Search Results

  1. The Right and the foreshore and seabed deal

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 1:33 am, June 19th, 2010 -  14 comments
    Categories: business, foreshore and seabed
    Tags:

    We know that the foreshore and seabed deal does not do what the Maori Party was established to achieve but, almost paradoxically, it gives iwi the veto and mineral rights that will be seen by businesses wanting to undertake activities like aquaculture, tourism, and undersea mining as imposing an unknown and possibly very large tax from an unaccountable power.

  2. Ball back in Key’s court

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 12:29 pm, June 12th, 2010 -  118 comments
    Categories: accountability
    Tags: , , , , , ,

    Shane Jones and Chris Carter are for the chop. Labour will lay down the gauntlet to John Key to apply those same standards to Murry McCully and Tim Groser. Key is desperate to avoid that, we know how lax his standards are. Maybe its hard on Jones but Labour needs to clean up its act and heads have to roll. Expect Key to squirm as he refuses to hold his ministers to account, once again.

  3. Privatisation: Day Of Action

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 12:30 pm, June 11th, 2010 -  22 comments
    Categories: activism, democracy under attack, local government, privatisation
    Tags: , , ,

    John Key continues to let his attack dog do his business, and take the heat. So on Saturday there’s some more heat with a big Day Of Action to fight Rodney’s latest nasty bill. The Greens, Labour and the Maori Party are all fighting this odorous piece of legislation that aims to allow privatisation of water, amongst other attacks on local democracy.

  4. Mondayise Anzac, Waitangi (& Matariki)

    Written By:  Michael Foxglove -  Date published: 12:01 pm, June 8th, 2010 -  51 comments
    Categories: Maori Issues, maori party, workers' rights
    Tags:

    The dearth of long weekends this year has made me feel cheated. And now with Queen’s Birthday over it’s a long wait till Labour weekend in October. That’s not fair dammit. It’s time to give Matariki its due and celebrate with a Monday off in July.

  5. Trouble ahead foreshore

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 8:05 am, June 7th, 2010 -  67 comments
    Categories: maori party, national
    Tags:

    At a recent meeting about 100 Iwi leaders rejected the Government’s proposed reform for the Foreshore and Seabed Act. That means the issue remains a ticking time bomb for Key. He is going to have to enrage either the Maori Party or his core Iwi/Kiwi constituency. Either way there’s trouble ahead.

  6. Haden stays, McCully seeking 7ft carpet

    Written By:  the sprout -  Date published: 10:02 am, May 31st, 2010 -  25 comments
    Categories: accountability, leadership, national
    Tags: , , , , ,

    It seems former All Black Andy Haden will keep his job as Rugby World Cup Ambassador after having apologized and withdrawn his allegations that the Canterbury Crusaders have a limit on the number of Polynesian players they recruit. Fair enough, perhaps. But Murray McCully’s decision to not “shoot” Hayden on the grounds that if he […]

  7. National’s ETS chickens home to roost

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 8:24 am, May 27th, 2010 -  23 comments
    Categories: ETS, national
    Tags: , ,

    National is under extraordinary pressure on its ETS, and it seems to be starting to panic. While I can commend them for sticking to their guns (better a gutted ETS than none at all), I don’t have any sympathy over the backlash they are facing. They bought it on themselves.

  8. Key a dim bulb

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 3:22 pm, May 17th, 2010 -  42 comments
    Categories: International, john key, maori party
    Tags: , ,

    Our PM is now an international laughing stock, having been nominated by the San Francisco Examiner as “Dim bulb of the week” for his cannibal joke. Nor are Key’s most recent comments on the Tuhoe deal likely to help matters…

  9. The Supercity & neoliberalism

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 12:23 pm, May 17th, 2010 -  8 comments
    Categories: auckland supercity, democracy under attack, public services
    Tags: ,

    A passage from Matt McCarten’s article in the Sunday Herald summed up for me not only the approach of Rodney Hide in setting up his Super City but also the neo-liberal project that has been in vogue for the past quarter century. Democracy under the neo-liberal model is, as far as possible, to be a financial transaction.

  10. Key was sending a message to Tuhoe

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 7:45 am, May 15th, 2010 -  99 comments
    Categories: colonialism, foreshore and seabed, john key, racism
    Tags:

    Make no mistake, John Key’s comment about Tuhoe cannibalism was no accident, it was no joke, and it certainly was not ‘self-deprecating’. Key didn’t just happen to accidentally make a comment that appeals to a deep-seated prejudice that is still current among redneck Pakeha and wedges our society in two. It was a message to Tuhoe

  11. Smile and wave

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 9:47 am, May 13th, 2010 -  18 comments
    Categories: john key, Media
    Tags: ,

    These online polls are always silly, but it’s interesting to track the spread of the “smile and wave” meme.

