Search Results

  1. More pay for them; bigger bills for us

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 1:09 pm, April 4th, 2013 -  24 comments
    Categories: accountability, capitalism, class war, national/act government, Privatisation, russel norman
    Tags: , ,

    Ryall has announced that Might River Power top brass will be receiving massive pay rises, in relation to the sale of the powercos. The directors have multiple positions, and questions have been raise about the past of one or two of them. They benefit; we pay.

  2. Caveat emptor

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 10:32 am, April 3rd, 2013 -  15 comments
    Categories: energy, privatisation
    Tags:

    Analysts are apparently ‘not worried’ about the impact of the increasingly likely-looking closure of Tiwai Point on the price of electricity and, hence, on the value of the assets National is trying to hock. A 12% reduction is all one analyst sees in Mighty River’s price is Meridian floods the market with some of the cheapest power going. The analysts have missed the politics.

  3. When Paula Bennett is positive about a group of beneficiaries, be suspicious

    Written By:  QoT -  Date published: 7:00 pm, March 26th, 2013 -  47 comments
    Categories: benefits, child welfare, families, paula bennett
    Tags:

    Paula Bennett has found one group of beneficiaries who she doesn’t think are bludging scum!  Surely this is a feelgood story, and not a workaround tactic to bash other beneficiaries, right?  Bueller?

  4. One day older and deeper in debt

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 7:15 am, March 21st, 2013 -  105 comments
    Categories: debt / deficit, exports, jobs, monetary policy, overseas investment
    Tags:

    There’s this almost puritan kind of myth that we’ve got so much international debt as punishment for our spendthrift ways. We ‘live beyond our means’, apparently. But it’s not true. If ‘our means’ is the money we make in exports, then most of the time, they exceed what we spend on imports. Yet, we run a $10 billion deficit as a country. Why? Because of the profit outflow.

  5. The failures of visual special effects

    Written By:  Helen Kelly -  Date published: 11:30 am, March 20th, 2013 -  46 comments
    Categories: film, International, internet, social democracy, twitter, Unions, workers' rights
    Tags: ,

    I “attended” a fascinating “town hall” meeting last week of artists from around the world in the Visual Special Effects sector. Ignited by the failure of the company Rhythm and Hues (despite recently completing most of the special effects for the film The Life of Pi and winning award recognition for the work), these workers […]

  6. The worst thing about the Right

    Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 9:32 am, March 19th, 2013 -  189 comments
    Categories: Deep stuff, gay rights
    Tags:

    So, some Republican Senator has become the first of his ilk to, um, come out in favour of marriage equality after he learned his son is gay. Apparently, this is just lovely. The man wrestled with his prejudices and his Christian love and tolerance won. Yay! Bullshit. This just shows that the black hole where the heart of the Right should be is their inability to empathise.

  7. Unionists Under the Bed

    Written By:  Helen Kelly -  Date published: 10:27 am, March 13th, 2013 -  18 comments
    Categories: Economy, Unions, workers' rights
    Tags:

    Forest Owners representative Sheldon Drummond suggested the union movement campaign around forestry safety was motivated by the “large un-unionised workforce” in forestry. In Sheldon’s mind this is clearly code for “bad motive”. Interviews with workers tell the story of their working lives, the long hours they are working and how safety issues are relegated when they are on the hill.. Fearing that if the article identifies them in any way there will be consequences – they are adamant that reprisal is a real risk. Sheldon sees none of this….

  8. The economic value of the internet

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 11:41 am, March 11th, 2013 -  35 comments
    Categories: Economy, internet
    Tags:

    The innovations that drive our modern economies changes and growth these days is largely powered by the internet. It is ubiquitously embedded in most businesses these days to a fantastic degree. While I wish economists well in their continuous attempts at measuring the effect of the internet, I think that it will be a futile endeavour.

  9. Sequester USA

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 8:35 am, March 3rd, 2013 -  35 comments
    Categories: economy, us politics
    Tags: , ,

    As the result of their political deadlock, automatic sequestration (budget cuts) have been triggered in America. This won’t end well for the economy – or the Republicans.

  10. The last piece of the Hobbit story

    Written By:  Helen Kelly -  Date published: 7:30 am, March 1st, 2013 -  106 comments
    Categories: workers' rights
    Tags: , ,

    Emails released on the Standard today show that, during the Hobbit “dispute” the Government and others lied to the people of New Zealand to maintain a perception of a crisis.

