Sometimes in our quest for what is perfect we forget what has been achieved

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, October 3rd, 2022 - 36 comments
Categories: labour, political parties, Unions, workers' rights - Tags:

I did a quick summary of worker’s rights enacted under Labour since 2017, with a help from the Greens and reluctant support (and opposition) from NZ First, who held up a lot of these:

  • 10 days sick leave (increased by 5 days)
  • 26 weeks paid parental leave
  • Restored meal and rest breaks
  • Strengthened collective bargaining
  • Extended protections for vulnerable workers to include security
  • Workers in “triangular” relationships can challenge both bosses.
  • Limited 90 day trials to small workplaces
  • Matariki holiday
  • Bereavement leave now includes miscarriage (Greens)
  • Domestic violence leave (Greens)
  • Screen workers restored rights to collectively bargain
  • Minimum wage increased from $15.75 to $21.20 per hour since 2018
  • Living Wage applies to contract workers in government departments
  • Equal Pay Amendment Act passed
  • Historic pay equity settlements – many more underway.
  • Fair Pay Agreements making their way through parliament.

Labour sets the agenda for NZ, (and yes it could be more perfect with criticism from our own because we want them to go further, faster), but ignore the opposition who inevitably return to their own pathetic programme of tax cuts, 90 day trials, attacking unions etc.

We need to take stock and while of course there is more to do, and I for one will continue to push Labour on this, the election of a National/ACT government could see us go backwards pretty quickly.

36 comments on “Sometimes in our quest for what is perfect we forget what has been achieved ”

  1. weka 1

    Nice one Darien!

  2. Stuart Munro 2

    The core Labour issue remains economic justice.

    No laundry list of small positives suffices to reset the injustices Labour brought in with Rogergnomics. The recent rises in cost of living have already eroded most of the above to the point of meaninglessness.

    Housing remains out of reach of the working poor, we still have mass low-wage immigration in spite of some promising but now broken promises around the median wage.

    Things are a little better than they would have been under National – but Savage would not speak to any of you.

    The people's flag is bloody red, as Wattie's sauce on cheap white bread.

    • lprent 2.1

      The problem is that Rogernomics was effectively ended by Labour in 1988 when Roger Douglas was dumped as Finance Minister – roughly 32 years ago.

      There was a lot of in-fighting about it inside Labour in the 1990s, but it certainly wasn't resumed in the Labour-led government that came to power in 1999 – ie 23 years ago.

      When I'm looking at your points you choose to raise about Rogernomics, I simply suspect you don't know what you're talking about. Because you do seem to be pulling everything out of your arse for your specific points.

      For instance, what in the hell do housing prices have to do with it? The 1984-1990 government didn't do much change in housing policy. If anything, it moved closer to the principles Savage postulated and for much the same reasons. There had been a tight finance system before 1984, and the numbers of state houses had been diminished by sales.

      The changes to housing policy were mainly done by the National governments in the announcements of the the 1991 budget (for instance see this thesis from 1999).

      I don't have any issues looking at the inequities created with the 1984-1990 government, however I think that attributing National party housing policies as being their fault is just you being an idiot myth-maker and a damn fool.

      • Stuart Munro 2.1.1

        Those who do not own their own dwelling are ruthlessly impoverished by those that possess a surplus. Labour's responsibility to the working people is to prevent such systematic wrongs developing.

        Working people generally entrust matters of policy to those that claim expertise. The kindest interpretation of policy over the period concerned is that those involved did not know what they were doing.

        The truth is more that those that knew, did not care.

        (your link seems to be down, btw)

        • lprent 2.1.1.1

          Fixed the link.

          Labour’s responsibility to the working people is to prevent such systematic wrongs developing.

          A somewhat disingenuous answer.

          In effect, what you appear to be arguing (based on housing) is that Labour is responsible for National/Act's policies and for everyone who voted for a National/Act government.

          Surely you can see how damn stupid that idea is.

          Working people generally entrust matters of policy to those that claim expertise.

          Of course. That is the basis of a representative democratic system. That hardly divorces you or any other voter from the responsibility of whom they vote for and implicitly the bundle of policies that they vote for.