  12. English: do what we need to do to win

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 3:17 pm, May 8th, 2010 -  23 comments
    Categories: bill english, election 2011, maori party, national
    Tags: , ,

    Bill English is trying to assuage National Party member who are concerned that the Party is betraying its principles (ha!) and giving too much to the Maori Party saying “all those decisions are being made in the context of the longer-term view, reaching our objectives over the next four or five years” – winning a second term trumps principle. It’s about power for its own sake.

  13. Nats show their contempt for working Kiwis

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:04 am, May 6th, 2010 -  6 comments
    Categories: capitalism, class war, unemployment, Unions
    Tags: ,

    Yesterday, Darien Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill was voted down by the Government. Disgraceful. The Nats added a kick in the teeth by having David Bennett lead their side of debate with a mad, disrespectful speech. Congratulations to Darien, Labour, the Greens, Progressives, the Maori Party, and the groups representing 350,000 Kiwi workers who fought for this. We’ll win next time.

  14. Tipping point

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 1:02 pm, May 4th, 2010 -  12 comments
    Categories: national
    Tags: ,

    We’ve passed “the honeymoon”, we’ve passed “the honeymoon is over”, and we’re now on to discussions of “the tipping point” for the National government. Not before time.

  15. Tax hike but why no display ban?

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:10 am, April 29th, 2010 -  48 comments
    Categories: health, tax
    Tags:

    I’m not against rising the excise on tobacco but everyone knows that if this government was serious about reducing the harm from tobacco this isn’t the best way to go about it. The best thing to do would be to ban tobacco displays. Upping the excise takes more money out of the pockets of the poor but it has only a minor effect on reducing smoking.

  16. Pollyanna Finlayson ignores reality

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:33 am, April 26th, 2010 -  21 comments
    Categories: flip-flop, foreshore and seabed, maori party, national
    Tags: , ,

    The other day, Chris Finlayson described himself as a Pollyanna – it’s an American term (of derision) for someone who sees everything as positive, ignoring unhappy realities. Finlayson is all bouncy and optimistic, selling his ‘no-one owns it’ ‘solution’ to the F&S issue. But I have not heard a single Maori leader who agrees with his offer or anything like it.

  17. Davis on iwi-run prisons

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:00 am, April 16th, 2010 -  37 comments
    Categories: class war, labour, law and "order", prisons, privatisation
    Tags: ,

    Kelvin Davis: It goes to show how high the aspirations of some of our Maori leaders are. We now aspire to bung the bros in the hinaki and watch the dollars roll in. The longer and more often we can put them away, the sooner we will be able to afford to expand the prison and lock even more away. With the soaring crime rate and high Maori unemployment everything is coming together nicely.

  18. National’s rock and hard place

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 11:31 am, April 12th, 2010 -  23 comments
    Categories: business, capitalism, foreshore and seabed, maori party, Mining, national
    Tags:

    National’s proposed reform of the foreshore and seabed legislation is no ‘elegant solution’. Instead, it is being criticised in the business press as an undemocratic favouring of Maori business interests over Pakeha ones, while iwi are saying that it doesn’t give them what they want.

  19. Foreshore and seabed a new ball game

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 7:12 am, April 11th, 2010 -  19 comments
    Categories: foreshore and seabed, maori party, national
    Tags: ,

    National is offering significant new concessions on the foreshore and seabed. It’s a whole new ball game. Coming on top of Whanau Ora its second big win in a row for the Maori Party. Is this it? Will there be an agreed solution? Can the country put this issue behind it?

  20. You know your policy sucks when…

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 12:42 pm, April 9th, 2010 -  21 comments
    Categories: privatisation, public services
    Tags: , , ,

    Even Guyon Espiner is concerned about the lack of quality analysis and policy design. If the government were serious about helping families in need it’s priority would be getting people back into work and better pay and conditions for low income workers. The fact that is has gone with this Whanau Ora nonsense shows it has no real intention of tackling the causes of this country’s social ills.

  21. Whanau Ora minister, Foreshore sell-out

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:25 am, April 9th, 2010 -  13 comments
    Categories: foreshore and seabed, maori party, national/act government, privatisation, public services
    Tags: ,

    Maori activists who want a better deal on the foreshore and seabed can rest assured that the Maori Party is about to sell them out. Tariana Turia just got herself a shiny new portfolio as Minister for Whanau Ora, whatever it is. Do you really think she’s going to give up a control over a policy that National has agreed to just for her? Do you really think she’ll stand strong on her principles over the foreshore and seabed if it means losing the Crown limo?