    It was a shameful moment in New Zealand’s political history.

  11. Derisory minimum wage

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 10:42 am, February 27th, 2013 -  90 comments
    Categories: class war, national, poverty, wages
    Tags:

    The minimum wage should be at least $15 per hour. A living wage is estimated at $18.40 per hour. So what have the Nats done? Raised the minimum wage by $0.25 per hour to $13.75. It’s a derisory increase. Even their own supporters think so.

  12. ACT speaks its branes

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:01 pm, February 23rd, 2013 -  71 comments
    Categories: act
    Tags: , ,

    According to ex-leader Rodney Hyde’s address to the ACT conference ACT hates the poor, hates Maori, and hates the unions. As far as I can tell this is not a joke. But clearly ACT is.

  13. A Labour leader in Britain

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 8:11 am, February 17th, 2013 -  49 comments
    Categories: david shearer, labour, leadership, uk politics
    Tags: ,

    I wasn’t initially impressed with Ed Miliband, but I am impressed with his success, and with his latest policies he’s re-establishing British Labour’s credentials on the left. What are the lessons for us in NZ?

  14. Obama talks the talk on climate change

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 9:45 am, February 14th, 2013 -  38 comments
    Categories: climate change, disaster, us politics
    Tags: , ,

    The first State of the Union of Obama’s second term was widely anticipated. As many hoped, Obama made a strong statement on climate change. Good start – now let’s see words become actions – please…

  15. ImperatorFish: Is National Really Hands-Off Then?

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 4:03 pm, January 29th, 2013 -  16 comments
    Categories: david shearer, national
    Tags:

    Scott examines National’s line that they aren’t “hands-off”, and finds them, if not entirely neo-liberal, still pretty dedicated to their worship of the invisible hand of the (private) market.

  16. Media Bias & Democracy II: beyond 2 sides

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 11:56 am, January 22nd, 2013 -  52 comments
    Categories: blogs, broadcasting, class war, david cunliffe, david shearer, democratic participation, labour, Media, news, radio, tv
    Tags:

    MSM “impartiality” focuses on two sides of a very narrow and shifting “centre”.  Parliamentary Labour parties have got locked into appealing to this centre, over time shifting the caucus rightwards. Only momentum from the flax roots can break the resulting steady rightwards shift.

  17. Shearer to put it to the vote

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:49 am, January 19th, 2013 -  71 comments
    Categories: david shearer, labour
    Tags:

    Word around the traps is that David Shearer is going to use his state of the nation speech next weekend to announce that he will put his leadership to full membership vote in February. If it’s true, and it’s a big if, it’s a ballsy but smart move politically and a welcome sign that Labour’s leadership is embracing democracy.

  18. If these trends continue

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 11:47 pm, January 18th, 2013 -  173 comments
    Categories: greens, labour, national, polls
    Tags:

    Key’s government is falling apart, yet one fact remains stubbornly true: walk down the street and nearly 1 in every 2 people you see supports National, while less than 1 in 3 supports Labour (and the 1 in 8 who support the Greens don’t quite make up the difference). When tonight’s Roy Morgan came out I put down my whisky and pulled by my Roy Morgan excel doc. It’s some grim reading.

  19. Missing the point: Minister of Tourism fail

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 8:10 am, January 13th, 2013 -  102 comments
    Categories: cycleway, Minister for Overseas Holidays, newspapers, The Standard, tourism
    Tags: , ,

    Michael Field on Stuff, responds to a question he attributes to “Labour Party blog, The Standard” about our Minister of Tourism spending most of his holidays in Hawaii  and fails to answer the question he cites. Field diverts to past PMs, ignores all Clark’s NZ holidays, and champions “Kiwi” Muldoon.

  20. Climate: last year and this year

    Written By:  lprent -  Date published: 5:06 pm, January 3rd, 2013 -  142 comments
    Categories: climate change, science
    Tags:

    A group of people interested in climate have put out a list of the most interesting climate events of 2012, which was a year that weather made more of the headlines than usual. It is likely that it will have been just a precursor to 2013 as the northern fridge disappears and the sun flares. The one certainty is that the IPCC AR4 report got it wrong – they were far too conservative about how fast climate change was happening.

  21. 2012 cabinet report card

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 12:25 pm, January 2nd, 2013 -  18 comments
    Categories: national, Politics
    Tags:

    After Eddie dissed the usual beltway year in review style of column/post I was a little chary about doing this one. And then I realised the good thing about The Standard is we do real world and beltway issues. So here goes my once-over assessment of the 2012 cabinet performance and what it’s likely to mean for the future.