          However have you considered that the majority of voters have also been known to vote for governments other than a Labour led one.

          Now you're sounding like you'd wish for democracy to be be dumped in favour of a technocratic dictatorship. Basically you appear to be arguing in support for the effective basis for all autocratic governments from fascism, national socialism, and the party states like the USSR or the CCP. ie That the party knows all and will fix things so that the voters will be happy (or else there is a alternative at gulag).

          Working people have been known to vote for National/Act. The number of people who vote for a National-led government, who are working and therefore repeatably voted for their slant of 18 years of housing policies is probably well over 80%.

          Much the same as the percentage of working people who vote for Labour-led governments and who have voted for a different slant on housing policies.

      • Descendant Of Smith 2.1.2

        Depends I guess as to whether you see lowering taxes for high earners and regressively taxing workers through GST plus user pays plus adding profit and fake competition to electricity markets – mainly paid for by the working class as a means of increasing the wealth of the well off and allowing them to build up capital and buy houses competing against each other to drive up house prices as part of housing policy.

        Making the rich richer and the working class poorer can only lead to capital ownership of housing by the well off. It is what happened the world over post industrial revolution.

        That's without all the other direct incentives such as claiming interest, offsetting against other income, removing stamp duty. Certainly no intention to raise all boats on the incoming tide.

        • Drowsy M. Kram 2.1.2.1

          On the plus side, I've just heard an 'expert' (Dr Michael Rehm), being interviewed on RNZ's 'The Panel', suggest that NZ house prices/values could fall by up to 70%, although I’ve probably misinterpreted.

          https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/2018861138/the-panel-with-dr-claire-robinson-and-mark-knoff-thomas [@1:50 minutes]

          Since the only (humble) home I've owned was built in the 50's, and I''ve lived there over half my life, it really doesn't matter (to me) if its value plummets. I do feel for anyone who has bought their home in the last 4 years or so, particularly young families. Still, ladders and snakes.

          NZ housing: snakes and ladders [27 August 2018]
          New Zealand and Australia have much in common, including high property prices.

          Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

        • lprent 2.1.2.2

          I wasn't really arguing any of that.

          I was pointing out (with a sharp stick) that the 3rd Labour government wasn't responsible for changing the housing policy that Stuart was pointing to.

          The inequities probably helped to bubble the high-end property values.

          However a more direct cause for most housing prices rises can be easily found in the long-term simply not building sufficient residential housing since the 1980s in NZin line with the increase in population.

          That in turn pushes the massive increase in the input prices of building materials which increases the cost of building. Tracking that in NZ is interesting because it is classic demonstration about how a boom-bust cycle forces manufacturer consolidation and monopolistic pricing. It is also a clear case of market failure in a area of infrastructure (because that is what housing is to an economy) .

          What National failed and still fails to understand is that the market is a failure at maintaining a viable building industry and at providing the mix of housing that NZ needs.

          State housing for a large chunk of the last 90 years provided the sustainable backbone of the local building industry. It provided a large customer who pushed down building costs, allowed some certainty for the builders and smaller manufacturers, and kept the price of overall housing down.

          • Descendant Of Smith 2.1.2.2.1

            In the same way that government work with local plumbers, electricians, etc created consistent cash flow which allowed local firms in small towns to thrive and also created circulation of money.

            The lowest cost contracting model exacerbated by Steven Joyce's centralised contracting everything under the sun model means much of that work went to outside firms rather than local. Some towns now have no plumbers, carpet layers etc and have to pay a fortune to get things done – particularly if it is more than a one day job with travel and accommodation costs. It got so bad that MOE were having trouble getting locals to repair buildings built by out of town firms. The locals just told them to get the wankers from Auckland who built it to come and fix it.

            It always surprised me that local businessmen were so vocal in their support of mainly the national governments who did this. Once locals stopped getting the work they soon realised the direct/indirect impact – many are no longer around. That coupled with the withdrawl of services to call centres, etc cost many in the private sector their livelihoods.

