feed their kids,
    Neoliberalism is a child at a sweat shop,
    Neoliberalism is someone without a job,
    Neoliberalism is forcing sick people to work,
    Neoliberalism is a starving child,
    Neoliberalism is having your wages cut,
    Neoliberalism is not being able to afford medicine,
    Neoliberalism is having your pension cut,
    Neoliberalism is politicians selling out their country,
    Neoliberalism is taking away human rights,
    Neoliberalism is crushing political protests,
    Neoliberalism is supporting fascist dictatorships,
    Neoliberalism is state-sponsored murder,
    Neoliberalism is evil.

  5. RedBaronCV 5
    3 June 2013 at 12:58 pm

    Re AWW.
    The lack of naming the father is likely, as others have said, due to threats or even overt violence. I suspect in some cases this is potentially very serious violence, sawn off shotgun in the car glovebox type violence.

    The penalty also far exceeds what is reasonable. The collection from paying parents towards parents on benefits is down around the minimum of $10 to $12 per week per family. As others above say they are being penalised a minimum of $22 per child. The State is actually “making a profit” at the expense of these poorest of the poor.

    FFS the state only manages to collect about $70 per week on average to pass on to working caregivers. That is about 2 litres of milk and half a loaf of bread per day for the whole family from the non resident parent.

    The state is not known to pursue even parents who could pay and are not. The CA decided a big case recently where a child support dodger was ordered to pay many years of back child support. Just after the breakdown of the relationship the caregiver had been on a benefit for a shortish period of time (18 months?) when the payer was also dodging paying on the same basis. The IRD could have been a beneficiary of the same order on behalf of the taxpayer on a “me too” basis but they didn’t even bother to try.

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    Completed reads for November: A Modern Utopia, by H.G. Wells The Vampire (poem), by Heinrich August Ossenfelder The Corpus Hermeticum The Corpus Hermeticum is Mead’s translation. Now, this is indeed a very quiet month for reading. But there is a reason for that… You see, ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    4 days ago

  • Forward to 2017
    The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. They also describe the processes of the ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    5 days ago

  • Questions a nine year old might ask the new Prime Minister
    First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
    More than a fieldingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • Questions a nine year old might ask the new Prime Minister
    First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • Finally
    Henry Kissinger is finally dead. Good fucking riddance. While Americans loved him, he was a war criminal, responsible for most of the atrocities of the final quarter of the twentieth century. Cambodia. Bangladesh. Chile. East Timor. All Kissinger. Because of these crimes, Americans revere him as a "statesman" (which says ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • Government in a hurry – Luxon lists 49 priorities in 100-day plan while Peters pledges to strength...
    Buzz from the Beehive Yes, ministers in the new government are delivering speeches and releasing press statements. But the message on the government’s official website was the same as it has been for the past several days, when Point of Order went looking for news from the Beehive that had ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago

  • DAVID FARRAR: Luxon is absolutely right
    David Farrar writes  –  1 News reports: Christopher Luxon says he was told by some Kiwis on the campaign trail they “didn’t know” the difference between Waka Kotahi, Te Pūkenga and Te Whatu Ora. Speaking to Breakfast, the incoming prime minister said having English first on government agencies will “make sure” ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Top 10 at 10 am for Thursday, Nov 30
    There are fears that mooted changes to building consent liability could end up driving the building industry into an uninsured hole. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Thursday, November 30, including:The new Government’s ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on how climate change threatens cricket‘s future
    Well that didn’t last long, did it? Mere days after taking on what he called the “awesome responsibility” of being Prime Minister, M Christopher Luxon has started blaming everyone else, and complaining that he has inherited “economic vandalism on an unprecedented scale” – which is how most of us are ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    5 days ago

