Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 1–30 of 175
Post
The tax system we currently have is a relic of the pre-IT age. In the days of manual clerk-handled accounts, it was impractical to reconcile tax accounts more than once a year. The introduction of PAYE in 1958 was welcomed as it eliminated the need…
Post
Tapu Misa's latest piece in the Herald is just so right I can't really add anything to it. She nicely sums up the Welfare Working Group's message: We're not saying it's your fault you can't get a job. We're just saying you're a malingering freeloader…
Post
Unless a leader is horribly neglectful in the wake of a disaster, like Bush after Katrina, I don't think there is any grounds to criticise them for the immediate disaster response, which is largely out of their hands anyway. But the policy response that follows…
Post
They are doing pretty well on restoring the power. With the exception of some small outlying areas, along the strike line and the CBD most of the city has power again as you can see from this chart (click to expand). hat-tip: Jamie Gough via…
Post
So there was a devastating earthquake in Christchurch this last week that wrecked buildings and the lives of many people. The entire nation feels for the people who went through the quake and are trying to pick up their lives as best they can. Amidst…
Post
Greetings all, especially any readers in Christchurch and surrounds (though I know that you have better things to do right now than read a blog). There's been lots of good stuff written on the quake. I'm not going to try to add to it in…
Post
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...
Post
It strikes me that the coming welfare reform is less a welfare policy and more another industrial relations policy in drag. That's because it won't just be beneficiaries that suffer under this new regime but the majority of Kiwi workers too. Basic supply and demand…
Post
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...
Post
Apart from Radio New Zealand, which is doing an excellent job as our public broadcaster, and The Press, the media's coverage of the quake has disappointed. It's first job should be to supply needed information to people in the quake zone. Instead, we have this…
Post
Last week, Treasury issued a press statement saying it had commissioned research on the impact of governments' fiscal stimulus packages, now published in the influential publication the Economic Journal. One article, "Tax policy for economic stimulus and growth", had this to say: The tax change…
Post
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...
Post
It is with a great deal of reluctance that I have to actually support Whaleoil on a post about a rather obnoxious website blaming the Christchurch quake on 'depravity'. In between his usual obnoxious style of wanting to gut shoot looters, he actually proposes a…
Post
I read a book a while back that was set in the near future after what it called the 'Domino recessions' - successive oil shocks had created a series of economic and political crises, each one before the world had recovered from the previous recession.…
Post
We hear a lot of, frankly, trite comments in times of disaster about how the people affected are 'tough' and a special breed. People are people. But communities can be more resilient in the face of disaster if they have existing civil society organisations to…
Post
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...
Post
Frustration had rightly been growing at the lacklustre leadership of the recovery from Christchurch's September earthquake. Obviously, this new quake is going to require a whole new level of energy and resource. I don't think the government will be so negligent as to go at…
Post
When I looked at Geonet this morning, I found this image mapping the velocity of the earth movements in the 6.3 magnitude Lyttelton quake. It is astonishing - click the image for an expanded view. With ground accelerations of up to 220% of earth's gravity…
Post
guest post - QoT There's a hard truth to NZ politics at the moment. It's not one people like to think about, it's not one people readily accept, and it's not one that gives Labour/the Left any actual tools to dismantle the shitty state we're…
Post
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...
Post
They're doing a fantastic job. The Civil Defence centre, the police, the ambulance services, the firemen, the hospitals, the army, the search and rescue specialists, the social services - they're all part of the bureaucracy, as are all those who provide their back office support.…
Post
Radio New Zealand are reporting that Hone Harawira and the Maori Party have decided to go their separate ways after the Maori Party disciplinary committee recommended he be thrown out. In a more peaceful resolution than the acrimony that has surrounded their dispute, they have…
Post
The Welfare Working Group wants to get poor women to breed less by offering them free long-term contraception. Jeez, I know this is all an exercise in proposing extreme options along with less extreme ones to make the less extreme ones appear moderate when the…
Post
Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has appeared on TV saying he will die a martyr in Libya, rather than flee into exile in the face of gathering protesters. The scale of the loyalist military's response to the protests seems to be intensifying, while evidence of more…
Post
We all know by now that the new earthquake has created massive destruction and loss of life in Christchurch. Once again, the emergency services and the people have performed admirably. Help is on the way from around New Zealand and overseas. The physical, economic, and…
Post
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...
Post
With everyone quite rightly focussed on the destruction in Christchurch, the Maori Party have kicked out Hone Harawira and cancelled his membership. The Te Tai Tokerau part of the Maori Party were already angry over a lot of things, most recently their not being told…
Post
Christchurch has been hit by another serious earthquake. Reports are pretty thin on the ground but it seems to have been 6.3. I've been told by family down south that it felt bigger than the September quake. Here's hoping that everyone is okay. update: not…
Post
It looks like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi will be the next dictator to fall to the wave of protests and revolts sweeping the Arab world. The military initially sided with the regime and fired on the protesters, killing hundreds. But the loyalty of the security forces…
Post
National's grand plan for the economy in the age of peak, peak food, and climate change: lets give tax cuts to the rich and take from the poor. It's classic Nat class war. They want to force 100,000 people off the benefit in the ludicrously…