  22. Well done

    Written By:  Bill -  Date published: 5:16 pm, December 18th, 2012 -  83 comments
    Categories: climate change, energy
    Tags: ,

    This is one of a series of posts I hope to write over the summer based to some extent or other on a recent presentation by Kevin Anderson: Professor of Energy and Climate Change, University of Manchester, Tyndall Centre.

  23. The spinmeister of Planet Key: Retrospective

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 10:07 am, December 18th, 2012 -  37 comments
    Categories: assets, capitalism, class war, cost of living, exports, jobs, john key, poverty, same old national, slippery
    Tags:

    On TV3 this morning, John Key was soothing and slick.  All is well on Planet Key, and critics are delusional.  He reeled of numbers and facts, but material realities of daily lives, and the suffering of people on low incomes aren’t mentioned. And asset sales?

  24. And Fairfax makes three

    Written By:  Anthony R0bins -  Date published: 11:03 am, December 9th, 2012 -  56 comments
    Categories: election 2014, labour, polls
    Tags: ,

    After good news for Labour in the most recent TV1 and 3 News polls, the latest Fairfax poll is the third in the set confirming that the party has emerged from the recent media circus in OK shape. As far as I know that’s the last big poll of 2012, and with the Left / Right gap halved since the election, a reasonable place for Labour to be sitting at the end of the year.

  25. Our polytechnics are under threat

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 11:25 am, December 5th, 2012 -  20 comments
    Categories: education, Steven Joyce, tertiary education
    Tags:

    This year the government departed with a tradition of working closely with polytechnics to establish how best to spend taxpayers’ money and instead made our public institutions compete for taxpayers’ dollars to provide foundation courses. Institutions won money if they were the most competitive in terms of price, though all successful competitors had to meet minimum quality requirements – a true market approach to pricing. So, why is this problematic?

  26. Give TPP the ‘Dracula Treatment’

    Written By:  Ben Clark -  Date published: 7:54 pm, December 4th, 2012 -  40 comments
    Categories: trade
    Tags: ,

    RELEASE THE TEXT

  27. Sunday Reading

    Written By:  Bunji -  Date published: 9:30 am, December 2nd, 2012 -  7 comments
    Categories: Media, poverty, uk politics
    Tags: ,

    My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere.  This week: Child poverty, malnutrition, austerity, Israel in the media and stoicism.

  28. $50,000 per Hobbit job

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:43 am, November 28th, 2012 -  144 comments
    Categories: capitalism, jobs
    Tags:

    Government has a central role in job creation. Just ask National. They’ll tell you it’s not true, and then proudly proclaim that they got The Hobbit made here, creating 3,000 temporary jobs. According to the New York Times, the total cost of our government’s subsidies for The Hobbit is NZD$150m – $50,000 per short-term job.

  29. The Hobbit episode II… continues…

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 11:59 am, November 27th, 2012 -  103 comments
    Categories: brand key, Environment, film, greens, labour, slippery, tourism, workers' rights
    Tags:

    Today The Hobbit  employment dispute is revived, exposing gaps between principle and practice.  Jackson defends his role; some of Labour’s ABC club will attend the premier; John Key-speak weaves a contradictory path of  populist nonsense, linking the movie, 100%Pure, 100% Middle-earth and Macdonald’s.

  30. Public service broadcasting and politics

    Written By:  karol -  Date published: 10:15 am, November 25th, 2012 -  24 comments
    Categories: broadcasting, democratic participation, Maori Issues, Politics, tv
    Tags: , , , , , ,

    Public service broadcasting and commercial TV cover politics in different ways.  Will Sky TV’s new public service channel, Face, (incorporating some ex-Stratos/Triangle shows), do it the commercial or PSB way? What will be the impact on NZ’s political journalism?

  31. War and peace

    Written By:  James Henderson -  Date published: 8:05 am, November 19th, 2012 -  93 comments
    Categories: democratic participation, labour
    Tags:

    Talk of a Labour leadership vote to be held this Tuesday blossomed and then faded on Sunday. Here’s what went down. The Mallard-led old guard thought they had found a procedural trick to embarrass Cunliffe. They could have an immediate caucus-only vote under the old rules, which would require 60% opposition to Shearer to succeed. But such a cynical attempt to disenfranchise the membership would have backfired

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