  • We need to talk about Tory.
    The first I knew of the news about Tory Whanau was when a tweet came up in my feed.The sort of tweet that makes you question humanity, or at least why you bother with Twitter. Which is increasingly a cesspit of vile inhabitants who lurk spreading negativity, hate, and every ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • Dangling Transport Solutions
    Cable Cars, Gondolas, Ropeways and Aerial Trams are all names for essentially the same technology and the world’s biggest maker of them are here to sell them as an public transport solution. Stuff reports: Austrian cable car company Doppelmayr has launched its case for adding aerial cable cars to New ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    5 days ago

  • November AMA
    Hi,It’s been awhile since I’ve done an Ask-Me-Anything on here, so today’s the day. Ask anything you like in the comments section, and I’ll be checking in today and tomorrow to answer.Leave a commentNext week I’ll be giving away a bunch of these Mister Organ blu-rays for readers in New ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago

  • National’s early moves adding to cost of living pressure
    The cost of living grind continues, and the economic and inflation honeymoon is over before it began. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: PM Christopher Luxon unveiled his 100 day plan yesterday with an avowed focus of reducing cost-of-living pressures, but his Government’s initial moves and promises are actually elevating ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago

  • Backwards to the future
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed that it will be back to the future on planning legislation. This will be just one of a number of moves which will see the new government go backwards as it repeals and cost-cuts its way into power. They will completely repeal one ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago

  • New initiatives in science and technology could point the way ahead for Luxon government
    As the new government settles into the Beehive, expectations are high that it can sort out some  of  the  economic issues  confronting  New Zealand. It may take time for some new  ministers to get to grips with the range of their portfolio work and responsibilities before they can launch the  changes that  ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    6 days ago

  • Treaty pledge to secure funding is contentious – but is Peters being pursued by a lynch mob after ...
    TV3 political editor Jenna Lynch was among the corps of political reporters who bridled, when Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told them what he thinks of them (which is not much). She was unabashed about letting her audience know she had bridled. More usefully, she drew attention to something which ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • How long does this last?
    I have a clear memory of every election since 1969 in this plucky little nation of ours. I swear I cannot recall a single one where the question being asked repeatedly in the first week of the new government was: how long do you reckon they’ll last? And that includes all ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago

  • National’s giveaway politics
    We already know that national plans to boost smoking rates to collect more tobacco tax so they can give huge tax-cuts to mega-landlords. But this morning that policy got even more obscene - because it turns out that the tax cut is retrospective: Residential landlords will be able to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • CHRIS TROTTER: Who’s driving the right-wing bus?
    Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In 2023, ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • GRAHAM ADAMS:  Media knives flashing for Luxon’s government
    The fear and loathing among legacy journalists is astonishing Graham Adams writes – No one is going to die wondering how some of the nation’s most influential journalists personally view the new National-led government. It has become abundantly clear within a few days of the coalition agreements ...
    Point of OrderBy gadams1000
    6 days ago

  • Top 10 news links for Wednesday, Nov 29
    TL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere for Wednesday November 29, including:The early return of interest deductibility for landlords could see rebates paid on previous taxes and the cost increase to $3 billion from National’s initial estimate of $2.1 billion, CTU Economist Craig Renney estimated here last ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Smokefree Fallout and a High Profile Resignation.
    The day after being sworn in the new cabinet met yesterday, to enjoy their honeymoon phase. You remember, that period after a new government takes power where the country, and the media, are optimistic about them, because they haven’t had a chance to stuff anything about yet.Sadly the nuptials complete ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • As Cabinet revs up, building plans go on hold
    Wellington Council hoardings proclaim its preparations for population growth, but around the country councils are putting things on hold in the absence of clear funding pathways for infrastructure, and despite exploding migrant numbers. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Cabinet meets in earnest today to consider the new Government’s 100-day ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • National takes over infrastructure
    Though New Zealand First may have had ambitions to run the infrastructure portfolios, National would seem to have ended up firmly in control of them.  POLITIK has obtained a private memo to members of Infrastructure NZ yesterday, which shows that the peak organisation for infrastructure sees  National MPs Chris ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago

