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Archives · 2012-01-01 to 2012-12-31 · Page 50
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Weekend social 11/05/2012
Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?
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AFFCO appeal
From CTU Press release: CTU President Helen Kelly is today making a nationwide appeal for people to support the Talley’s AFFCO workers who are experiencing significant hardship at the hands of Talley’s AFFCO who have locked out hundreds of workers for over 2 months now.…
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Rock and a hard place
The world is in a second mini-recession/stall since the Great Recession began in 2008. As in 2010, we've seen oil prices ramp up and growth peter out. Now, because growth/oil demand is down, oil prices have dropped back a little. But the moment the economy…
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Worst Spin Ever
If you don't know or don't care about minor details like facts then the Nat spin machine looks like it works pretty well most of the time. But they really had an epic fail this week when trying to explain away the European election results:…
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Save TVNZ7 Meeting
When: Tuesday 15 May, 7 - 9pm Where: Freemans Bay Community Centre, 52 Hepburn St, Freemans Bay, Auckland Come along to this public meeting to show your support for TVNZ7. If you're in Auckland, let's show up in numbers so it's ever more clear to the…
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Tea ladies to be drug tested
Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson seems to be living in an alternative universe, with her comment on Checkpoint yesterday that tea ladies in the adventure tourism industry could be drug tested: "The boss might be tested, it could be his turn or it could be the tea lady." We'll…
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Stop press!
Bet there's some last minute changes to the Budget happening. A few mil to reverse the bio-security cuts now the fruit fly's in. A few mil for monitoring MSD contracts - Bennett's 'high trust' (ie too lazy/cheap) model clearly isn't working. They could find savings…
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The real reason for the secret ballot law
The tories are all puffed up about finally getting their secret ballot law passed. It's about freedom they say, they're on the side of the working man. Thing is it's not. And they most certainly aren't. Most unions run secret ballots for strike action already…
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Open mike 11/05/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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ImperatorFish: Wellington Health Officials Struggle To Cope With Contagion
2 in 1 special: Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here. An emergency quarantine zone has been established around the Beehive building in Wellington, after reports of senior government ministers inexplicably falling ill. A civil…
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A moan at 3 News
Hello 3 News. I know there's a lot of pressure to churn stuff out. Too few people doing too much work. Maybe a lack of depth and experience in the newsroom. And so on and so on and so on. But even so - come…
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Green and you have kids? Really?
Here's a quick way to reduce your carbon footprint: don't have kids and save 80 years worth of human greenhouse gas output per child... I said earlier in the week I'd have a post pushing the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement* (VHEM), and how to be…
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Nats eye up Chch assets for sale
Remember when John Key said that rebuilding Christchurch wasn't just that city's challenge, it was New Zealand's challenge? Yeah, well, now Gerry Brownlee and Bill English are pressuring the council to sell off its assets to pay for the rebuild. Green figures show the madness…
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Teenage dreams
With the debate raging about free contraception for women and their teenage daughters, inevitably the conclusion is that irresponsible teenager girls are making poor decisions. Why do they get pregnant? That’s the easy part - teens not using contraception, of course. Why teenage pregnancy is…
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Seriously extreme and nutty
Everyone has written off ACT. The Right are now sniffing around Colin Craig's Conservative Party as possible future supporter, and plenty is being written by the pundits about that prospect. Amongst all this chatter there was one comment that I think we should get on…
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Roads to nowhere paved with your gold
You know how the government's short of cash, eh? We've all got to accept the cuts, we're told, because things are so tight. And this government is utterly committed to eliminating low-quality government spending. Well, Gerry Brownlee is spending $14 billion of your money on…
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Key has a whinge
Key's playing the pity angle telling schoolkids who want to be PM: "Frankly, the way it's going at the moment you can have the job" and sighing that "it's going to be a long two and a half years". Comments that suggest the Banks.com affair…
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Open mike 10/05/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Clean, Green & Clever: NZ Institute’s last prescription
Ever since I went to his Fabian lecture in February, I've been meaning to write about Rick Boven's last major work before leaving the NZ Institute to its Business Roundtable merger. It's a major piece of thinking, and a piece he can be proud of…
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Sinking homicide rate justifies murder spree – PM
The Government's 'sinking lid' on homicides means that John Key can personally garotte 3-5 enemies and the overall number of killings will still decrease, a smiling Prime Minister told journalists today. Since 1997, the sinking lid policy on homicide has gradually reduced the number of…
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All in the game
Everyone's leaped on the Nats' contraceptives for benies bid to distract from banks.com. Guess I'll jump in too. Free stuff for poor people: good. Making contraceptives more available: good. Linking taking contraception with accessing benefits: bad. Targeting only beneficiaries: smells like eugenics. Targeting their daughters…
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Austerity = low tax take “surprise”
Once again the government's books are showing a lack of income - $1.8 billion this time. Once again it is a surprise and the economy's fault - both locally and globally. Not the government's, they have no influence over the economy, except when they want…
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Nat Civil War: ceasefire breached
Well, that didn't take long. A couple of weeks of quiet (probably thanks to some good polls more than anything) and, now, the National Party Civil War has re-erupted as the Collins and Joyce factions fight over the post-Key future. A few weeks ago, we…
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Open mike 09/05/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Birth Control
At first glance it seems strange to have Sue Bradford, a former Green MP, against what is a very 'green' policy - free contraception. There's no better way of reducing human impact on the planet and climate change etc than not existing, and - advocating…
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You can’t fix what is not broken – no need to change university councils
What exactly is the Minister of Tertiary Education trying to fix by radically changing the councils that govern our tertiary education system? In 2009 the National-led government ripped out staff, student, and community representatives from polytechnic councils and replaced them with four ministerial appointments (who…
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Contraception debate
The Government is planning to offer free long-term contraception for beneficiaries and their daughters. It's a politically complex and explosive topic. I for one have very mixed feelings about it. First I'll be clear. If there is any hint of compulsion in this scheme -…
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NRT: Strapping the chicken on prison privatisation
Despite keeping prisoners in prison too long and an escape, Serco's private management of Auckland Remand has been judged a success by the Government because it has met all the standards set for it. Sounds reasonable. Until you look a layer deeper and discover that…
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Cutting holes in the safety net
The Nats' welfare cuts will cost $500m over 4 years. Supposedly save a billion. Net saving: $125m a year. 1% of benefit costs. 1/8th of the cost of extra beneficiaries under National. Won't really save even that little. No jobs. Unemployment rising. National's problem is…