            Ironically technology means many jobs can be done from anywhere and there is great potential to have people working from rural areas and small towns again but this is getting stifled across both private and public sectors by an inability of management (especially the management as a profession type managers who just go from one job to another to adjust and change.

            NZ productivity could be so much higher with just an acceptance that you don't need centralised groups of people sitting in Auckland or Wellington or Christchurch.

    • How has 5 sick days turned to 10 now meaningless? Plus the other permanent gains.

      Lack of facts Stuart, and too much hyperbole.

      Don't forget "The Contracts Act". That really robbed workers of all of the above protections and literally lowered wages and contract payments in a rush to the lowest bid!! That was National and Bill Birch. Look up your history.

      • Stuart Munro 2.2.1

        Sick days don't house the victims of neoliberalism.

        Where is the rising tide that was going to lift all boats? The only one in the offing seems to be the one that will inundate low-lying land areas.

        Economic justice remains the core issue upon which Labour will judged by those that used to be their natural supporters.

        • Stuart, that is your invention. Nowhere were promises made to "Lift all boats"

          The understanding was they would (in spite of setbacks) work towards improving lives. That doesn't mean all the “anti bods will lie down and accept changes" No way, they gathered their big money (Act) and put their war chest to adding to the dis information battle. As they ever have. If you think there is no difference in direction just read Act Policy. It is alarming, as National don't seem to have much…so…. Are they Act in drag?
          That would be a huge change for the worse.

          • Stuart Munro 2.2.1.1.1

            The premise underwriting Rogergnomics was some kind of mystical market fairies producing more growth that somehow relieved the Left of responsibility for removing the protections that had made NZ workers reasonably well off by global standards – the rising tide is merely a concise rendering of those fictions.

            Absent those fictions, and an ostensible good faith belief in them, Roger's colleagues, and those that failed to run them out of the party, are simple sell-outs.

            The prevailing pattern of the current party – pretty Blair or Starmerite, suggests that they still largely embrace these damaging and ineffectual economic fictions. Would that it were not so.

            But Blair-or-Starmerites don’t deserve either respect or support.

          • Stuart Munro 2.2.1.1.2

            National don't seem to have much…so…. Are they Act in drag?

            I don't think so. National (once upon a time, in decades far far away) actually had a reasonably coherent set of beliefs or values, which they had not entirely sold out to foreign banks and dodgy ethnic funders. The wholesale wrecking of critical public services and infrastructure we associate with contemporary National would have been resisted, and the likes of Marilyn Waring demonstrated an intellectual and moral heft now entirely absent from the party.

            ACT seems to be the current vehicle of the logrolling far right conspiracy – getting a lot more funding and media life support than it had as the member for the rotten borough of Epsom. Though it is clearly more coherent than National, fascism and Trumpism are on the outer with our major political influencer nations at present, and their policies (courtesy of a bunch of windfall MPs with no more heft than Sharma) are likely to annoy median voters. Labour can defeat them in detail if they have the opportunity to address them individually.

      • 1991 Employment Contracts Act managed to divide and conquer our workforce.

        Market driven, the introduced 'business model' is not suited to our public health system. Our hospitals became referred to as silo's, our charge nurses became Init Managers and wore a corporate uniform, our documentation included logging data as units of output of staff ratio per patient, who were to be called a consumer of health service rather than a patient. Health was to be run as a business. PM Bulger, MP English MP Shipley introduced the part payment scheme for hospital services in 1993. Cash registers were placed in ED and wards, in an attempt to get people requiring care to part pay, ie hospital in-patient could expect a bill for $500. There was an outcry and backlash. Within National had to U-turn this attempt to privatise patient care. However public hospital services like Laundry, kitchen/food cleaners and maintenance became sub contracted.(essentially privatised) Extra layers of administrators were employed and paid huge salaries.Nurses and allied staff were not replaced, it took nurses union years to get back to back a national collective for members. Wages and conditions for qualified staff has fallen behind. That 1991Emplyments Contact Act was Nationals doings, determined to break the unions with individual contracts and job security gone with introduction of casual contracts. Neo-liberal models are not good for social welfare nor Primary Health initiatives suited to promote health..

