Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:47 pm, December 16th, 2010 - 33 comments
It’s a tough Christmas for far too many Kiwis. Poverty is up, wages are down. 350,000 Kiwis are jobless or underemployed. The job losses are still coming. The rich got tax cuts, 70% got nothing. Drought is spreading. Thousands of Cantabrians face an uncertain future. Meanwhile, the Nats cynically exploit disaster to advance their agenda.
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:45 am, October 7th, 2010 - 9 comments
A tailings dam in Hungary has burst. Toxic sludge over 16 square miles has killed four. If the sludge, laden with heavy metals and radioactive elements, makes it into waterways including the Danube the disaster will magnify. If Brownlee had his way, our countryside would be covered in tailings dams as miners plunder our national parks.
Written By: r0b - Date published: 2:28 pm, July 20th, 2010 - 48 comments
Well done Kiwis! A rousing show of solidarity and strength has forced the Nats to back down from their plans to mine Schedule 4 land. We have preserved some of the most precious places in our country for future generations. This is a straight craven backdown driven by Key’s relentless need to remain Mr Popular. But whatever the reason – its the right result!
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 6:45 am, May 11th, 2010 - 27 comments
It looks like National is about to cave in to public opinion and abandon its ridiculous plans to mine on New Zealand’s most precious land. Good. The economics never made any sense, let alone the environmental case. The Nats’ economic ‘plan’ looks even thinner now. Here’s something they can do – sort out the minerals royalty and leases on mining concessions.
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:30 pm, May 10th, 2010 - 11 comments
If, as seems increasingly likely, the Government drops its plans to desecrate the best of schedule 4 land, will it be cause for celebration? In a word, no. Kathy at Greenpeace weblog examines Brownlee and his wet dreams
Written By: Demeter - Date published: 2:42 pm, May 4th, 2010 - 25 comments
When you’re that far on the backfoot, it’s not hard to teeter further. The CTU has today come out against the Government’s mining plans; a position even Brownlee admits is “a bit of a surprise” given the union’s membership includes miners. What’s the score now? I say time for a quick tally. We’ve got the […]
Written By: r0b - Date published: 1:34 pm, May 3rd, 2010 - 26 comments
This is not a time for mixed messages. Phil Goff is quoted today as saying: “They [the Government] have got to back down from both Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel”. No! Labour’s position, and the position of the biggest single protest march since 1938, is no mining in any Schedule 4 land! Don’t dilute the message…
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 6:18 pm, March 25th, 2010 - 57 comments
The Nats are saying Labour supported mining in office and opposes it now. The truth is that Labour has consistently supported environmentally responsible mining but never on the special parts of the conservation estate in Schedule 4 (see diagram: the dark area is what everyone agreed was out of bounds until the Nats’ flip-flop).
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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