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It's highly unusual for a new PM to meet a foreign leader of the opposition before she meets her fellow leader. But Julia Gillard's direct snub of John Key is a fair payback for the leaks by the Key Government to try to help his…
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Wallace Chapman has a thoughtful Open Letter to the visiting Warner Brothers executives on his blog, inviting them to front up to the New Zealand public: We have a small segment called "Soapbox" and we'd just love you to come over and join us and…
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At the last election we chose tax cuts and unemployment instead of stimulus and stability - which was the more ambitious, high wage way to go? National are not fulfilling their government's core reason for existence: closing the wage gap with Australia. No, we're fast…
benefits bill english election 2008 jobs john key labour national/act government unemployment wages
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So the question is: will John Key turn us into a tin-pot banana republic by changing employment law to suit Warners, and make one movie? Are we going to change our laws, and remove protections every time a company demands it to invest in Aotearoa?…
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Anyone who thinks that the Actors' Equity dispute matters is a rube. Hollywood deals with unions all the time, and the Irish and UK film industries are more highly unionised than here. The truth is that this is just the same old trick of the…
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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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From Stuff: A meeting between Warner Brothers and senior government ministers has ended, with studio executives asking for larger incentives to keep The Hobbit movies in NZ. The two-hour meeting, which included New Line Cinema boss Toby Emmerich, ended with no resolution to the Hobbit…
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The political right don't want the Minimum Wage. Act have said this outright (It's part of the irrational economic theory that they follow) and National, too scared to actually drop it or say that they want to, have always let it decrease in real terms.…
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Otago Law Professor Paul Roth says possible law changes by the Key Government to provide more tax-payer funded charity to corporate giants Warner Bros Entertainment is 'Third-World' lawmaking and a 'race to the bottom' in an attempt to compete against developing nations with little or no…
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Frankly, it's not surprising that the Housing Shareholders Advisory Group came to the conclusions it did. Despite its name, the group includes no state house tenants. It was a group packed with private social housing providers, hand-picked to deliver the conclusion that these groups should…
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500 commercial buildings in Christchurch to be demolished or repaired by 31st January. If not, the council will move in, repair, demolish and bill the owners. Bob Parker is claiming the deadline is because there are statutory obligations surrounding public safety. He mentioned public safety…
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National made a number of large mistakes in the Mt Albert campaign. The candidate and the way she was managed were obviously the killer blows to the Nats' hopes of winning but the strategic mistake was talking up their chances of winning in the first…
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Lucky John Key - he's going to have a great week! Hard to see how he can lose. The Warner Bros execs are now in the country, and Key is due to meet with them over the next two days. Key is talking up the…
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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 release of 400,000 classified documents on the Iraq war today highlights a much broader issue for New Zealand. As the world moves into uncertainty, some commentators call it a ‘new new world order’, New Zealand must establish itself definitively, cementing the values we wish…
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One of the strange things about helping to run a left blog like this is looking at the varied opinions of those on the left of the political spectrum, and then looking at the monolithic opinions that the right seem to have of the left.…
Economy exports film jobs Politics spin the praiseworthy and the pitiful Unions
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There was an excellent piece in the Saturday Herald by John Armstrong. A large 2-page spread, fairly prominent in the paper, and not critical of Labour. Not fulsome praise; just great, unbiased reporting. Now admittedly I shouldn't get excited by such things, but the steadily…
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It struck me today that Anne Tolley is quickly becoming a "reverse Rumpelstiltskin". Everything she touches in Education seems to end up in a shambles. She took a well functioning Adult and Community (ACE) programme, stripped out millions of dollars and has left what is…
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I've just finished a very good book: The Age of Absurdity by Michael Foley. It goes through various philosophical and other counter-measures to modern unhappiness. It's very witty and thought-provoking - I can heartily recommend it. One of those thought-provoking ideas, whilst looking at the…
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Hope y'all are enjoying the long weekend as much as I am. Labour Weekend! Labour Day. Where does Labour Day come from? Why is it a holiday? Labour Day celebrates the successful struggle for an eight-hour working day. Its a story that goes back to…
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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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Former ACT MP Deborah Coddington isn't a journo anymore. Shot her reputation with the infamous 'Asian Angst' piece. Just does opinion pieces now. Strange, then, to see her by-line on 2 Herald articles attempting to vindicate disgraced conflict of interest judge Bill Wilson. Turns out…
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The Hobbit 'crisis' is all about money. It's about the producers of this long-troubled production, who are in financial difficulty, wanting to minimise their up-front costs. The mark in the con is the only one with cash to offer on the scale they need -…
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No Right Turn asks some questions about the behaviour of the Independent Police Conduct Authority in deeming the release of information about unlawful behaviour by the Police as "not in the public interest". There are few safeguards on the police - perhaps the main one…
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The Secretary for Education Karen Sewell has just had a minimum pay rise of $30,000p.a. Ironically the same 4% that teachers are after. Here is some maths for Mrs Sewell. Her 4% is 30,000 dollars. 4% of a teachers salary of around $65k is $2,600…
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Prison Officers and Police should be clearly distinguishable in their roles, their responsibilities and their appearance. The message that accompanied the recently announced revamp of the Prison Officers' uniform is a misrepresentation of the severity of change that has been enacted. I have no doubt…
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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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With all of the shit flying around the hobbit dispute it I decided to ring a few contacts and find out what's actually happening. And I've got to say it's a bloody labyrinthine situation. On October the 13th Actors Equity, SPADA, the CTU and Gerry…
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Right-wing insider Fran O'Sullivan makes an interesting comment about the government and the Hobbit in her column today: Key will try to pull off a solution. It will inevitably be a commercial one that could result in New Zealand taxpayers giving Warner Bros an even…
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by Colonial Viper NZ is no longer the same wealthy western nation which used to generously give foreign aid to poor underdeveloped, commercially backward countries like Singapore and which kept apparent economic pace with its far larger neighbour, Australia, until the Rogernomics reforms of the…