A taxing question or two
Apple aren’t paying tax – are we doing all we can so multi-national’s do pay their share? And would the public actually prefer a tax rise (and decent housing/ health / education) rather than a tax cut?
Ben Clark
Labour Candidate for North Shore 2011
Climate Change and Us
3 major environmental reports today – the OECD says our economy is beyond environmental limits; a cross party group of MPs sponsor research into the way to net zero emissions; and the World Meteorological Organisation has a stark look at continued climate change.
2040? The robots will have taken over
Bill English’s new super plan falls between 2 stools. The super cost crisis that he’s trying to summon up, is before 2040 if it exists. The solution was the Cullen Fund. By 2040 you’re just adding yet another Baby Boomer cost onto GenX and the millenials, and there’s going to be a shortage of jobs anyway, without adding 65 & 66 year-olds to our dole queues.
Just allow more shit – a metaphor for this government
So National’s great plan for swimmable rivers by 2040 is to allow twice as much shit in them and still call them “swimmable.”
State care inquiry
We need one – and an apology. Bill may wonder aloud whether we’ll learn much, but I wonder if he’s more concerned we’ll learn too much…
Housing? A National mess
3 stories from Checkpoint yesterday that add up to a picture of National’s response to housing: waste on unacceptable temporary housing; empty state houses where they’re needed most; and vilify anyone who dares complain.
Meanwhile, the Housing Crisis
Bill English and Paula Bennett won’t be thinking about it this week, but Auckland’s Housing Crisis continues to get worse.
Mr Key’s Achievements
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Fund the Police!
Judith Collins is letting organised criminals off the hook as she insists the Police make burglary a priority.
Tolley needs to apologise
Kim Hill had an astounding and outstanding interview with Anne Tolley this morning on RNZ. The 7.30 news was delayed 12 minutes as […]
Elf & Safety
It was disappointing to see Michael Woodhouse’s complacency for the government at one worker each week dying on the job. That can’t be […]
The sharemarket moved because…
This is just something that gets my goat, and there was a particularly egregious example on the RNZ Business News this morning. Apparently […]
Lessons?
What can we learn from the election of Donald J Drumpf?
Margins
1 in 100 US voters switch and the polls would have been right, and we’d be talking about progressive America, destroyed Republicans and the ‘blue wall’.
Gate-gate
Somehow Brownlee’s got away with it. Felix Marwick did good work on his OIA, to find out that Gerry Brownlee’s account of events […]
Tax-cuts or… Education
National’s dangling tax cuts, but there are far more important things to be spending public money on. Today: Education.
Tax-cuts or… fixing Child Poverty
Before National get too excited about tax cuts, perhaps they should sort out some of the more pressing issues in the society they govern – like all those kids in poverty.
Tax-cuts or… Housing
The government is proud of their surplus, which at 0.7% of GDP isn’t quite as dramatic as the 9% of GDP deficit they […]
One Billion Dollars
Treasury papers just released show National’s Housing Infrastructure Fund to be everything you expected it to be: a quickly cobbled together headline.
Tax-cuts or… Health
Health – particularly mental health – is underfunded, resulting in strikes over patient safety and units shutdown due to staff shortages. And unnecessary deaths. So why is the government even thinking about tax-cuts when our services need investment?
unCOOL
In August Hekia Parata announced her new COOL solution, that distinctly isn’t what it says on the tin.
Now’s your chance to submit your feedback on her proposal.
‘Too busy’
National ministers have a habit of not wanting to turn up to the ‘hard’ questions, but Paula Bennett has been severely caught out by RNZ
Goff on foreign buyers; and Vote!
Ban them / tax them, but lets reduce demand. And make sure you get your vote in for local elections!
How difficult to measure poverty?
Amazing lead story on RNZ – Easier to count rodents than kids in poverty, suggests Key. There are a number of good measures, […]
False Equivalence
John Oliver excellent as always – this time on the difference in scandal quality between Clinton & Trump.
New GG
Congrats to Dame Patsy and how strange it’s always such a small story…
When’s the Republic coming?
Cronyism
So Paula Bennett has been giving a lolly scramble to her National mates with the Rules Reduction Taskforce.
Which is fine, because the Taskforce did great work in finding out that the ‘loopy’ rule of lolly scrambles being illegal wasn’t in fact true.
Polls
While politicos were watching Hillary defeat Donald in the first debate, Roy Morgan released their latest poll, showing Labour massively up and National down a chunk. Is the media narrative broken?
HoliPay fiasco – 1 in 3 workers robbed
Do you work irregular shifts (even only occasionally)? Overtime? Sometimes on Public Holidays?
Then you’re probably part of the 1 in 3 workers owed more than $2 billion lost thru incorrect calculations of holiday pay.
Thanks Steven Joyce.
Is Vic Crone racist?
Vic Crone is trying to make a story out of the fact that Phil Goff is against foreign ownership of our housing stock, but accepted $250,000 from the NZ Chinese community at a fundraiser. Does she not see a difference between NZ Chinese and foreigners?
Economics is still lost
Paul Romer is an economist highly respected by his peers, and about to become the Chief Economist at the World Bank. He’s also just published a paper rubbishing the last 3 decades of macroeconomics.
Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times is challenging fractional reserve banking. It’s certainly time for some new ideas.
Maui embarrassment
The government didn’t make much of a show of Conservation Week – which was probably for the best the Conservation stories coming out weren’t exactly positive for it. US wanting us to do more on dolphins, the Kermadec sanctuary, fish dumping…
Conservation Week
It’s Conservation Week. We should all go and enjoy the great outdoors this weekend… but be careful of the polluted rivers and the wallabies. But at least we’ll be pest-free by 3300…
Rockstar! Is it?
National is very proud of the latest GDP-growth figures (third highest in OECD!), but are they helping you? And are they what they appear?
Stop the Sanctions!
Auckland Action Against Poverty is trying to get a sanction on sole mothers removed.
Maori Party to make a stand?
The Maori Party are threatening to pull out of their confidence & supply agreement with National. This would leave National with a Hair-thin majority in the House. The Kermadec Sanctuary, if handled with competence instead of arrogance, should have been a massive win for National.