      • Market driven, the introduced 'business model' is not suited to our public health system. Our hospitals became referred to as silo's, our charge nurses became Init Managers and wore a corporate uniform, our documentation included logging data as units of output of staff ratio per patient, who were to be called a consumer of health service rather than a patient. Health was to be run as a business. PM Bulger, MP English MP Shipley introduced the part payment scheme for hospital services in 1993. Cash registers were placed in ED and wards, in an attempt to get people requiring care to part pay, ie hospital in-patient could expect a bill for $500. There was an outcry and backlash. Within National had to U-turn this attempt to privatise patient care. However public hospital services like Laundry, kitchen/food cleaners and maintenance became sub contracted.(essentially privatised) Extra layers of administrators were employed and paid huge salaries.Nurses and allied staff were not replaced, it took nurses union years to get back to back a national collective for members. Wages and conditions for qualified staff has fallen behind. That 1991Emplyments Contact Act was Nationals doings, determined to break the unions with individual contracts and job security gone with introduction of casual contracts. Neo-liberal models are not good for social welfare nor Primary Health initiatives suited to promote health.. 1991 Employment Contracts Act managed to divide and conquer our workforce.

    • Have to agree with you … neo-liberalism was started by Roger Douglas and Co who essentially stripped the heartland of NZ and gifted it to the bankers in the form of debt. It was continued by Shipley and Co, because it was the brave new market-led economy … and now we have a bunch of socialists who think private capital is theirs to control … until it runs out. But you are right I personally also will never forgive Rogernomics … it cost me my career. The people in the photo so happy about Labour remind me of Stalin's useful idiots. They need to understand how they are perceived by Ardern, Hipkins, Robertson and Co, as just useful idiots to be used on their march towards socialist globalism.

  3. observer 3

    Anyone who suggests "they're all pretty much the same" should read what is coming …

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/07/david-seymour-s-plan-for-first-100-days-in-national-act-coalition.html

    That's not John Key throwing a bone to Rodney Hide, that's ACT pushing the agenda and Luxon pretending to "reluctantly" accept it.

    • Ad 3.1

      I get the point we could be grateful. Especially for sick leave, and Matariki.

      But on wages we are treading water against inflation.

      I'm not aware of a successful MECA, happy to be corrected.

      Union membership outside core public service is even weaker than Arderns 2017.

      Low-end income increases without low-end tax reform is a cruel joke.

      Good on the fighters like Darien who get us there. But the point of government is to leave the place better than you started.

      • Mac1 3.1.1

        "But on wages we are treading water against inflation." The rise in the minimum wage since 2017 is 34%; the cumulative rise in inflation is 20.83%.

        • Ad 3.1.1.1

          So far. Inflation continues to accelerate.

          Don't forget the extra 1.5% we're going to get charged every payday for this ACC unemployment scheme.

          • Mac1 3.1.1.1.1

            Yes, the rate has jumped. I put the figures into the debate because the original post from Darien Fenton was from 2017 onwards.

            I'd say that the government is aware of the inflation jump and will factor that into minimum wage assessments as I understand they are supposed.

            There is a report from the Salvation Army that will spark some debate and reaction on the state of society's wealth and distribution.

            My home area is not well off and has been so for the 25 years that I have monitored figures on the low wage economy.

            The achievements and ongoing issues both around housing, wages, poor upward mobility in job promotion, RSE worker treatment, seasonal employment are still there. This area has lower unemployment, below 3%, than the national but still low average of about 3.2%. Yet wages etc still are low.

            Let's honour the work and improvement that has been made and then work for more.

        • yes Thanks Mac1, good to know.

  4. Ad, Don't forget how much more secure workers will feel. smiley Very cheap insurance.
    Further if ACT/ Nat Policy to reverse all this and replace it with 90 day trials plus a two dollar tax cut Wow!!! People will be worse off.

  5. Darien Fenton 5

    As I said ; always more to do. That's why some of us keep on organising. And on the Social Insurance : please ; I tried to introduce a simple redundancy entitlements bill when I was an MP and Sue Moroney did so again. Both times National / Act voted it down. I can tell you what was proposed was minimal but you would have thought the world had frigging ended in proposing it. The Social Insurance proposal includes the things in my bill such as 4 weeks notice and 4 weeks pay paid for by the employer etc. but is a hell of a lot better for people who are laid off through no fault of their own and gives protection far beyond what the few workers who have redundancy entitlements in their collective agreements have.