  22. Whanau Ora report unacceptably poor

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 6:42 pm, April 8th, 2010 -  41 comments
    Categories: privatisation, public services, welfare
    Tags:

    The Whanau Ora Taskforce report is out and it fails to even attempt to answer simple questions like ‘why is Whanau Ora the best way to help families’. It provides no evidence it will work. Check out the graphic to the right – what does it even mean? All we do know is Whanau Ora will put public money in unaccountable private hands and be privatisation by stealth.

  23. What the foreshore and seabed is really about

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 1:25 am, April 4th, 2010 -  41 comments
    Categories: foreshore and seabed, labour, maori party, national
    Tags:

    Iwi do not want legal recognition of some kind of fuzzy spirital connection with the foreshore and seabed. They want legal recognition of property rights, rights to use the economic potential of what they regard as their property. For Maori rights activists, National’s offer cannot be seen as anything other than a continued denial of the rights that the Maori Party was created to win back

  24. No one owns foreshore – Govt “solution”

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 3:28 pm, March 31st, 2010 -  16 comments
    Categories: foreshore and seabed
    Tags:

    The Government has released its Foreshore and Seabed policy. It will put the F&S into ‘public domain’ where it will be owned by no one. Maori will be able to take claims for customary rights over parts of the F&S to Court(except those parts that are already owned by private, Pakeha, interests of course).

  25. One person one vote

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 8:59 am, March 24th, 2010 -  14 comments
    Categories: auckland supercity, democratic participation, maori party, Maori seats
    Tags:

    Pita Sharples’ speech on race relations day, and his comments that followed, certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons. Did Sharples really mean to suggest that we should do away with “one person one vote”? I don’t think so…

  26. Arguing with a rightie about youth minimum wages

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 11:43 am, March 20th, 2010 -  30 comments
    Categories: minimum wage
    Tags: ,

    With one eye firmly on the polls and an awareness that cutting wages by stealth is one thing but actually lowering wages is another, National has decided to oppose Roger Douglas’s youth minimum wage reduction bill. That hasn’t stopped the right activists from promoting it though, so I thought it would be worthwhile having a wee post summarising the arguments on both sides

  27. Race and the law

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 1:30 pm, March 11th, 2010 -  31 comments
    Categories: law, racism
    Tags: ,

    The light sentences handed down to most of the group that killed Navtej Singh have caused consternation within the NZ Indian community. With the Human Rights Commission today releasing a statement on worrying trends of racism in NZ, now is a terrible time for the legal system to be sending all the wrong messages.

  28. O’Sullivan and Garrett, strange bedfellows?

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 10:37 am, March 6th, 2010 -  6 comments
    Categories: capitalism, class war, health, racism
    Tags: , , ,

    Fran O’Sullivan is a pro-business liberal or libertarian, David Garrett is a knuckle brain conservative. But actually, they’re not so far apart. It seems both believe in freedom for the rich and control over the poor. Incredibly O’Sullivan goes into bat for Garrett over his sterilisation comments.

  29. Alternate forms of protest

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 5:41 pm, March 4th, 2010 -  27 comments
    Categories: activism, auckland supercity, democracy under attack, humour, local government, mt albert, police
    Tags: , ,

    Now this is pretty damn funny and just adds to todays absurdities over the waste of money on rugby world cup TV in 2011. Veteran Springbok Tour protester John Minto has found himself at the centre of a new Eden Park storm, with a controversial plan to name a nearby $3 million road after him.

    Will the supercity transition authority now want to stop community boards from naming streets?

  30. Where are Hide & Key on Garrett comments?

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 2:28 pm, March 4th, 2010 -  99 comments
    Categories: act, crime, maori party, national, rodney hide
    Tags:

    Colin Espiner reports that Rodney Hide has gone into his shell as outrage over David Garrett’s appalling sterilisation comments builds. Since Irish broke the story of Garrett’s comments yesterday, it has spread like wildfire through the blogosphere and the msm. And nowhere will you find a reaction from anyone in ACT or from their coalition partners.

  31. National’s jam tomorrow

    Written By:  r0b -  Date published: 8:45 am, March 1st, 2010 -  5 comments
    Categories: auckland supercity, democracy under attack, national
    Tags: , ,

    When it comes to listening to the public, National promise “jam tomorrow”. Wait for the select committee. Wait for the third reading. But the record shows that these are empty promises. The Human Rights Commission has criticised National over their latest mockery of a consultation process on Auckland…

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.