  • At a glance – Evidence for global warming
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    Skeptical Science
    7 days ago

  • Who’s Driving The Right-Wing Bus?
    Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In ...
    Bowalley Road
    7 days ago

  • Sanity break
    Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    7 days ago

  • Sanity break
    Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
    More than a fieldingBy David Slack
    7 days ago

  • National’s murderous smoking policy
    One of the big underlying problems in our political system is the prevalence of short-term thinking, most usually seen in the periodic massive infrastructure failures at a local government level caused by them skimping on maintenance to Keep Rates Low. But the new government has given us a new example, ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • NZ has a chance to rise again as our new government gets spending under control
    New Zealand has  a chance  to  rise  again. Under the  previous  government, the  number of New Zealanders below the poverty line was increasing  year by year. The Luxon-led government  must reverse that trend – and set about stabilising  the  pillars  of the economy. After the  mismanagement  of the outgoing government created   huge ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    7 days ago

  • KARL DU FRESNE: Media and the new government
    Two articles by Karl du Fresne bring media coverage of the new government into considerations.  He writes –    Tuesday, November 28, 2023 The left-wing media needed a line of attack, and they found one The left-wing media pack wasted no time identifying the new government’s weakest point. Seething over ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 days ago

  • PHILIP CRUMP:  Team of rivals – a CEO approach to government leadership
    The work begins Philip Crump wrote this article ahead of the new government being sworn in yesterday – Later today the new National-led coalition government will be sworn in, and the hard work begins. At the core of government will be three men – each a leader ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 days ago

  • Black Friday
    As everyone who watches television or is on the mailing list for any of our major stores will confirm, “Black Friday” has become the longest running commercial extravaganza and celebration in our history. Although its origins are obscure (presumably dreamt up by American salesmen a few years ago), it has ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    7 days ago

  • In Defense of the Media.
    Yesterday the Ministers in the next government were sworn in by our Governor General. A day of tradition and ceremony, of decorum and respect. Usually.But yesterday Winston Peters, the incoming Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister, of our nation used it, as he did with the signing of the coalition ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago

  • Top 10 news links at 10 am for Tuesday, Nov 28
    Nicola Willis’ first move was ‘spilling the tea’ on what she called the ‘sobering’ state of the nation’s books, but she had better be able to back that up in the HYEFU. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 days ago

  • PT use up but fare increases coming
    Yesterday Auckland Transport were celebrating, as the most recent Sunday was the busiest Sunday they’ve ever had. That’s a great outcome and I’m sure the ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    1 week ago

  • The very opposite of social investment
    Nicola Willis (in blue) at the signing of the coalition agreement, before being sworn in as both Finance Minister and Social Investment Minister. National’s plan to unwind anti-smoking measures will benefit her in the first role, but how does it stack up from a social investment viewpoint? Photo: Lynn Grieveson ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago

  • Giving Tuesday
    For the first time "in history" we decided to jump on the "Giving Tuesday" bandwagon in order to make you aware of the options you have to contribute to our work! Projects supported by Skeptical Science Inc. Skeptical Science Skeptical Science is an all-volunteer organization but ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Let's open the books with Nicotine Willis
    Let’s say it’s 1984,and there's a dreary little nation at the bottom of the Pacific whose name rhymes with New Zealand,and they've just had an election.Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, will you look at the state of these books we’ve opened,cries the incoming government, will you look at all this mountain ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago

  • Climate Change: Stopping oil
    National is promising to bring back offshore oil and gas drilling. Naturally, the Greens have organised a petition campaign to try and stop them. You should sign it - every little bit helps, and as the struggle over mining conservation land showed, even National can be deterred if enough people ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • New Zealand welcomes European Parliament vote on the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement
    A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Further humanitarian support for Gaza, the West Bank and Israel
    The Government is contributing a further $5 million to support the response to urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, bringing New Zealand’s total contribution to the humanitarian response so far to $10 million. “New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of civilian life and the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

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