    • weka 5.1

      it's hard not to see it as an intentional policy to save people from falling into the underclass (good), without doing anything substantial about the underclass and why it exists (terrible). It will create two welfare systems, one for the better off, and one for the poor bastards.

  6. Anker 6

    I am afraid that don’t count for much in my book

    i really think people are or feel no better off than they were.

    I would say Labour have tinkered around the edges and they have in many areas made things worse eg housing. Credit Susie recently reported NZders had seen the biggest increase in wealth in the world last year. So govt policies have made the wealthy much wealthier.

    they have grown govt bureaucracy and their wages significantly while doing f all for beneficiaries.

    labours identity politics have made NZ a far more decisive place.

    top released their tax policy on the weekend . It’s the sort of policy which I believe will re balance things nicely. It’s bold and I will be voting for it

    • roy cartland 6.1

      Yes, I never understood why Labour was so afraid to promise tax cuts all over the place, conveniently leaving out (or at least hardly mentioning) the tax rises on the very wealthy. How many of us really care what the extreme richies think, who would not vote Labour anyway?

      Both Gordon Campbell and NRT have interesting takes on tax today.

      • observer 6.1.1

        I don't know where you got your news, but Labour raising the top tax rate was all over where I get mine. They didn't leave it out or hardly mention it.

        I could give a hundred links or you could just Google in 5 seconds.

    • observer 6.2

      I really think people are or feel no better off than they were.

      That may well be true. There's been some things happening in the world. I'd like to hear about all the countries where people do feel better off. Suggestions?

      while doing f all for beneficiaries.

      It's fine to say "should have done more". It's simply false to say "done nothing".

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/budget-2021/442987/budget-2021-benefits-to-increase-by-up-to-55-a-week

      Of course you can vote for whoever you want, but I'd only ask one thing. If the Right get in next year and the inevitable happens, please don't say you didn't know and couldn't stop it. We all know.

      • Anne 6.2.1

        If and when the Right get in – and that includes the local body elections – then when reality hits, those who voted for them will suffer a sudden and devastating attack of memory loss that paralyses their ability to accept it was actually their own fault.

    • Labour have not put their Policy out for the 3rd term yet, and a vote for Top currently is a vote for the Right. The old “Bird in the hand or the mythical one in the Bush” A.. mazing!!!

    • Drowsy M. Kram 6.4

      i really think people are or feel no better off than they were.

      Some people expecting to be better off than they were don't understand the situation.

      The certainty of ever-growing living standards we grew up with under Queen Elizabeth is at an end [13 Sept 2022]

      The end of certainty
      How long did that “long 20th century” last? DeLong thinks it ended in 2010, making it a long century of 140 years. Since the global financial crisis, we have been unable to return economic growth to anything like the pace of those 140 glorious years.

      Today, DeLong says material wealth remains criminally” unevenly distributed. And even for those who have enough, it doesn’t seem to make us happy – at least “not in a world where politicians and others prosper mightily from finding new ways to make and keep people unhappy”.

      DeLong sees “large system-destabilizing waves of political and cultural anger from masses of citizens, all upset in different ways at the failure of the system of the twentieth century to work for them as they thought that it should”.

