On engagement with the Labour caucus
Yesterday Annette King started talking with Standard commenters on a couple of threads. As I understand it this is part of a move to engage with the Standard…
IrishBill
Conflicted decisions
Another day, another example of some unseemly looking stuff from the Nats. This time it’s Judith Collins choosing Robert Kee – a friend of her husband – for a $200,000 a year taxpayer funded job.
Why charity cannot replace the state
One of the mantras of the current government is the importance of charity in society. The state is not necessarily the best deliverer of social services, they’ll tell you. Which is why it’s important to get the private sector involved
Wave goodbye to another 200 jobs
While National continues to deny there’s a manufacturing crisis and the main opposition wastes its time plotting clever procedural tricks the high dollar claims another 200 Kiwi jobs – this time as Summit Woolspinners closes in Oamaru.
Get on board
Now I don’t know if there will be a leadership vote in the next couple of weeks or not, but if there is, and you’re a Labour supporter, then you really want to be a Labour Party member beforehand so you can have your say.
This
How many times to we have to listen to Labour MP’s claim that they can’t stand up for labour values because they won’t be seen as “reasonable”.
Yeah, because your “reasonable” has really fired up the electorate thus far.
Key’s brighter future
“I’d love to see wages drop”. Remember when John Key said that? Well now our glorious PM is getting all excited about how we can attract investment with our low wages and lack of employment protections.
Drive-by posting
A few passing comments on Bridges, Shearer, and Williams.
McVicar’s homophobia
Garth McVicar’s submission on Louisa Wall’s marriage ammendment bill has been published.
And suprise, suprise, Garth blames teh Gayz for all of society’s ills.
What a little creep.
2013 – the policy year
As our own Labour grandee Mike Smith has pointed out, 2013 is the year Labour develops its policies.
That means Labour members (and the broader left) need to start talking about what they want before conference. And what better place to have that discussion than the Standard…
2012 cabinet report card
After Eddie dissed the usual beltway year in review style of column/post I was a little chary about doing this one. And then I realised the good thing about The Standard is we do real world and beltway issues. So here goes my once-over assessment of the 2012 cabinet performance and what it’s likely to mean for the future.
Best and worst of 2012
Well it’s the end of the year and everyone else is doing it so…
Here’s my political awards of 2012.
Making you pay for their folly
Well it looks like the government has finally listened to all of the arguments about how unaffordable the Roads of National Significance are.
Their response? To tax you more to pay for their white elephant.
Killing our kids
Over at Stuff Ben Heather is reporting on the Children’s Social Health Monitor and the chilling fact that, in the last five years, 600 Kiwi children have died from poverty related causes.
Just how wrong can you get it?
Word is that a senior Labour MP (who will go unnamed) has been lobbying National Council to put rules in place for party members who participate in the blogosphere.
JT, eh?
John Tamihere’s been let back into the party. On one hand it’s just a party membership and Labour’s a broad church. On the other hand he’s professed a desire to stand for Labour in Waitakeri, has made a big show and dance about his attempts to join, and was (still is?) a man who regularly had a wine in Ponsonby with the party leader.
Unsworth slams Police, Crown Law
Hot on the heels of his bold stand against environmental scientists, uber-lobbyist Mark Unsworth has come out swinging against the police and crown law over their unpatriotic highlighting of crime in New Zealand.
A good time to join Labour
Well there’s not been so much focus on the Labour Party for a long time so I figure now’s the time to point out that, thanks to rule changes (and not just the contentious ones) holding a Labour Party membership has never meant so much in terms of having a say in where the party (and hopefully, after 2014, the country) goes.
Shearer makes first move
Vernon Small is reporting David Shearer is planning to bring the leadership vote forward to as soon as next week and it looks like their plan is to get it out of the way under the old rules.
The housing policy
Labour is due to release its big housing policy at conference and I suspect it’ll be either a Kirk style subsidised mortgage scheme for first home buyers or a substantial increase in state housing stocks.
It’s time to go
Eddie is right.
David Shearer needs to step down.
On the Pike Report
The Pike report is welcome good sense.
But why has it taken the deaths of 29 men to get attention to health and safety regulations in mining?
The job ahead
The latest Roy Morgan poll bodes badly for Labour.
If they are to take the government benches in 2014 they need to get their house in order.
The problem with third way policies
It looks like National are going to increase funding for food in low decile schools.
That’s great news for the kids but gives the government the chance to brush the question of why they were hungry in the first place under the carpet.
Just like any good third way policy should.
Nat’s oppose transparency (again)
Well it’s official. The government has no interest in allowing you to know how your money is being spent.
That’s been made clear in their opposition to Darien Fenton’s port transparency bill – a bill designed simply to make publicly owned ports subject to the Official Information Act.
When they talk about “accountability” and “responsibility” and “the social contract”, remember they’re talking about it for you. Not for them or their powerful mates.
Port transparency Bill read tomorrow
Right now council owned ports are specifically exempted from the Official Information Act. This means billions of dollars of public money tied up in ports around the country that are under the control of largely unaccountable boards. Darien Fenton has a Bill that designed to fix this and it’s being read tomorrow. It’s a common sense Bill. It will be interesting to see who backs it.
Here we go again at PoAL
Things are going to get tough at the Ports of Auckland again.
Which means two things – the workers will win again, and they and the people of Auckland will pay the price.
In the meantime the has-been corporate warriors who are trashing the port will walk away with their bonuses.
A decent policy
David Shearer’s policy of free meals for low decile schools is a bloody good one – there are too many kids that are going to school hungry and suffering setbacks because of it.
But remember, this should only be seen as a stop-gap measure.
Port transparency bill drawn
Darien Fenton’s port transparency bill has been drawn and may well pass.
Good. The PoAL dispute has shown just how much this is needed.
Too far
It looks like someone from within Labour’s top team* has decided to have a real nasty go at David Cunliffe via Duncan Garner.
A poor investment
Now the legislation to sell our assets has passed, the question on lefties’ minds is whether it’s more principled to refuse to buy them or to spend the money to ensure they don’t get sold offshore.
What’s not getting a lot of attention is whether they’re actually the great investment our Prime Minister keeps insisting they are…
ACC – perverse incentives and sociopathic policy
Kevin Hague has discovered ACC managers are getting bonuses for kicking people off the scheme.
That’s not surprising – this government beats up on the weak almost as much as it sucks up to the powerful.
Go nowhere budget
As expected Bill English has served up a budget with no greater focus than reducing a government deficit that really doesn’t matter much at all.
Of course he’s doing this at the expense of a whole lot of things that do matter – our kids’ education, our families’ health, our retirements.
Insult to injury
Not content with selling your assets off, National has put aside $120,000,000 of your money to tell you that you should like it.
And, just to add more salt to the wound, Bill English has described the cost as “low by market standards”.
I’d love to see wages drop
Remember when John Key said he’d love to see wages drop? Yep? How about when Bill English claimed our low wages were our competitive advantage. Uh-huh.
Well the changes they’re bringing in to undermine working Kiwis’ bargaining power will do exactly that.
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.