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A reader reports on our abysmal Minister of Education's latest stop on her bus tour to try to sell national standards: Interesting public meeting in Onehunga Thursday night, with Minister of Ed Anne Tolley seeking to sell her controversial National Standards policy. About 80 people…
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Have a listen to Education Minister Anne Tolley on Morning Report today trying to explain the $25 million cut to the education budget. It really was a shocker, even for her. Tolley claimed the cuts would increase frontline services, but couldn't say how. She claimed…
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The Local Government Commission released its final ward boundaries for Auckland today and the result is a city gerrymandered by ACT to favour the interests of the rich. That's the verdict from No Right Turn: There is significant deviation from equal representation, with wards ranging…
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Is race a factor in the NZ legal system? The answer seems to be yes. In a couple of recent high profile cases where the victim is an ethnic minority, killers have received extraordinarily light sentences. In early 2009 Tane wrote: Bruce Emery's sentence of…
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When a guy who was imprisoned and tortured by Idi Amin calls the conditions in which prisoners are kept in New Zealand "a source of shame and disgrace" you know we have problems. Unfortunately, it has become acceptable to view prisoners as less than human…
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Solid Energy has been caught out commissioning future leaders to pen fantasy stories in school hours. The company is inviting high school students in key coal-mining areas to submit an essay on: 'The role of coal in sustainable energy solutions for New Zealand'. The lucky…
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Sometimes you get a really pleasant surprise and I got one today from Garth George. I'm going to reproduce a pretty big chunk of his piece below because it is remarkably good. Despite being a pretty old school conservative he gives a stunning rebuke of…
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There was an article a while back about how Norway was bearing up in the global economic crisis. Pretty damn well. And it wasn't thanks to the oil, not directly. Oil prices had actually plummeted and yet the Norwegian economy was going strong and unemployment…
capitalism education national public services unemployment wages
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The more I think about the 'Wellywood' sign the angrier I get. Who does Wellington Airport think they are imposing this monstrosity on the people of Wellington without any consultation? If you don't know the city, the sign will be sitting above a roundabout at…
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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I see the latest Roy Morgan is out and with it we're seeing no change for Labour. To a certain extent that's to be expected as this government is only a year and a half old and there's still a residual media honeymoon. Which means…
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Good on Chris Carter. He's the only politician on Left taking some leadership in opposing the National Government's abandonment of New Zealand's anti-whaling stance. Today he launched an online petition against the government's position. Carter writes: "John Key's great plan to save the whales is…
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The first Drinking Liberally - Wellington of the year is being held in conjunction with the annual Roger Award. The Roger Award is presented each year to the worst transnational corporation operating in New Zealand, and the winner of the 2009 Roger Award will be…
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"Tolley finds ally in school mum" screams the headline of Audrey Young's piece today. You might think things are pretty desperate when the Herald is devoting pieces to each individual parent who support Tolley but it turns out this mum at no point expresses support…
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The world's economy has not truly recovered from the recession, it has just been artificially reanimated by vast injections of Government bailout money. Capitalism has been rescued by good old fashioned Socialist Big Government, and the bill is being sent to we the taxpayers. What…
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John Armstrong has chucked John Key's promise to end whaling down the memory hole and, instead, comes out swinging against those who don't want to give up the commercial whaling ban: "the plan [will] allow commercial whaling for a 10-year period, but with big cuts…
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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So Steven Joyce's big bright idea for tertiary education (which he recently inherited from the hopeless Anne Tolley) is to punish institutions with low pass rates by cutting their funding. Now, I'm no big city psychologist but I think I can pick how academics will…
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Michael is dead right. The most important thing about the Hollow Men is not how Nicky Hager got the information but what the information is. It reveals National's modern politics in all its unprincipled ugliness. It shows National as a party that wants power for…
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John Key doesn't need evidence. He just knows stuff. John Key just knows that Don Brash's emails were stolen by a mysterious hacker - "but I can't back that up". Well of course he can't back it up, no one can, there's no evidence at…
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Remember how a couple of months back National set up NationalMPs? It was meant to be their answer to Red Alert, Labour's frequently raucous, unstagemanaged blog where Labour's MPs write what they want. The problem is, either the National leadership doesn't trust its MPs not…
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When you talk to some Wellingtonians they like to tell you their city is different to others in New Zealand because because it's a bit more metropolitan and sophisticated than towns like Hamilton, Palmerston North or Mosgiel. My response is generally to point out the…
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There are 276,000 jobless Kiwis. The seasonally-adjusted trend on dole numbers is still on the rise. Many other people fall through the gaps and are unable to get public assistance in their time of need. What better time for the Minister for Social Development to…
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I said that when things got too hot Cameron Slater would call on Daddy to save him. Sure enough. Slater has been exploiting the suffering of sexual abuse victims to get his fifteen minutes of fame. It's sad stuff from a sad individual. And it's…
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Last week I wrote about how the total sum of all wages paid to workers in Australia grew 2.5% last year while the national pay packet shrank by 0.4%. On a similar note, the Sunday-Star Times had a piece on the average full time equivalent…
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Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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The leaked emails which helped bring about the downfall of former Nat leader Don Brash hit the headlines again today, for all the wrong reasons. Journalists have already forgotten the insidious tricks and dodgy connections still maintained by the top echelons of the National Party.…
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Happy International Women's Day. If only there was something to celebrate: Minister needs to deliver for NZ women too Monday, 8 March 2010, 9:23 am Press Release: New Zealand Council of Trade Unions The Council of Trade Unions wants the Minister of Women's Affairs to…
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You've really got to hand it to the Greens and Labour. They have completely defied expectations on the whaling issue. See the simple option that most political parties would go for would be to be seen to stand by their principles - loud and proud.…
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This month there is a series of screenings of The End of the Line around New Zealand. This acclaimed documentary looks at how overfishing is destroying fish populations and ultimately endangering the industries and cultures that depend on them. The positive thing about overfishing is…