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  • Cooking the books
    Finance Minister Nicola Willis late yesterday stopped only slightly short of accusing her predecessor Grant Robertson of cooking the books. She complained that the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU), due to be made public on December 20, would show “fiscal cliffs” that would amount to “billions of ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • Most people don’t realize how much progress we’ve made on climate change
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The year was 2015. ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars was at the top of the music charts. Jurassic World was the most popular new movie in theaters. And decades of futility in international climate negotiations was about to come to an end in ...
    2 days ago
  • Of Parliamentary Oaths and Clive Boonham
    As a heads-up, I am not one of those people who stay awake at night thinking about weird Culture War nonsense. At least so far as the current Maori/Constitutional arrangements go. In fact, I actually consider it the least important issue facing the day to day lives of New ...
    2 days ago
  • Bearing True Allegiance?
    Strong Words: “We do not consent, we do not surrender, we do not cede, we do not submit; we, the indigenous, are rising. We do not buy into the colonial fictions this House is built upon. Te Pāti Māori pledges allegiance to our mokopuna, our whenua, and Te Tiriti o ...
    3 days ago
  • You cannot be serious
    Some days it feels like the only thing to say is: Seriously? No, really. Seriously?OneSomeone has used their health department access to share data about vaccinations and patients, and inform the world that New Zealanders have been dying in their hundreds of thousands from the evil vaccine. This of course is pure ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • A promise kept: govt pulls the plug on Lake Onslow scheme – but this saving of $16bn is denounced...
    Buzz from the Beehive After $21.8 million was spent on investigations, the plug has been pulled on the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro electricity scheme, The scheme –  that technically could have solved New Zealand’s looming energy shortage, according to its champions – was a key part of the defeated Labour government’s ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • CHRIS TROTTER: The Maori Party and Oath of Allegiance
    If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?   Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • BRIAN EASTON:  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. Brian Easton writes The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Climate Change: Fossils
    When the new government promised to allow new offshore oil and gas exploration, they were warned that there would be international criticism and reputational damage. Naturally, they arrogantly denied any possibility that that would happen. And then they finally turned up at COP, to criticism from Palau, and a "fossil ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • GEOFFREY MILLER:  NZ’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the government’s smokefree laws debacle
    The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
    3 days ago
  • Top 10 links at 10 am for Monday, December 4
    As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Be Honest.
    Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    3 days ago
  • Auckland rail tunnel the world’s most expensive
    Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • First big test coming
    The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago
  • The Song of Saqua: Volume III
    Time to revisit something I haven’t covered in a while: the D&D campaign, with Saqua the aquatic half-vampire. Last seen in July: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/the-song-of-saqua-volume-ii/ The delay is understandable, once one realises that the interim saw our DM come down with a life-threatening medical situation. They have since survived to make ...
    3 days ago
  • Chris Bishop: Smokin’
    Yes. Correct. It was an election result. And now we are the elected government. ...
    My ThinksBy boonman
    4 days ago
  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #48
    A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science  Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate change Daily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
    4 days ago
  • Affirmative Action.
    Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • 100 days of something
    It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago
  • Look who’s stepped up to champion Winston
    There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today  – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • What's The Story?
    Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The longest of weeks
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • Suggested sessions of EGU24 to submit abstracts to
    Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
    5 days ago
  • Under New Management
    1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • While we wait patiently, our new Minister of Education is up and going with a 100-day action plan
    Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenance Beehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • DAVID FARRAR: Hysterical bullshit
    Radio NZ reports: Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has accused the new government of “deliberate .. systemic genocide” over its policies to roll back the smokefree policy and the Māori Health Authority. The left love hysterical language. If you oppose racial quotas in laws, you are a racist. And now if you sack ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #48 2023
    Open access notables From this week's government/NGO section, longitudinal data is gold and Leisorowitz, Maibachi et al. continue to mine ore from the US public with Climate Change in the American Mind: Politics & Policy, Fall 2023: Drawing on a representative sample of the U.S. adult population, the authors describe how registered ...
    6 days ago
  • ELE LUDEMANN: It wasn’t just $55 million
    Ele Ludemann writes –  Winston Peters reckons media outlets were bribed by the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund. He is not the first to make such an accusation. Last year, the Platform outlined conditions media signed up to in return for funds from the PJIF: . . . ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 1-December-2023
    Wow, it’s December already, and it’s a Friday. So here are few things that caught our attention recently. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt covered the new government’s coalition agreements and what they mean for transport. On Tuesday Matt looked at AT’s plans for fare increases ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    6 days ago
  • Shane MacGowan Is Gone.
    Late 1996, The Dogs Bollix, Tamaki Makaurau.I’m at the front of the bar yelling my order to the bartender, jostling with other thirsty punters on a Friday night, keen to piss their wages up against a wall letting loose. The black stuff, long luscious pints of creamy goodness. Back down ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to Dec 1
    Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop and other National, ACT and NZ First MPs applaud the signing of the coalition agreements, which included the reversal of anti-smoking measures while accelerating tax cuts for landlords. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • 2023 More Reading: November (+ Writing Update)
    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, ...
    6 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
    7 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
    7 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
    7 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
    7 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
    7 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
    7 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
    7 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 ...
    7 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
    7 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 ...
    7 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
    1 week 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
    1 week 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
    1 week 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
    1 week 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
    1 week 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
    1 week 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
    1 week ago

  • Minister sets expectations of Commissioner
    Today I met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out my expectations, which he has agreed to, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Under section 16(1) of the Policing Act 2008, the Minister can expect the Police Commissioner to deliver on the Government’s direction and priorities, as now outlined in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    12 hours ago
  • New Zealand needs a strong and stable ETS
    New Zealand needs a strong and stable Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that is well placed for the future, after emission units failed to sell for the fourth and final auction of the year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says.  At today’s auction, 15 million New Zealand units (NZUs) – each ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • PISA results show urgent need to teach the basics
    With 2022 PISA results showing a decline in achievement, Education Minister Erica Stanford is confident that the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan for education will improve outcomes for Kiwi kids.  The 2022 PISA results show a significant decline in the performance of 15-year-old students in maths compared to 2018 and confirms ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Collins leaves for Pacific defence meeting
    Defence Minister Judith Collins today departed for New Caledonia to attend the 8th annual South Pacific Defence Ministers’ meeting (SPDMM). “This meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security matters and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Pacific,” Judith Collins says. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Working for Families gets cost of living boost
    Putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families is a priority of this Coalition Government, starting with an increase to Working for Families, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “We are starting our 100-day plan with a laser focus on bringing down the cost of living, because that is what ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme scrapped
    The Government has axed the $16 billion Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme championed by the previous government, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “This hugely wasteful project was pouring money down the drain at a time when we need to be reining in spending and focussing on rebuilding the economy and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • NZ welcomes further pause in fighting in Gaza
    New Zealand welcomes the further one-day extension of the pause in fighting, which will allow the delivery of more urgently-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza and the release of more hostages, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. “The human cost of the conflict is horrific, and New Zealand wants to see the violence ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Condolences on passing of Henry Kissinger
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters today expressed on behalf of the New Zealand Government his condolences to the family of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut. “While opinions on his legacy are varied, Secretary Kissinger was ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Backing our kids to learn the basics
    Every child deserves a world-leading education, and the Coalition Government is making that a priority as part of its 100-day plan. Education Minister Erica Stanford says that will start with banning cellphone use at school and ensuring all primary students spend one hour on reading, writing, and maths each day. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • US Business Summit Speech – Regional stability through trade
    I would like to begin by echoing the Prime Minister’s thanks to the organisers of this Summit, Fran O’Sullivan and the Auckland Business Chamber.  I want to also acknowledge the many leading exporters, sector representatives, diplomats, and other leaders we have joining us in the room. In particular, I would like ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Keynote Address to the United States Business Summit, Auckland
    Good morning. Thank you, Rosemary, for your warm introduction, and to Fran and Simon for this opportunity to make some brief comments about New Zealand’s relationship with the United States.  This is also a chance to acknowledge my colleague, Minister for Trade Todd McClay, Ambassador Tom Udall, Secretary of Foreign ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • India New Zealand Business Council Speech, India as a Strategic Priority
    Good morning, tēnā koutou and namaskar. Many thanks, Michael, for your warm welcome. I would like to acknowledge the work of the India New Zealand Business Council in facilitating today’s event and for the Council’s broader work in supporting a coordinated approach for lifting New Zealand-India relations. I want to also ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Coalition Government unveils 100-day plan
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has laid out the Coalition Government’s plan for its first 100 days from today. “The last few years have been incredibly tough for so many New Zealanders. People have put their trust in National, ACT and NZ First to steer them towards a better, more prosperous ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    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
    3 weeks ago

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